}
PHOTOGRAPHY
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Image Masters
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Ian Coristine
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5899
Image Masters
Ian Coristine
“Woodies” are very popular in the 1000 Islands, with many serving as daily transportation, despite being quite old. The area is also home to The Antique Boat Museum, the premiere museum of this type in the world.
It’s not hard to get good static shots of these boats, but I find it tough to get decent action shots. This is one of my best and as usual, it happened by accident. I had been refueling at a marina when this boater came over to check out my plane.
When he left, I waited a few minutes for his wake to dissipate for a smoother takeoff and once airborne, climbed out over a nearby island. As I cleared it, I looked down to see him carving through the calm water on the other side with the wake glistening in the sun. I snapped off a quick shot, hoping it captured the moment as I flew past. I don’t think any amount of planning could ever put these pieces together so perfectly again. Look at the reflection of the bow and the boat’s registration in the water. Perfection.
As usual, DxO and a little sharpening did good things to this image. Look at the wake come alive. It’s important to realize that for this scene I chose to turn off the lighting engine to preserve the contrast between the dark water and bright spray. Turned on, it lightens the background by bringing out the water’s natural green and lessens the impact of the white against the black.
The really great thing here is to be able to experiment with these settings in DxO at my leisure, rather than have to try to duplicate the shot again with different settings on the camera.
I think it’s also worth mentioning, that I find diagonals generally are much more powerful than a subject that is parallel to the frame.
It’s not hard to get good static shots of these boats, but I find it tough to get decent action shots. This is one of my best and as usual, it happened by accident. I had been refueling at a marina when this boater came over to check out my plane.
When he left, I waited a few minutes for his wake to dissipate for a smoother takeoff and once airborne, climbed out over a nearby island. As I cleared it, I looked down to see him carving through the calm water on the other side with the wake glistening in the sun. I snapped off a quick shot, hoping it captured the moment as I flew past. I don’t think any amount of planning could ever put these pieces together so perfectly again. Look at the reflection of the bow and the boat’s registration in the water. Perfection.
As usual, DxO and a little sharpening did good things to this image. Look at the wake come alive. It’s important to realize that for this scene I chose to turn off the lighting engine to preserve the contrast between the dark water and bright spray. Turned on, it lightens the background by bringing out the water’s natural green and lessens the impact of the white against the black.
The really great thing here is to be able to experiment with these settings in DxO at my leisure, rather than have to try to duplicate the shot again with different settings on the camera.
I think it’s also worth mentioning, that I find diagonals generally are much more powerful than a subject that is parallel to the frame.
