Ray Collins: SeaStills Video and Flat Port Technique

I’m just re-acclimatising to the UK after a month away in sunnier climes, once the jet-lag and fin rubs have worn off I’ll be back to posting regularly here and catching up on al the surf photography related news, and adding more tutorial style posts, for now enjoy this awesome video featuring Ray Collins.

Being a surf photography nerd the first thing I noticed in the video was Ray’s technique of using a squeegee to wipe his flat port, this is something I’ve tried out but I wasn’t too happy with the results, however after having a bit of a nightmare shooting a session in Samoa with the flat port and 28mm lens last week I am definitely going to be trying this technique out again.

Pasta point in Samoa, notice the big water drop in the bottom left, due to me having issues with my dry port technique

Pasta point in Samoa, notice the big water drop in the bottom left, due to me having issues with my dry port technique.

My usual technique is based on some advice Mike Waggoner of Essex housings gave in the SPU forums and involves using a thin layer of oil from your face to make the water drops bead off the port, but having had to lag my face with zinc to prevent frying myself in the South Pacific sun I managed to smear the port pretty well, I then had to wipe it off clean and start from scratch, meaning I got a few hazy images from the smear and some images with drops in the way when I was trying to sort it out.

More posts coming soon, if I do get the squeegee method sorted out I’ll put up a proper post on it when I get the chance.


Posted

in

, ,

by

Comments

2 responses to “Ray Collins: SeaStills Video and Flat Port Technique”

  1. The Overrated Photog Avatar
    The Overrated Photog

    How did it go with the squeegee. I do kitesurfing photography so we get heaps of spray and I’m consider this as an option to fix it.

    1. Ben Pascoe Avatar

      I don’t think I got the best squeegee, it didn’t do a great job. I still use the layer of oil technique myself and it works most of the time. I think the issues with the shot in this post were all down to the sun cream.

      If I ever try it out again with a different squeegee I’ll let you know.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *