One for the cycling togs

maddog.mark

maddog.mark

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Mark
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Having just got in from trying to photograph a time trail I find I have a card full of carp. One shot out of 50 worth doing anything with:bang:.

Anyone care to share the secret to a good cycling shot:shrug: as I want to get much better at this genre.

Thanks

Mark:thumbs:
 
Example of your shots with exif will get alot more helpful responce.

Other than that learn to pan better and up your iso

md:lol:
 
True mate, I think it does come down to poor panning technique. Just after a few handy hints and tips at the moment. May post the only decent shot I got later.

Mark
 
What setting were you using mate .

Give us a clue as it could be the setting . it could be you . it could be lots of things.

next time up your shutter speed so you get more sharp shots then slowly drop it down to help with motion blur:shrug:

without knowing settings or what the shots look like this is a hard one to help with imho


md:shrug:
 
Also look at the settings on the good one and the rest of the carp . if its similer its your panning:lol:




md:wave:
 
last time i did cyclists I used a monopod and got down nice and low and put the camera into manual focus. When the "pack" came along i just held the shutter button down without panning (D3's 9FPS VERY helpful here) produced some fab results like this

shot on d3 with 70-200 VR, Aperature priority at F/4 shutter speed ended up about 1/1200 (was a very bright day)

 
You don't have to freeze th emotion. How about wide angle to take in the crowd lining the road, plus the scenery behind and use a shutter drag of about 1/10th - sharp crowd and landscape with a bunch of blurred bikes going by?

Or shoot through a gap in something and frame the bike in : legs of a girl in the crowd, between two heads of viewers, archway, tunnel, bridge.....rocks, trees, gateway?

Just a few that spring to mind.

Same with a shorter lens - say something around the 50-70 mark, slow drag and pan. Don't worry if it all goes blurred, it is meant to. Shutter speed around the 1/2 or 1/4 mark. Legs go all blurred, everything does, but it gives a good idea of motion.

Sharp pics are easy - just whack the shutter up/aperture down and press the shutter. Wow.

What about a bit of fill flash with slow drag - rear slow synch. Blur from ambient, sharp from flash.

How to get impact - choose the colours of the cclist and consider the background they will work against best.

MAKE your pictures, don't take them.In other words, look at the pack at the start and begin to visualise what would be good, and where you could get it - you need to reconnoitre the course first. Then be in the right place at the right time, fo rwhen the light will be right (choose where the sun needs to be to light your pic - then position yourself accordingly. Wait for your picture to materialise, the one you saw in your head before the gun went off.
 
Lensflare said:
You don't have to freeze th emotion. How about wide angle to take in the crowd lining the road, plus the scenery behind and use a shutter drag of about 1/10th - sharp crowd and landscape with a bunch of blurred bikes going by?

Or shoot through a gap in something and frame the bike in : legs of a girl in the crowd, between two heads of viewers, archway, tunnel, bridge.....rocks, trees, gateway?

Just a few that spring to mind.

Same with a shorter lens - say something around the 50-70 mark, slow drag and pan. Don't worry if it all goes blurred, it is meant to. Shutter speed around the 1/2 or 1/4 mark. Legs go all blurred, everything does, but it gives a good idea of motion.

Sharp pics are easy - just whack the shutter up/aperture down and press the shutter. Wow.

What about a bit of fill flash with slow drag - rear slow synch. Blur from ambient, sharp from flash.

How to get impact - choose the colours of the cclist and consider the background they will work against best.

MAKE your pictures, don't take them.In other words, look at the pack at the start and begin to visualise what would be good, and where you could get it - you need to reconnoitre the course first. Then be in the right place at the right time, fo rwhen the light will be right (choose where the sun needs to be to light your pic - then position yourself accordingly. Wait for your picture to materialise, the one you saw in your head before the gun went off.
Click to expand...

Would be helpful for a road race, but not exactly aposite for a time trial...
 
1 in 50 sounds about like my hit rate when I started doing MTB races - I covered the SAMS series about 12 years ago and it took me about a season to get the hang of it for real - to the extent that people would pay for the images...
 
david1701 said:
the crap ones could be helpful too if you don't know why they are crap ;)
Click to expand...

Comes down to poor panning technique I think.

..MD.. said:
What setting were you using mate .

Give us a clue as it could be the setting . it could be you . it could be lots of things.

next time up your shutter speed so you get more sharp shots then slowly drop it down to help with motion blur:shrug:

without knowing settings or what the shots look like this is a hard one to help with imho


md:shrug:
Click to expand...

..MD.. said:
Also look at the settings on the good one and the rest of the carp . if its similer its your panning:lol:




md:wave:
Click to expand...

I was shooting on shutter priority at anywhere between 1/80 - 1/125th of a second. I suspect I was hoping for a bit to much to get sharp images handheld at the lower end.

kingbling11 said:
last time i did cyclists I used a monopod and got down nice and low and put the camera into manual focus. When the "pack" came along i just held the shutter button down without panning (D3's 9FPS VERY helpful here) produced some fab results like this

shot on d3 with 70-200 VR, Aperature priority at F/4 shutter speed ended up about 1/1200 (was a very bright day)

Click to expand...

Thanks for the advice, looks like the technique worked well.

Lensflare said:
You don't have to freeze th emotion. How about wide angle to take in the crowd lining the road, plus the scenery behind and use a shutter drag of about 1/10th - sharp crowd and landscape with a bunch of blurred bikes going by?

Or shoot through a gap in something and frame the bike in : legs of a girl in the crowd, between two heads of viewers, archway, tunnel, bridge.....rocks, trees, gateway?

Just a few that spring to mind.

Same with a shorter lens - say something around the 50-70 mark, slow drag and pan. Don't worry if it all goes blurred, it is meant to. Shutter speed around the 1/2 or 1/4 mark. Legs go all blurred, everything does, but it gives a good idea of motion.

Sharp pics are easy - just whack the shutter up/aperture down and press the shutter. Wow.

What about a bit of fill flash with slow drag - rear slow synch. Blur from ambient, sharp from flash.

How to get impact - choose the colours of the cclist and consider the background they will work against best.

MAKE your pictures, don't take them.In other words, look at the pack at the start and begin to visualise what would be good, and where you could get it - you need to reconnoitre the course first. Then be in the right place at the right time, fo rwhen the light will be right (choose where the sun needs to be to light your pic - then position yourself accordingly. Wait for your picture to materialise, the one you saw in your head before the gun went off.
Click to expand...

Lots of interesting ideas here and certainly will be useful for my ultimate aim of getting some good shots of the Tour of Britain when it comes to Norfolk next year:thumbs:

TheBigYin said:
Would be helpful for a road race, but not exactly aposite for a time trial...
Click to expand...

True, but still some things to think about and I did leave the question wide open:)

Arkady said:
1 in 50 sounds about like my hit rate when I started doing MTB races - I covered the SAMS series about 12 years ago and it took me about a season to get the hang of it for real - to the extent that people would pay for the images...
Click to expand...

Nice to know I'm not alone here, perseverance is the key then:thumbs:

Thanks for the helpful ideas folks, I think I'll take a look at some other peoples work and see if I can understand the methods used to get them a bit better...

Mark :thumbs:
 
Bike's a bike...mine all have motors nowadays...BIG motors with turbos and NO2 and stuff - and loud exhausts....load exhausts save lives.:razz:
 
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