Improving my MX shots....

Huzband

What do I need to do to make these better?

Roof of truck needs to be out of this one, but I don't have Photoshop. What else?



Tighter composition?



I like a lot about this one, but I wonder if it's a bit under-exposed.



Off-road & MX is where my heart is, so I really want to make it as good as possible.

I'm a perfectionist, so be as specific as possible.

Thanks for your help.

mercphoto

Huzband wrote:

Roof of truck needs to be out of this one, but I don't have Photoshop. What else?

Change your shooting location or shooting angle to make your backgrounds better before you hit the shutter button. If you had been a bit lower, for example, that truck would start to disappear behind the hill. Or, move a bit to your left. Or just choose a different corner.

Tighter composition?

I would. Consider even shooting portrait orientation, and getting a touch of ground in the bottom of the frame, to show the height the rider is reaching.

jstpeter

I agree change location. This is what hurt you in most of the shots. Sports Photography by most is considered a form of photojournalism. If you start using photoshop to remove items yout time as a sports photgrapher may be limited. Changing your shooting location would have removed the distrating background elements like the house and truck

tdinardo

As Bill and JSTPeter said, change your location for clean backgrounds. If you can't get a clean background, minimize the damage with a shallower DOF. As Bill pointed out, shoot lower if you have no other options.

Get the exposure right in camera or at least fix it in post. Use the histogram to dial things in. All of these shots look underexposed to me.

For air shots make sure you have something in frame to give reference to the height/distance of the jump. IMO, a bike in mid-air without a frame of reference just doesn't work.

Try to get the focus a little tighter. Hard to tell for sure with the size you posted, but some of them look a little soft. Don't know what you're using to do your post with, but if you're not using a bit of unsharp mask, you should try that too.

Huzband

tdinardo wrote:

Don't know what you're using to do your post with, but if you're not using a bit of unsharp mask, you should try that too.

Huh?

Clearly I have a lot of work to do, perhaps even more than I thought.

But that's why I posted the question, isn't it?

Thanks for all the input. I'll get to work on it.

munmi

I usually prefer to see the rider coming into the image, not leaving it as in #1 and #2. The change of location as other have suggested would cure this too.

mercphoto

Huzband wrote:

Huh?

I'm assuming by that remark that you're doing no post processing to your images. Correct? The camera is "only the beginning" my friend:
http://web.mac.com/mercphoto/iWeb/Site/Mercury%20Photography%20Blog/5CBAB769-B04B-496D-B9B4-CC53C4CFC285.html

Huzband

I'm assuming by that remark that you're doing no post processing to your images. Correct?

Correctamundo.

mercphoto

Huzband wrote:

Correctamundo.

Post-processing will be one of those things to learn to make your images as good as they can get.

scottcolbath

Clean your camera's sensor and/or lens. I also agree about with the others about your choice of location.



S.C.