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Bicycle Racing
I had an opportunity to go shoot the Thursday night bicycle racing series at The Driveway in Austin last night. Having never shot bicycle races before, I figured 'why not'? I got there and the action was already in play. Not knowing how long the races really were or how much of the track was being used I opted to hang kind of close to the start finish area.
My take away is, they are fast and kind of hard to shoot. When in packs, you can almost rule out full bike shots of individual riders as you'll never get the front wheel or back wheel out of a shot. They ride that close to one another. I shot most at 1/500th or dropped down to 1/320th with the flash and had decent results I think. I know I can do better, but for sure - a good learning experience.
Full gallery HERE
A few from the night....
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My take away is, they are fast and kind of hard to shoot. When in packs, you can almost rule out full bike shots of individual riders as you'll never get the front wheel or back wheel out of a shot. They ride that close to one another. I shot most at 1/500th or dropped down to 1/320th with the flash and had decent results I think. I know I can do better, but for sure - a good learning experience.
Full gallery HERE
A few from the night....
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#5
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#8
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Comments
I learned these are not easy events to shoot. And I still am uber-frustrated in just the overall 'look' of them. They don't pop, they don't have crisp lines, the colors aren't vibrant. I'm just frustrated not knowing what else to try. Bump in saturation? Greater DOF? I just don't know....
Some of the shots could benefit from a shallower depth of field. IDK, you have good DOF in most of them.
Canon 5D MKII - HDR
http://www.jeffisabelle.smugmug.com/
As others have said, a shallower DoF would really help isolate the subjects. Even in bright daylight, you could make your subjects pop a bit more by using your flash and stopping down your aperture further than the generic f4.0.
In the rapidly fading sunlight, that's when your flash becomes more important. Consider moving it off camera so that it's off axis. That will give more depth and texture to your images. Also, consider setting your camera to second-curtain sync, which will also give a sense of movement.
Even on-axis, here's where you get it (almost) right: http://www.smugmug.com/gallery/31083077_g8SWWd#!i=2688850288&k=6m7Zc7r [the link wouldn't post the pic}
(almost) means a bit looser crop to include the whole front wheel. Much like portraiture, where you don't want to cut off an elbow or top of the head.
Here's an example of what you could get. Certainly not a perfect example, but something easily achieved with the right settings and a bit of panning. BTW, he had just been sling-shotted out of the turn by his teammate and was approaching 40mph, so the panning was very quick.
ISO 200, 28mm, 1/60@2.8, flash off camera ~2' to the left.
http://billandersphoto.com
I checked and re-checked - flash is OK at these events and they don't care how you configure it. So on-camera is acceptable, off-camera/ground level or off-camera on a light stand is all good. There was one photog out there (quite good too) who had a flash on a light stand about 8' up and to the side. I've seen his work and it's excellent. He was offering up some things to try as well.
I'll try the shallower DOF and slower shutter speed next time out. I DID learn that you need to be rock solid in the pan action across the same travel plane as the rider. On several, I was in a little depression and they were headed down a few degrees and when I looked back at the high-res versions, when the flash popped I could tell I was actually introducing a few degrees downward pan motion so the 'streak' wasn't horizontal in their direction of travel. Shoot and learn I suppose....
Can HDR be done with a single .nef/RAW image? I might have to look into that more.
A friend said this was a classic Eddie Merckx type shot. I dunno
And a really wild one? I had it deleted at first then pulled it back
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The rest are pretty good, and I'm glad you did not delete that last image. Slow shutter speeds, off-axis flash and second curtain sync can make for some great images.
If you live someplace where there are a lot of cyclists on the road, you can do similar things on the street. Even without flash, the panning keeps your senses sharp and helps build that muscle memory. Plus, it's fun!
Keep at it!
http://billandersphoto.com
Here's a few I sort of liked from last nights racing action. Are they different/better than my first attempt?
Full gallery HERE
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I can't wait to try this again next Thursday. The track configuration will most probably be different so natural lighting will need to be taken into account. And I'm going to try to slow the shutter down and get some spoke blur this time while using a shallower DOF to really bring in your attention.