Thanks to Laurent GUYOT the Whitewater Photography Tutorial is being translated into French. It’s a lot of work and I am stoked that it turned out worthwhile enough for Laurent to spend the time translating it, where it is being updated on my site.

Sometimes it’s fun to shoot more than kayaking. Or at least more profitable. SUP is the fastest growing sport in the US at this moment. Taylor Robertson in Sacramento, California.

Nikon D700, Nikon 75-750 “E” @ 1/800 F8 ISO 250

Rafa Ortiz, Indus River, Pakistan.
Nikon D200, Nikkor 50mm 1.8 @ 1/1250 F7.1 ISO 100.

In my opinion it’s rare that a kayaking shot is worth sequencing. Most of the time one image tells the story, but not on all occasions. The process of putting together a sequence is one of the less understood so I feel it deserves some attention. I’m illustrating how I put sequences together, there are other and possibly better ways, but this works for me. This process puts more of a toll on your computer than anything else, especially if you shoot raw.

While high speed sports need a 10fps camera to do sequences, boaters tend to be moving at a slower pace. 2.5 fps (frames per second) is often adequate, and I generally have to skip frames from 5fps sequences, because the paddler tends to overlap. It would be easiest to do a sequence using a tripod, but the bulk of one keeps it out of my boat. Shots eligible for sequencing have the paddler moving across the frame while the camera is held in one position. Shooting waterfalls from downstream is an obvious situation that fits the bill. In this case I’ll start with ten shots of Ryan Knight on the South Branch Feather, but I’ll probably only use 4-6 images combined for the sequence.

Anything in italics referrers to the menu system in Photoshop.

Step 1: Open and edit all the images at the same time in photoshop. Use shift-click or ctrl-click to select all the images to be opened. Once open in the raw editor be sure to click “Select All” in the top left so we are editing all the files in the same exact way. I then apply standard editing touches as necessary, in this case +25 Fill Light, +50 Vibrance, +10 Saturation. Alt-Click to open all and wait while they load, depending on your computer this might take a while.

Step 2: Adjust the Canvas Size for the first image in the sequence. Use Alt-Ctrl-C or Image > Canvas Size to open the Canvas Size dialogue box. We’re going to make the canvas a little larger here because the photographs won’t line up perfectly, and this will give us some breathing room to end up with a larger final image. Switching from pixels to percent in the drop down menu, I increase my canvas size by 120% width and height.

Step 3: Copy, past and align. I find the next photo that I want in the sequence, ideally one soon after the first image, but with the paddler not overlapping. In this case I skip a shot and go to the third image of the sequence, looks like it wont overlap and I like that I can see Ryan’s face. Ctrl-A or Select > All to select the whole image. Ctrl-C or Edit > Copy to copy the image to the clipboard. Switch back to the original image tab and Ctrl-V or Edit > Paste to past the image over the original. Make sure your Layers window is open via F7 or Window > Layers. Now that the layers window is open, adjust the opacity slider to around 50%.

Now find a well defined point in the photo, in this case I used a crack in the rock. Zoom to 200% and align the image using the Move Tool, when things look perfect you can’t tell it’s at 50% opacity because it looks like the same image, excepting water which is always changing, ignore the misaligned splashes.

At 200% zoom and 50% opacity it looks like a good line up.

I then zoom back out with Ctrl-0 (zero) and make sure that Ryan isn’t overlapping. If he was I’d choose the next image in the sequence and start over. He isn’t so now I’ll adjust opacity back to 100% and flatten the image via Layers > Flatten Image.

Checking to make sure Ryan isn’t overlapping.

Step 4: History Brush. The history brush is a tool that works like the Brush tool, but instead of applying a color, it “brushes in” the image from a previous state in the image processing history. Select the History Brush from the tools menu on the left. Make sure your History Window is open; Window > History. In the history window set the source for the history brush back to where we adjusted the canvas size by clicking the box next to Canvas Size.

I like to keep my History Brush hardness set at 0%. This helps things blend in a natural way. This is adjusted under the brush settings in the top left corner.

Now I bring Ryan back from the original image into the new one, using the history brush. The larger the diameter of the brush, the larger radius of softness. If I am working on two objects close together, I’ll make the diameter of the brush smaller by using the “[" shortcut. Pressing ] increases brush size respectively. After brushing Ryan in with the history brush, I increase my brush size and check to make sure that the edge of the images makes a smooth transition. If things are not perfectly aligned, using the history brush on sharp edges will clean them up.

Once this is done I save the image and start the process again with the next appropriate frame, increasing my canvas size as necessary. In this sequence I ended up using seven of ten images.

