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How to shoot sky surfers?


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I needed to do a project and shoot sky surfers,

but the issue was that I tried to shoot it with a DSLR and I failed to track focus and to stabilized the shot on the shoot itself

because the skysurfer moves very fast and he's getting on and off from the depth of field of the camera.

so I went and rented Panasonic 160 and again the same problem to track focus.

It was way way better from the DSLR because this camera has a back focus.

and another problem was shooting with a shoulder mount because my hands got very exhausted after 5 minutes straight.

so I asked the man on the rental shop what to do, he said I need to rent the PMW350 it's for sports and It will track focus.

but this cameras rent is high it's like 250$

so do you know other cameras that can track focus or have continues AF

 

 

 

Here is the footage from the P160:

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MFx39vp1NDM&feature=youtu.be

Edited by Nitai Lev Oren
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When your title said 'sky surfer', I was thinking of something like this:

 

How-to-Learn-Extreme-Skysurfing-History.

 

Which really requires that someone be following during the jump with a camera mounted on their helmet like this:

 

skydivecameraman.jpg

 

As for ground based capture of someone in the air... very difficult without mechanical tracking.

 

Essentially one focuses at 'infinity', and then tracks the object.

 

 

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ok so how do u call this aeroplane but for kids?

and do you know mechanical tracking device that can do this job?

 

Those would be called 'gliders' in English.

 

For hand tracking, a good tripod, and easy control of the tripod head.

 

I think this is why someone recommended a 4K approach, this would allow you to capture a 'large' frame, and then crop to 2K, using both hand tracking in capture, and some form of 'object' tracking in say After Effects. (I don't know if Premiere has tracking filters...).

 

A zoom lens exacerbates the problem of 'shaky tracking', but is required for getting the glider to be anything but a small dot.

 

With shooting 4K, you don't so much 'zoom in' as just eliminate unnecessary pixels.

 

At more than 50 feet you should be ok with the focus at 'infinity' and say an f/8 setting.

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Since you are shooting in day light you really should stop down your lens to make your depth of field very wide and eliminate your focus issues on the long lens.

 

And you should 100% be using a fluid head tripod, hand held or shoulder mount will be too shaky and you will kill yourself. I would also recommend shooting with a circular polarizor to get rid of the glare of the sky and help your subjects stand out from the background a bit more.

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