I'm puzzled as to why you would do or say that? The photos need quite a lot of work and to be honest rescuing; although some are destined to go straight into the bin I'm afraid. I currently don't have any editing program, though i hope to get that sorted soon
Your first mistake is shooting at f/8. The aperture is far too narrow for sport, especially when that's only giving you 1/125th. You need to bump up the ISO, widen the aperture and be shooting at at least 1/400th for the running shots and upwards of 1/640-800 for the cycling ones. All with the exception of the last, which was obviously deliberately shot as a pan and is easily the best of the set. Thanks for that. This was the first time I was shooting any sport, and I had no idea what sort of settings would give the best results. I varied the setting alot all day, shooting in Av and Tv
Most of the shots are underexposed and if you are going to shoot semi auto then you need to use EC to balance the frames. Sorry, your going to have to explain EC for me?
Most of the photos have far too busy a background, which isn't helped by the DoF. Something which you should be thinking about constantly. Yeah, I suppose I went for a larger DoF to try and improve my hit-rate of properly focused shots. Perhaps this wouldn't have been needed if i'd used the ISO and ******* speed correctly?
I'd also be tempted to check your Jpeg settings, as the dynamic range seems far too compressed for a 40D. Have you got the contrast turned up? No, i've got all the settings pretty much standard. I only use the shutter/iso/aperture/wb etc really
There's work to be done on the composition, shot and pose selection (ie the moment of capture), and the cropping, but I think that you need to concentrate on the basics first to be honest.
Sorry to be brutal, but your skills are going to need a lot of practice in this field!