Ryan Knight, “99 Problems” on the South Branch of the Middle Fork Feather River.
Nikon D200, Nikon 75-150 “E” @ 150mm 1/1000 F5.6 ISO 100.

Post-Processing.

This should be the last, and potentially most controversial subject of the tutorial. Post-processing, also synonymous with photoshopping. How much is too much?

I’ll be focusing on Adobe Photoshop CS4 and some unique features to it. Even if you don’t use it some of but not all the technique can be applied via another program.

Some argue that photography captures reality and as such shouldn’t be tampered with, calling this “journalistic integrity”. I believe that truth in journalism is a very subjective matter because of the undeniable influence of the writers background. A war of independence in America, a revolution to England. You’re probably asking how this applies to photography. Each photographer makes a vast array of choices that influence the photograph, exposure, angle, what moment to take the shot and so on. All these influence the shot and can make a small rapid look scary or a potentially deadly situation look mundane if a sieve is left out. This just goes to show that we really aren’t capturing reality, or at best are only capturing part of it.

What goes on in photoshop is no more than went on (and still goes on) in the darkroom. Inspirational photographers like Ansel Adams would spend hours developing one print with just the right amount of contrast. Thankfully we can do it without chemicals, and in less time.

My personal goal is to do my best to capture the feeling of a rapid or place, and occasionally the feeling of running one. Of course looking at a photograph isn’t the same thing as being there, feeling mist on your face, hearing the roar of the water and being fully immersed in the experience. In light of this I have no problem pushing an image in photoshop to best capture how I felt about the environment at that moment. My personal taste is to keep photographs looking real while capturing the moment as well as possible. The end result is only as good as the original shot, heavily processing a mundane photograph gives you a heavily processed mundane photograph.

Raw or jpg? This is a personal choice with plenty of advantages to both. Jpg’s are much smaller sized files because just the information that makes it onto the histogram is saved, everything else is clipped off. They are much easier on computer resources to edit and store. Raw files save about 1/2 stop of extra information and up the file size considerably. If you have a high end dSLR and shoot raw, you’ll need a computer to match for post processing. I choose to shoot raw because, whitewater exposure can be tough to nail and it gives you a little breathing room. I’ve also shot jpg only for over a year and sold plenty of those too.

This section really applies to a basic edit of an image for web use. When it comes times for prints most (larger) companies just want raw files because they have people with a degree for getting shots perfect for their printing methods. There are some exceptions and this is more or less how I edit the final jpgs too, without the final resize, watermark and sharpening.

First off you’ll need to change an option in photoshop. This year I learned that you can open .jpg files with the more powerful raw editor. Go to: Edit > Preferences > File Handling. “Camera Raw Preferences” > JPEG and Tiff Handling > Automatically open all supported JPEGs. Now both raw and jpg will open in the raw editor.

I’ll do a quick walk through of a photograph that needs minimal work. Chris Korbulic on Fantasy Falls run of the North Fork Mokelumne.

Shot with the Nikon D200, Nikkor 20mm 2.8 @ 1/1000 F5.6 ISO 100.

Go to the upper right corner and turn on “Highlight Clipping Warning”. You’ll see the washed out area on Chris’s helmet turn red. The highlight clipping warning makes any area of pure white look red. It’s hard for the human eye to differentiate when white washes out, but easy for the computer, so when there is no information and it’s true white (255,255,255) it shows it as red. I leave this on for editing all whitewater shots.

#1 Vibrance: I like a lot of color in my shots, and to test things out will put my “vibrance” at 50. Vibrance is a new saturation tool that does a great job of leaving skin tones natural while helping out other colors. Adjust to taste (mine is rarely above 50).

#2 Exposure: Every shot gets just a small touch up or down as needed. I pushed this shot up .45 because Chris’s face and the sky are pretty dark. This makes a few small spots of whitewater clip (wash out) and turn red. That’s ok because of the next step.

#3 Recovery: The recovery slider pulls back just the bright spots that have clipped. It’s amazing and I love it. In this shot I set it at 25 to remove any red spots from the water. A small one still remains on the helmet but this is normal and would look unnatural to get rid of.

#4 Fill Light: This adjusts the tonal curve in the shadows. Huh? Sliding it to the right makes dark sections of the photo brighter without affecting the highlights. For this shot I set it at 35, the sky now looks nice and I can see Chris’s face.

Now the photo is where I like it, bright colors give it plenty of “pop” and nice lighting on the subjects face. Now I hold down the Alt button and open a copy of the file. If you ignore Alt the image will open and create a file of your raw preferences for the original. I don’t want this extra file created since this is destined to be a jpg for the web.

