Photo Competition

When I’m filming NFTO, I always have the primary goal of shooting great footage which is steep, steady, consistent and shows everything the coach or judge needs to see. But that doesn’t mean that I don’t want to take lots of tasty shots too. I would guess that I wear my stills camera on approximately 90% of my jumps during a season and average around 750+ photos per 12 jump day.

That might seem like a lot to process in Photoshop or Lightroom at the end of a busy day, but I can quickly go through them all in about 20 minutes. I start with a general pass weeding them down to around 30-40. Then I go through them all in greater detail within Photoshop which typically gives me between 3 and 6 shots. Some days, the weather doesn’t play ball and I get nothing.

I have an agreement with both the NFTO girls and the coach that I am allowed to go on-level occasionally if I spot an opportunity, but this only happens a handful of times per day. It’s important not to overdo it, but the shots are always well appreciated by the team and the sponsors! So, here are some general tips:

1. 1. If you are going on level, make sure you have the right background in place beforehand. For example, at Skydive Algarve there are amazing views of the bay behind.
   2. Try to balance the types of shots you process between – exit, completed formations, dynamic movements, on-level and portrait/group.
   3. There is always a balance to be struck between the team being formation perfect and showing the reality of teamwork. I can’t remember who said it, but the best teams are those who are adjusting and fixing continuously.
   4. If you are starting out, try putting a GoPro on and setting it to Continuous photo mode at 0.5sec intervals.
   5. When jumping with a new or inexperienced group, make sure they know and are comfortable with your plan.
   6. A good shot is often about what you can’t see. If you have a shot of the team in a star formation, you can heavily crop it until all that remains are the shoulders, heads and hands in view. It makes the shot more intimate, I think.
   7. Tracking off photos can look great, but they are inherently riskier. I would say never be directly above someone tracking off without knowing that they are consistent and that they leave the formation quickly.
   8. During a camp, I always try to choreograph something fun at the end of the day or camp. It’s a great way to unwind – we usually go to altitude on those jumps and end the serious stuff at 7,000ft. I think my favourite action shot last year was when the girls all did a synchronised backloop last
      season. I suspect it may have been many hundreds of jumps since they last did that.
   9. Look for the artist shots, such as high contrast black and white pics or leaving only the colour of the girls’ red containers behind.
   10. Last but not least, it’s all too easy to overwork the shot leaving them looking fake and saturated. After you have processed your shots, take a break, come back and look at them again with a critical eye.

Rob Lloyd is a familiar face at competitions and DZs around the country. MAy will know him from his vibrant colourful photos that are a regular feature in Skydive the Mag and across social media. 

Rob’s Top Tips are:

1. Turn your camera on its side – it’s called portrait for a very real reason – it covers the shape of human beings unless there’s a big group of them. People never have problems doing this with a phone but would rather gnaw their own legs off with a camera.
2. In bright sunshine don’t let it hit faces or eyes. Squinting contorted faces are all you will get. Have the sun coming in over one shoulder or the other of the subjects in your shot. No squinting and more three-dimensional photos result.
3. Finally, if you have a flash, switch it on whether your camera is a phone, a snapshot camera or a serious one.

“Those three reasons are the sole causes of my popularity other than timing when to press the shutter – and that would take a complete seminar!”

Rob is following his own Top Tips in this shot: the camera
is in portrait orientation; there is blinding sun but he has
positioned himself where the girls won’t be blinded and have
to squint; and despite the bright sun he has switched the
flash on “to poke some light into the resulting shadows”.

Rob said, “The middle of the day is the worst time possible – the sun is desperate to put deep shadows over eyes to create
zombies… but the flash going off has completely removed the
zombie effect”.