if i were only to have one lens, which would it be? it would be a canon 70-200 mm F4. why? because it’s light, it’s cheap, and it captures what i want to see. i don’t like the photos of surfers when it’s too tight in the frame. i like seeing what’s around. in this photo, you can see a chick drop in on isaiah at rocky point as gen is paddling out. cool… nice photo, but weak color and a little out of focus…
then if you want to zoom in on the surfer, just stick it in photoshop and crop it. yes, the quality of the photo is so good that you can crop and still use it for a magazine. then adjust the colors to make it like you want like i did to this photo. i told my sister that shooting photos is the easy part. adjusting the photos in photoshop is the hard part. it’s unbelievable how you can turn a average photo into a cover shot image. i’ve done it many of times and i’m not saying how. for that one, your on your own… see the difference? better contrast and sharper image. yes, same image as the one above…
take this photo for another example. if this was shot with a 500 mm, you would have an average tight top turn photo of josh moniz. probably throw this one away. but what makes this photo cool is josh doing a snap while his buddy gen paddles over watching. i could make this photo look much better in photoshop but don’t have the time.
in this digital day in age, photoshop is the standard. if you can shoot and do photoshop, you’ll be one step ahead of the others. it takes time, money, and a lot of frustration to learn but once you do, your throwaway photos cold land in magazines around the world….
**ALL PHOTOS BY TAMMY MONIZ….
