A few swimming photos

SamJT

SamJT

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Sam
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I've started to build a sports photography portfolio with a bit of variety with the aim being a job photographing some university teams in the next year. Here's a few photos shot on my 550d with canon's 70-200 f4L, any feedback would be appreciated, thanks!

1.
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2.
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3.
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Number three is excellent, not sure about number two though i get the idea but I'm not sure about the end image.
 
Sorry but I wouldnt put any in a portfolio.. especialy number 3... If you posted swimming shots I would say yes nice.. But for a portfolio.. a portfolio that says this is the best i can do? sorry nowehere near good enough for swimming...
 
I appreciate the feedback, I agree with your comments. I meant that I'd started to shoot a variety of sports with the aim to build a portfolio, rather than 'these will be in my portfolio', bad wording on my part. I'm not really happy with the second shot, and the last is cropped ridiculously.
 
SamJT said:
I appreciate the feedback, I agree with your comments. I meant that I'd started to shoot a variety of sports with the aim to build a portfolio, rather than 'these will be in my portfolio'. I'm not really happy with the second shot, and the last is cropped ridiculously.
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its not the crop... I am a big fan of close in crop...but at the enmd of the day its the top of someones cap and a splash.. the color and sharpness is good but theres nothing there.. you cant even see who it is.. the first one is too far away with no detail in the face.. what you need is to catch the swimmer as they come UP through the water.. showing expresssions and wide open eyes....

dexter247 may want to explain his side as he thinks its excellent.. maybe its me... this is just my opinion... nobody made me swim photo expert :)
 
my original reply was because portfolio was mentioned and that usualy means the best you can do.. but now I realise your trying different sports to build a portfolio eventually.. sorry if my comments sopunded harsh...thought you meant they where for portfolio now :)
 
Number 3 is obviously the topic of conversation because it immediately stands out as different. Maybe that is a good thing, especially if it encourages discussion! I am undecided and tend to agree with KIPAX that ideally a photograph with this kind of crop would stand out as excellent if it showed the expression of the swimmer as they were lifting from the water. I am also not too sure about the 'art' effect given to the splashing water. It is nevertheless a good attempt and demonstrates that you are willing to try different compositions and photograhic style.
 
I like the third one as to me the colours have a nice contrast between the tanned skin and the blue of the water, I like the tight crop as it boils down the picture to a almost minimalist image, you don't have to see the whole picture to know what's going on. I also like the way the shoulders are positioned giving the impression of power. To me it all comes to get her to make a great image. An image will always have people who like it and those who won't, in this instance I like it.
 
I think firstly these are too anomomous (sp?) for what you are trying to achieve. If it is a club/ university team, they will want their name/ colours/ emblems etc in the photos as promotion. You also need to be able to recognise the person in the shot clearly. Some perspective shots as well as the action shots such as on the blocks, out of focus crowd, finish celebration etc. I am sure there are compositional do's and don'ts with swimming, so these points are more from a Client's perspective and are additional to getting the expression/ effort in the face etc.

I don't envy you as i am sure it is difficult to get eye level with your subject and only have a split second to get "the shot".
 
I like 1 and 2 but I think they are about swimming not about the swimmer. I'm not sure which was you're aim.

I believe with sports people want to see the faces and expressions, the pain and the anguish.

I'm a new kid on the block taking some action sports pics for clubs. Initially I was trying to capture the action only, now I try harder to capture the people too, that's what I think they (papers and players) want to see.
 
Ive not done any swimming photography, at first I thought, yeah these look pretty good - but I do have to agree with kipax when I saw the other image - nothing technically wrong with your images, they look great (love the water droplets) but the expression would be best captured.

btw, I love the 3rd image, it doesn't look like water, more like a gell of some kind. What speed did you pop that one off at? :)
 
If we judge the photos technically then we can say it is good, it's because all angles are captured correctly thought we can't really give emphasize since it is moving. I think that's one thing that we should also consider, not to forget the technical aspects of photography and the subject as the focus. Again, your photos are all great!
 