Now the file is open in regular photoshop and we’re almost done. Resize the photo for it’s final size in web use. I like to go 800 pixels on the long side of the image. Pull up the image size option by hitting Alt-Ctrl-I, or via the menu: Image > Image Size. Since this image is horizontal the width is the long side, so I put in 800 and make sure it says pixels and hit OK.

(Note I”ve already selected the Type tool halfway down on the left)

But the image looks tiny! Hit Ctrl-Alt-0 (zero) for the image to show at it’s natural size. Now is when you add your watermark of choice if you want to. I like a simple “photo darin mcquoid” in white. To get the copyright (©) symbol either copy and paste it from a web page or after clicking on the image with the type tool, hold down Alt and type in 0169. Release alt and you’ll have the symbol. Align your text where you want it, and if so desired add a style. Go to Windows > Style to open the styles window. I like a basic drop shadow. Now hit Alt-E to merge down or via menu: Layer > Flatten Image. Now for the last step!

Watermarked image.

Sharpening an image should always be the final step, because any adjustments made after sharpening can soften the image. Resizing an image always softens it considerably. I like a little sharpening, but not too much, or you’ll get an image that looks like it came from an archaic digital camera. There is no shortcut for the Smart Sharpen feature, so through the menu system go Filters > Sharpen > Smart Sharpen. Your first time some adjustments will need to be made. Be sure the “Preview” box is clicked. Set it to “Remove: Lens Blur” and set your Radius to 0.1 pixels. Make sure “More Accurate” is switched on and that you are previewing the image at 100%. Now adjust the slider until you see the desired result. The sharper the original image, the less sharpening you’ll need. If the original is very soft you’ll need to be much more aggressive with the amount and radius of the sharpening. For this photo I set my Amount to 30.

Save the file and upload to a site that won’t resize automatically, and we are done with a basic edit.

These steps may not seem like they make a huge difference while you’re in the process, but if you compare the results side by side it’s amazing. Here is what a direct conversion of the image would look like with no adjustments.

The same image with basic adjustments made.

That’s it for my Whitewater Photography Tutorial. It ended up being a lot longer than expected. If anyone is interested in sharing the results of their learning send some shots my way and I’ll gladly share on here. I will continue with more in depth post-processing tutorials for unique situations like how to do sequences and apply gradient filters when I have the time. I’ve archived all the tutorials at Darin McQuoid Photography so they will be easy to find.

cheers,

Darin McQuoid

Basic Lighting

Bad Lighting. Nikon D200, Nikkor 20mm 1.8 @ 1/1000 F7.1 ISO 200.

Once you have the basic hard skills of exposure and focus down, lighting is the next step that will make or break the shot. Understanding light is a few basic rules mixed with experience. The largest mistake people make is to choose their angle for the rapid, not the light.

Shooting for the rapid, heavy shadows, glare and poor color saturation. Nikon D200, Nikkor 18-200 @ 105mm 1/800 F8 ISO 100.

The most basic rule of thumb for whitewater lighting is to shoot with the sun behind you. It’s as simple as checking where your shadow is. This reduces glare and if the sun is low enough, lights up the paddlers face. On the west coast this means shooting from behind in the morning and upstream in the afternoon. Vice Versa on the right coast. Of course at mid-day this means that for good lighting you are more or less limited to an overhead shot, which works well for some rapids.

Shooting for the light at mid-day. Nikon D200, Sigma 10-20 @ 20mm 1/1250 F9 ISO 200

An age old photography rule is that the lighting is best at sunrise and sunset. This poses some problems when applied to kayaking, because we can’t put on before light and certainly don’t want to take off after dark. If you want to shoot a certain angle of a rapid it’s well worth your time to note the suns position relative to it at different times in the day. It’s still generally the “best light” early or late in the day.

Early on I thought that sunny days were best for shooting action, since they allow medium apertures, fast shutters and low ISO speeds. Unfortunately they also limit your ability to shoot the angle you want. I get a little tired of people on the East Coast saying that shooting in California is easy. Sometimes it is, and sometimes it can take years to get a shot, because you have to camp at a certain location to shoot a rapid in the morning on a run that flows once a year….each location has its own challenges.

My personal favorite condition is when a high cloud cover causes the light to naturally “lightbox”. Lightboxes are used for studio and product shoots, and disperse the light so it’s even from all angles. You will need faster lenses or a camera with good high ISO performance to maximize the light on these days, but you can shoot from the angle of choice with nice even lighting.

