Surfing Clip with shot 550D.

[John Wiley]

Here's I clip I shot yesterday using my new 550D. It's the first thing I've shot with it and my first time using a DSLR for anything other than B-Roll at weddings.

Lenses used were a Tamron 70-200mm f/2.8 and a Sigma 10-20mm f/3.5. I borrowed the Glidetrack and it was my first time using one of those also.

All footage is straight out of the camera with no CC. I used the Neutral PP with all the setttings turned down a little bit.

Snapper Rocks, Wednesday 13th April 2011 on Vimeo

Let me know what you think.

[Matt Harvey]

Not keen on the little skips/judders, as they were a little jarring, the exposed film stock thing did work well. I like the video.

Cheers

Matt

[Stephen J. Williams]

Hey John... I liked it! I used to watch a lot of surfing vids growing up and I think you perfectly captured the style. What frame rate did you use? I could tell that you were playing with the speed a little bit here and there and was thinking 60P would be perfect for this.... Loved the font, what's it called?

Steve

[John Wiley]

Originally Posted by Matt Harvey

Not keen on the little skips/judders, as they were a little jarring

Yeah I though that too once I had it rendered and watched it at full screen. I was just too lazy to go back and change it! It looked great in the tiny little preview window in Premiere but the bigger it is the more jarring it gets.

Originally Posted by Stephen J. Williams

Hey John... I liked it! I used to watch a lot of surfing vids growing up and I think you perfectly captured the style. What frame rate did you use? I could tell that you were playing with the speed a little bit here and there and was thinking 60P would be perfect for this.... Loved the font, what's it called?

Steve

All shot at 50p and conformed to 25p. I think next time I might try to shoot some at 60p and conform to 25p for even slower motion.

I don't know what the font is called actually! I just highlighted the text and scrolled through all the different fonts until one looked right. Then adjusted the kerning and made every second word bold.

[Elliot Press]

Great video...although I've always hated hiphop crap music mixed with surfing :p

Anyhoo, some good footage. I'm planning on getting a 550D to shoot surfing videos too so was glad to this how it can turn out :D

[John Wiley]

The DSLR's are a good option for surf footage as most of the limitations (4GB limit, audio) are irrelevant. There's quite a few people shooting surfing video's on DSLR's these days. At the Quiksliver Pro last month I saw more DSLR-video setups than camcorders.

Unfortunately it seems it's a trend being adopted by the 'hipster' surfing movement a la Stab magazine. Most of the footage I've seen from well known surf videographers using DSLR's is overexposed, too contrasty, too soft/out of focus, and with inappropriate shutterspeeds. It's "cool" because it's "arty" and "different" but with so many people going for that look the market is just getting flooded with junk. It's becoming more of a show-pony competition between videographers and less focused on good surfing/subject matter.

When I shoot surfing, I picture those 'hipster' surf clips in my head, and then ask myself what I can do to make my footage look as different to that as possible.

[Chris Westerstrom]

so true hahaha