Wilfred M. Abuhan said:
If we judge the photos technically then we can say it is good, it's because all angles are captured correctly thought we can't really give emphasize since it is moving. I think that's one thing that we should also consider, not to forget the technical aspects of photography and the subject as the focus. Again, your photos are all great!
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I for one didnt understand any of that...
 
Well I think that last one is a belter!
 
Well it would seem these pics are great then... ...Dunno what i was thinking...
 
@KIPAX :) What I mean by that, is the aspects of photography that in any way we can capture great photos. That was amazing photos., and for sure the photographer has its own way of telling the subject and what it really means.
 
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Wilfred M. Abuhan said:
Amazing! For me, your photos are great...
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Wilfred M. Abuhan said:
@KIPAX :) What I mean by that, is the aspects of photography that in any way we can capture great photos. That was amazing photos., and for sure the photographer has its own way of telling the subject and what it really means.
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With the greatest respect to the OP who took these pictures and I do hope he takes this the right way... I personally think its wrong to tell people they have taken "great" and "amazing" photos when they have not.. its counter productive and does nothing to help the OP .. if we all popsted saying these are amazing and great like you have then the OP wouldn't feel any need to try and improve..encouragement is good.. false sense of achievement is bad..

Just my opinion of what these critique forums are for..others may differ :)
 
^^This.

It all depends on your reference point as to how good you think these are.

But as someone who looks at the Getty top 10 images of the week for inspiration there is certainly a lot that the OP can do to improve their images.

1) Is a good standard shot
2) Is a good attempt at something different, and with practice could deliver a striking image
3) Is technically sharp, but delivers little else either from a competitor point of view or from a corporate/uni point of view
 
Thanks for the continued interest in the thread. @KIPAX I agree with all your points, especially those regarding giving praise when it's not due, however I think that everyone is open to their own opinion because at the end of the day it's an art form and so everyone will have their own views on the matter. I think that explains peoples differing opinions to yours but to be honest I don't think the original photos were that great, I was just looking for a bit of guidance really which I feel I've got plenty of! I'm not going to spend any money producing a portfolio until I can look at a set of images and be unable to criticise any of them.

I'm definitely going to start looking at Gettys top 10 for inspiration as well!
 
@KIPAX
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With the greatest respect to the OP who took these pictures and I do hope he takes this the right way... I personally think its wrong to tell people they have taken "great" and "amazing" photos when they have not.. its counter productive and does nothing to help the OP .. if we all popsted saying these are amazing and great like you have then the OP wouldn't feel any need to try and improve..encouragement is good.. false sense of achievement is bad.
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You have a strong point since we can criticize any object based on our own understanding. I believe that there's nothing wrong with being honest, but we should not forget to consider that we don't have the right to say such bad words to other just because we think we are right. My point is, we can do constructive criticism. I know that. that's what you mean there. Anyway, thank you for sharing you thoughts :)
 
KIPAX said:
Well it would seem these pics are great then... ...Dunno what i was thinking...
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Theres a difference here....i looked at number 3 and really liked it then read on down the thread and noted your comments and can now see the big difference in an amateur like myself and someone who knows what they're talk about ;)
No doubt some will read these and think that Kipax is a miserable b@stard but will soon realise that it's from the ones with knowledge that we learn, when first here i though theres some know alls on here but i did see the light......anyway, enough of being a fan boy ;)
 
KIPAX said:
Well it would seem these pics are great then... ...Dunno what i was thinking...
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I don't know what you were thinking either, with regards to the third photo.

I will however hazard a guess that you are so used to making sure you get faces for your newspapers etc. that it has coloured your criticism of the shot.

I love the play of the muscles, the jelly-like water, the crop itself and everything is nice and sharp....

....ie and to whit, "a belter"!
 