Lightbox day! Nikon D200, Nikkor 200mm F4 @ 1/800 F4 ISO 125.

Experience comes into play in understanding what style of photographs to go for under the lighting conditions, and packing the right equipment for the conditions.

Two more examples of the same exact waterfall. Same time of day on different days only a few weeks apart, the angle and lighting make all the difference.

Being lazy and not willing to walk downstream. Nikon D200, Nikkor 50mm 1.8 @ 1/1000 F8 ISO 100

Putting in some hiking effort often pays off. Nikon D200, Nikon 75-150mm “E” @ 1/1000 F5.6 ISO 100

Next Up: Composition

Whitewater Photography Tutorial #1

Whitewater Photography Tutorial #2

Whitewater Photography Tutorial #3

Whitewater Photography Tutorial #4

Whitewater Photography Tutorial #5

Whitewater Photography Tutorial #7

Whitewater Photography Tutorial #8

Focus.

Another make or break it component to any action shot is a getting a good focus. Digital cameras focus best on areas with straight lines and high contrast, not exactly the prime feature of whitewater. Big water can be exceptionally tough. This is an area of photography where Canon has been far ahead of Nikon until the D700 and D3 which have made considerable steps forward. Being a Nikon shooter all my comments will be based towards these cameras, especially my D200 workhorse. The more expensive the camera, the better and more confusing the AF system gets. I’ll try to keep it relatively simple here.

As a side note I have used some third party lenses, but have found that in general they miss focus more often. In some cases like the Sigma 18-200, there is an incredible rate of back focusing.

Nikon D50, Sigma 18-200 @ 116mm. 1/1000 F6.3 ISO 800. Note how the rock and water in the background are in focus while the paddler is blurry.

But it’s just not third-party lenses. Nikon D200, Nikkor 18-200 @ 95mm. 1/800 F8 ISO 200.

Shooting with longer lenses:

On many cameras the center sensor is the only truly reliable one, which is a shame since we rarely, if ever, want the paddler in the center of he shot. One of my favorite tricks is to focus on an object (rock or tree) that is the same distance away as the paddler will be, then recompose my shot on the rapid.

This works on Nikons all the way down to the D50, and I assume it would on Canons too. First turn your auto-focus mode to Auto Focus Continuous aka AF-C. If it’s a lower end camera then through the menu system turn your AE-L/AF-L button to “AF-ON”. This disables the button as Auto Exposure Lock but removes focusing from the shutter release. Now when you want to focus you use the AE-L/AF-L button instead of the shutter release.

Shot using the “longer lens” method. Nikon D200, Nikkor 50mm 1.8 @ 1/1000 F3.2 ISO 100.

Higher end cameras have a dedicated “AF-ON” button. Through the menu system you have to turn off the shutter release activating AF. Now the shutter release is just that, and the AF-ON button us used when you want the camera to focus. On both make sure you’re set to continuous AF because it is more accurate, and once the AF-ON button is released, your focus is set. AF-C also ties in nicely to the next piece of AF advice.

Focusing with wide lenses:

Missed up close focus. Nikon D200, Nikkor 20mm 2.8 @ 1/1000 F3.5 ISO 100.

Focusing with wide lenses is easy if the object is over five feet away, because if you have a relatively large aperture, everything past five feet is in focus! Of course this is rarely when a wide angle lens will look good. It’s not about “getting it all in” with a wide angle, it’s about getting close to your subject; the paddler. In the above shot I missed the focus trying to use the “longer lens method” of focusing but estimated my distance poorly.

Nail that focus: Standing in the same shot with the same exact specs, but using a different method of focusing.

When shooting up close I’ll look through the view finder and format my shot, noting where I expect the paddler to go. I’ll then select that focus area and make sure the camera is set to “Dynamic Area AF”. Then I’ll do one of two things. If I know the exact composition I want, and that it will be hard to get perfect again, I will compose the shot, keep the AF-ON pressed down and wait for the paddler to come into the frame. If I am not as worried about the composition and just want to be sure the paddler is in the right spot, I’ll focus on them in the lead in and keep the selected AF sensor over them (and on) while following them through the drop, taking a shot (or sequence) when they are close to where I want them.

While not easy to explain, these two methods should help you achieve a better ratio of in focus shots.

Next up: Basic lighting.

Whitewater Photography Tutorial #1

Whitewater Photography Tutorial #2

Whitewater Photography Tutorial #3

Whitewater Photography Tutorial #4

Whitewater Photography Tutorial #6

Whitewater Photography Tutorial #7

Whitewater Photography Tutorial #8