No, that floating Olympic surf photo isn’t AI, it’s real!

It’s probably the most eye-catching image from the 2024 Olympic Games so far. I’m talking about the photograph of Olympic surfer Gabriel Medina, which appears to show him quite literally floating in mid-air. Many people have assumed the image is AI-generated or created using some Photoshop trickery. However, the arresting image is entirely real.

AFP photographer Jérôme Brouillet took the photograph during the tube section in the fifth heat of the men’s surfing at Teahupo’o in Tahiti. This particular wave gave the Brazilian surfer his best score yet, and you can clearly see his elation in the photo. But how was it taken?

“The conditions were perfect, the waves were taller than we expected”, said Brouillet who was positioned close by on a boat to capture the action.

“So he [Medina] is at the back of the wave and I can’t see him and then he pops up and I took four pictures and one of them was this one,” Brouillet told The Guardian. “It was not hard to take the picture. It was more about anticipating the moment and where Gabriel will kick off the wave.”

Like most photography, the best photos come from having a deep knowledge and understanding of the subject. And this clearly paid off for Brouillet. He knew that one of the best waves was coming, and he also knew that Medina often celebrates his achievements in this manner.

Brouillet sent off his images to his editors automatically from the camera, and he explains how he was a little surprised by their reactions to the image. “I was just checking my phone on the six-minute break after the shoot and I had lots of notifications on social media and I thought something is happening with this shot and it was shared on ESPN and I thought: ‘cool’.”

It really is a “cool” photograph. From the gravity defying stance of both the surfer and the board, it really does have an unreal quality to it. However, you can see from video footage taken at the time (unfortunately since removed) that it is simply about perspective and literally capturing that split-second moment of the action and emotion. This is really what all great sports photography aims to achieve. We still have a good couple of weeks left of the Paris Olympics. Hopefully, there are many more epic images still to come!

[via the guardian]