SamJT said:
Again, i'd agree that seeing the face is important, I wasn't even going to upload it because of that. I guess its just lack of experience, this is why I'm on this forum though!
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Well I am very glad you did and you can see a slightly better crit (than "belter") in my reply to the Kipax fella.
 
behave :)
 
KIPAX said:
behave :)
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One is :)....

.... but I really like that 3rd shot and just wanted you to know it even more, after I just read your "Well it would seem these pics are great then... ...Dunno what i was thinking..." post.
 
Thers nothing wrong wiht liking a picture... thats the thing about photogrpahy isnt it.. we wont all like the same thing... Telling someone who wants to learn that you like a pictures is good.. telling the same person a picture is amazing or great when it isn't is counter productive..

No point me repeating myself over and over.. if you can't follow that then....
 
1 and 3 are good. Great lighting at this pool wherever it is, looks like you have loads of natural coming in from skylights. Shame you messed about with settings on 2 or the swimmer could have identified herself through cap (which most of them do, a heads up with face and smile is rare in swimming due to crappy shutter speeds and the amount of water carried by messy strokes). Still, it looks like you achieved a fair shutter speed with a 550d and f4 lens and got a couple of cracking shots in. Well done for what you were working with..and shoot from a lower position, it will give much more impact to the shot.
 
The third one is different to the standard cliched butterfly shot (which the first one nearly is...a split second earlier and her face would have been higher and as clarke mentioned, a lower viewpoint would have helped) Just put 'butterfly swimmer' into google images to see how standard this shot is. Yours is different because of the crop and the fact that the head is down and the arms are just about to flung forward. You can see the tension in the shoulders and I like the water going over the shoulders too. If you have lots of other more 'standard' swimming shots in your port, this could go in demonstrating your ability to take a different view on a well used shot.

Similarly, with the second, I like the motion blur in this. Again, it's different from the standard butterfly shots. You would probably need to try a few different thing to improve it...different panning speeds and shutter speeds perhaps. Something like this would work, (from a portfolio perspective) again, if you have the standard stuff too.

Just my 2p's worth (from an ex swim teacher)
 
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Thanks for the feedback. The lighting in the pool was amazing, before uni I was a lifeguard for a few years in a pool with tinted windows which would have been a nightmare. I should have mentioned at the start that this was just a 10min shoot in my uni pool where I was lucky enough to have an empty lane, definitely wasn't a race scenario! That meant I wasn't really going for shots of the swimmers face, more of just an impression of swimming if that makes sense, it's hard to show passion in the face of a severely hungover swimmer who isn't in a race haha! My favourite shot is actually none of these and you wouldn't even know it was a swimmer, just an abstract blurred mess which I'm going to get printed and put on my wall.
 
KIPAX said:
Thers nothing wrong wiht liking a picture... thats the thing about photogrpahy isnt it.. we wont all like the same thing... Telling someone who wants to learn that you like a pictures is good.. telling the same person a picture is amazing or great when it isn't is counter productive..

No point me repeating myself over and over.. if you can't follow that then....
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I totally agree with your post above except that I do think 3 is worthy of praise because I think it is good, regardless of you thinking it isn't.

Thus it can't be counter-productive at all.

Now imagine I have pasted your last sentence here!
 
Mikesphotaes said:
I totally agree with your post above except that I do think 3 is worthy of praise because I think it is good, regardless of you thinking it isn't.

Thus it can't be counter-productive at all.

Now imagine I have pasted your last sentence here!
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you didnt understand my post at all.. I ahve no problem with you or anyone else thinking the picture is good or liking it..you do..i dont.. thats what makes the world go around........ my problem is people saying its an amazing picture.. you really cant see the difference or what I am talking about.. seriously ? OK .. you like the pic.. great.. i dont like the pic... that OK? but then the likes say its amazing... but I dont say its rubbish .... does that make it easier to understand ?
 
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