Tour de Millersburg 09

Gary752

Shots from Saturday morning Time Trials and afternoon Criteriums.

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The rest can be seen here. Thanks for looking, and as always C&C welcomed!

GaryB

dejan80501

Not sure what your EXIF data per photo was. In general, composition is good. Seems like you images need more sharpness. Try Aperture Priority with shutter speeds between 800 to 1200. Images appear a little overexposed. I often use center weighted metering if the rider is coming right at me. Criteriums with high noon sun and shaded spots are very tricky to shoot, leading to VERY high contrasts, blowingout highlights, like the white side panels of shorts or numbers. Shoot RAW, too...Just IMHO. Thanks for sharing!

budman101

Looks like you had a good time. I was looking to shoot that race but vacation was late this year. Like dejan said races in open sunlight are a bear to get right. If you have an accessory flash with a high speed snych mode, use it on the close shots. This will help open up the shadows for a more balanced exposure. Also if you have Lightroom, the Fill Light and Recovery sliders will be your best friend to help open up some of the shadows. Photoshop Elements has a similar function in its Develop menu. Getting down lower will eliminate some of the background clutter. Most the shots I like are usually taken with me sitting or even laying on the grass as the riders pass.
The only thing I would disagree on is setting a high shutter speed. You are trying to convey the idea of motion so some wheel blur makes for a stronger shot. Set your shutter speed to about 1/400-1/500th of a second with the AF mode on continuous (or get real good with MF). Pan with the riders while firing off short bursts. Eventually you will get good enough with panning that you can drop the shutter speed down to 1/250 or less for some really nice effects. Usually I shoot sports in high quality .jpg so my buffer does not choke while writing files to the card.

Gary752

dejan80501 wrote:

Not sure what your EXIF data per photo was. In general, composition is good. Seems like you images need more sharpness. Try Aperture Priority with shutter speeds between 800 to 1200. Images appear a little overexposed. I often use center weighted metering if the rider is coming right at me. Criteriums with high noon sun and shaded spots are very tricky to shoot, leading to VERY high contrasts, blowingout highlights, like the white side panels of shorts or numbers. Shoot RAW, too...Just IMHO. Thanks for sharing!

Thanks for the reply dejan. The shots for the crits were shot at the top of a hill, that was completely open (no shade what so ever) and you were right with your assumption as to the time of day. It was right around noon when those were shot. I should have moved down the hill a little further, but I wanted to try and get some facial espressions at the top after that long climb up the hill. As it turned out, most of these guys were in great shape, and it didn't bother them all that much. There was one guy that would joke with security as he approched them, by saying, "Are we done yet?" Anyway, I ended up having to leave that area to get some more water, as I ran out. It was extremely hot that day!

GaryB

Gary752

budman101 wrote:

Looks like you had a good time. I was looking to shoot that race but vacation was late this year. Like dejan said races in open sunlight are a bear to get right. If you have an accessory flash with a high speed snych mode, use it on the close shots. This will help open up the shadows for a more balanced exposure. Also if you have Lightroom, the Fill Light and Recovery sliders will be your best friend to help open up some of the shadows. Photoshop Elements has a similar function in its Develop menu. Getting down lower will eliminate some of the background clutter. Most the shots I like are usually taken with me sitting or even laying on the grass as the riders pass.
The only thing I would disagree on is setting a high shutter speed. You are trying to convey the idea of motion so some wheel blur makes for a stronger shot. Set your shutter speed to about 1/400-1/500th of a second with the AF mode on continuous (or get real good with MF). Pan with the riders while firing off short bursts. Eventually you will get good enough with panning that you can drop the shutter speed down to 1/250 or less for some really nice effects. Usually I shoot sports in high quality .jpg so my buffer does not choke while writing files to the card.

Hi Joe! Thanks for the comments, and wish you could have been there. It would have been nice to have met you face to face. I tried some panning, but the course for the crits was very tight! The crits were run on the streets in town, and the widest part of the course was the up hill, which was the slowest part of the race. The last few that I posted was taken from a spot where I found some badly needed shade to cool off a bit. I sat down, and leaned up against a stop sign post in a way so I could sorta pan, but since the street was so narrow, I decided on close-ups instead. Oooh, btw, I shot in RAW, with AF on continuous. I think I had the metering set to spot as well. I would have posted the EXIF info, but it seems my water marking software is stripping it. I wish there was a way to add the text water mark in Light Room! Anyway, hopefull, next year you will be able to make it to the Millersburg race!

Are there any races close by, between Sept 3rd and the 13th?

GaryB