Bike Racing

[LensHappy]

Just a couple from a local bike race. Could use some professional opinion. I try to shoot at very high speed unless panning. This tends to capture things in mid action which I personally think is cool. However, I read a post on another site that you should be looking for blurr in action shots to give the affect of speed. Any words of wisdom?

PS: I could shoot myself as there was some dust on my sensor in these.

[LensHappy]

Obviously a panned shot.

[LensHappy]

Being new, I am trying to get the size right so you can actually see them.

[LensHappy]

Again

[LensHappy]

Last

[2whlrcr]

IMHO the pack photo needs a tighter crop. Get rid of the cones in the foreground and zoom in on the leader rider and pack.

The panned shot doesn't work for me, because there really isn't anything in the photo that's sharp. The middle rider is close, but not quite. I think you will have more success panning single riders. Tough to get a multi rider, bike, car panned shot. Something has to be relatively sharp and depending upon how the other subjects are blurred, it can be a distraction.

If I'm shooting wheeled action sports, I always like to have blur in the wheels or spokes. But you will have more missed shots and some customers like the frozen photos better. If your doing it for yourself, shoot how you want. If your trying to sell photos, ask the cliental, what they prefer?

[CatOne]

It depends on what you're looking for. I don't think you always need to give motion blur to imply speed. Sometimes it's nice; other times, not so much. A nice, sharp picture is always nice as well.

For a "sharp" picture, IMO for bike racing you should set your shutter speed to 1/500. Put the camera on Tv and do what you need to get that shutter speed... you'll probably need to bump the ISO above 100 to get that speed, and not have your pictures under-exposed (which yours are). In direct sunlight you can probably get 1/500 with ISO 200.

For panning, it also helps to have a lens (or camera) with image stabilization (e.g. Canon's IS or Nikon's VR lenses). They have a panning mode which stabilizes one direction (typically vertical) and lets the camera move more freely in the other.

Also key to good sports shots is to shoot a lot, and to use the AI servo mode which dynamically continually focuses on whatever AF point you have set in camera.

And I'd also recommend you get in tighter on a lot of your shots.

Here are a few shots of a bike race I took out here a few months ago (Burlingame Criterium):

http://blloyd.smugmug.com/photos/166492875-L.jpg

http://blloyd.smugmug.com/photos/166512632-L.jpg

http://blloyd.smugmug.com/photos/166521533-L.jpg

leadout bay-bee!

http://blloyd.smugmug.com/photos/166527892-L.jpg