Tour De France advice

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Bryan
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I'm after some advice about sports photography, I've never really had any experience.
I'm hoping to shoot the tour Dr France which is virtually coming past my front door.
I am after some nice shots in Epping forest with a nice blurred background, I have tried getting this kind of shot in the velodrome but didn't get any blur at all.
So do I need to be close in on the subject? and what kind of settings should I be using in a shaded tree lined scenario?
 
I'm assuming that you are after some panning shots? If that's the case, then you need to be sure to have a slowish shutter speed and follow the target smoothly, from side on or maybe 3/4.

If on the other hand you're looking to have out-of-focus background, then you need a wide aperture telephoto and shoot with a higher shutter speed.

Practice all you can before the event, and while at the event take pictures all the time to get into the rythm so to speak.

Try to find a spot where the light is coming from over your shoulder and onto the riders as they ride towards you. This may be a bit challenging in a forest and may be compromised by where you are allowed to stand if there is crowd control in place.

Oh, and don't forget to enjoy seeing elite riders whizzing through the forest.
 
Are you after blur from focus / depth of field, or blur from movement / panning??

I saw the Tour of Britain last year, >> my thread <<and I would advise getting to your spot early, and use all the forerunners to the event to practise your shots, settings technique etc, as you will not believe how fast the main pack will go past you.
 
I did the London start a couple of years ago, and learnt a couple of things.

You only get one chance! Practice first. I got my wife to cycle around whilst a took piccies of her. Good panning practice.
Up the ISO to get fast shutter speed if you are not confident panning.

I was fortunate to have a 70-200 zoom. Get some iimages early then reframe before they get to you.

Not exactly expert advice I know, but I took quite a few pictures and it seemed to be over in 10 seconds!! They are so fast :)
 
Good advice thanks everyone, it's the panning shots I'm after, I think this weekend I'll go to the route as there's always plenty of cyclists around too.
Only getting one go at this is what's bothering me too, i only have an 18-55mm lens, will that be sufficient ?
I'll try and post any shots I get at the weekend and hopefully get more advice.
Thanks again folks
 
overbez said:
Are you after blur from focus / depth of field, or blur from movement / panning??

I saw the Tour of Britain last year, >> my thread <<and I would advise getting to your spot early, and use all the forerunners to the event to practise your shots, settings technique etc, as you will not believe how fast the main pack will go past you.
Click to expand...

Liked your shots! And thanks for the advice.
I will definately get there early as it's so close it won't be a problem, how fast are these guys going to be going?
 
Any lens can be used for panning. I had a go last year with a 10-20mm and got some interesting shots, though none worth shring here. Your 18-55mm is likely IMHO to be a bit short, but that depends on where you end up standing relative to the riders.. If you're right next the road, it might well be OK, but your panning technique will come under pressure. Ahead of time, ie from now until the event, try standing at the side of the road and shoot pan shots of passing cars and see how you get on.

The pro riders will be travelling at a far lick. If you struggle with the pans, then as advised above, just accept it and bump your ISO to get a 1/250th or faster.
 
Well I should get right next to the road, I will maybe take my short ladder or even get up a tree.
 
Find your "Best Place" a few days earlier and as mentioned earlier get there early as spectators can be 20 deep in the good places.

If your "Best Place" is early in the day have a second or even third place lined up and move to the new location as soon as the racers have gone past.

Some of the escort vehicles make for interesting photographs and are ideal to practice on.

As also mentioned above the cyclists are here and gone very quickly.

Enjoy it, there is nothing quite like it, where else will you see French Motorway Police on UK roads.


Paul W. H
 
You really want somewhere near the top of an uphill section, they'll be going slower and be more spread out. Forget Holme Moss though it will be rammed up there.

Alternatively a town with a lot of twisty turney sections for the same reasons but there will be more background clutter.

I'm planning Harewood House for the first stage and then a short run up to Harrogate to see the finish, then maybe Howarth for the second stage.

I went to Tonbridge Wells for the London stage and even though time-wise it was close to the race coming through, I had no trouble getting to it (from Gatwick) and getting a good place, just plan your routes so they don't cross the race route.
 
Im thinking of attending this myself as its just down the road from me (about 3 miles). Some good advice on here.
 
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So i took your advice and went and practised panning shots on Sunday, i had great fun snapping the many motorcyclists, not sure what they thought of me :D anyway i thought i'd share the results, and would be grateful for any hints tips or critique.
I shot around 1/100th for the motorbikes and the peddle bikes around 1/60th, i did have some trouble with exposure as i was in a shaded spot but my subjects were travelling into a sunny spot and became over exposed, not really sure what metering mode to go for??
 
Good start..

Looks like some more practice on panning technique would come in handy. Tuck your elbows in, swivel from the waist/hips and concentrate on keeping the object in the same position in the frame. Turn off IS too. Use the surface of the road to set the exposure, it does a pretty good job of resembling a grey card. Also worth considering which focus point you need to use and whether it's worth manually focusing on the the road and use that setting for the pans..

Keep going..
 
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Very much looking forward to the Tour coming to York, I'm not looking to pan, just freeze the action. I have a couple of locations in mind and will be there early.
 
They are tough to photograph when riding past at close quarters. They are past in a flash. I'd think about trying for interesting framing from further away, possibly from somewhere higher up, or shooting through foreground obstacles or with interesting background for a more interesting composition. The sunflower shot is the cliche, but that's the idea. Look at Graham Watson's work. These are from a couple of years ago...

DSC_0173 by winkyintheuk, on Flickr

DSC_0251 by winkyintheuk, on Flickr

DSC_0168 by winkyintheuk, on Flickr

DSC_0040 by winkyintheuk, on Flickr
 
those are very nice images Neil, i would like to get a high vantage point so i think i'll have to go for a drive and see what i can find en route. the panning thing seems to be a bit hit and miss with me so maybe i should think a bit more creative or do the freeze action thing. :)
 
GeeJay57 said:
Good start..

Looks like some more practice on panning technique would come in handy. Tuck your elbows in, swivel from the waist/hips and concentrate on keeping the object in the same position in the frame. Turn off IS too. Use the surface of the road to set the exposure, it does a pretty good job of resembling a grey card. Also worth considering which focus point you need to use and whether it's worth manually focusing on the the road and use that setting for the pans..

Keep going..
Click to expand...

ah ok didn't think about turning IS off, i might try and go to the Velodrome this weekend for a bit of practice, thanks for the tips i'll try them out too:)

I have just noticed my typo too in the thread title "Tour Dr France" not quite right, cant even blame my phone:mad: Maybe a kind mod would change that to tour de france for me please(y)
 
I did notice but didn't want to be picky, I use my iPhone quite a bit and my typos run into 100s, it does annoy me though when I make them. Can't be a hypocrite !
 
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