Are These Images Marketable?

imax

Took these on Sunday at a Motocross Park near my house. I am thinking about approaching both the park and the riders to see if they would be interested in purchasing images like this. Anyone have experience in this arena?


















Thanks for any thoughts you might have.

wxwax

It's done all the time. As for whether or not they're marketable... if someone will buy one, then the answer is yes. The marketplace at work!

evil eggplant

sure
The third shot, with the bike in the air against a light blue sky would do well. The image is somewhat offset, leaving room for text. The background is light, which will allow text to be easy to be seen.

A good stock image.

Because of the cluttered backgrounds, the remaining image will have less value to designers.

Take care

mercphoto

imax wrote:

Took these on Sunday at a Motocross Park near my house. I am thinking about approaching both the park and the riders to see if they would be interested in purchasing images like this. Anyone have experience in this arena?

I've done the same thing you're about to do. Its worth doing.

Image 1: yes

Image 2: too dark. Composition is fine, but you need to fire a strong flash unit.

Image 3: too dark. Ditto again on the flash unit. Flash is particularly important on jump shots when you are shooting up into the sky. The rider is literally shadowed by the sun.

Image 4: yes.

Image 5: crop, then yes. Preferably zoom.

Image 6: yes.

mercphoto

One more bit of advice. A few weeks ago I was second-camera at a dirt bike race. His best advice to me was to fire my flash (580EX) on every single shot I took. It really brings out the detail and softens the shadows. Much preferable over post-processing when you consider how many shots you will take at a race.

On my 20D/580EX combo I found the best was to have the flash head pointed straight ahead, with -2/3 FEC dialed in. Large-fine JPG, Parameters 1. I'm tempted to max out the in-camera sharpening next time. YMMV.

Flash: it's not just for night time anymore.

imax

evil eggplant wrote:

The third shot, with the bike in the air against a light blue sky would do well. The image is somewhat offset, leaving room for text. The background is light, which will allow text to be easy to be seen.

A good stock image.

Because of the cluttered backgrounds, the remaining image will have less value to designers.

Take care

As wxwax said

"if someone will buy one, then the answer is yes"

I just got off the phone with the owner of the track. Apparently my timing is good because they just reopened after a 4 month layoff. Anyway the idea that I pitched appealed to him so I'm sending him over these images plus some others.

When I said marketable, I meant to the owner of the track for use on his website, and for the riders themselves. I was not thinking outside of that area. But since you have brought it up, let's discuss it. In the 3rd image that you mentioned would a release from the rider be needed? Or in that case would a release be needed from any of the riders if you could not identify them? Thanks for taking the time.

Joe

mercphoto

Two more bits of advice. A few weeks ago I was second-camera at a dirt bike race. His best advice to me was to fire my flash (580EX) on every single shot I took. It really brings out the detail and softens the shadows. Much preferable over post-processing when you consider how many shots you will take at a race.

On my 20D/580EX combo I found the best was to have the flash head pointed straight ahead, with -2/3 FEC dialed in. Large-fine JPG, Parameters 1. I'm tempted to max out the in-camera sharpening next time. YMMV.

Flash: it's not just for night time anymore.

Last advice: shutter speeds. Take a bulk at 1/640. Then start slowing the shutter down and panning with the bikes. You can get very dramatic with shutters as low as 1/60 with practice. But if you notice, your tires are perfectly stopped. You can see individual spokes. You can probably judge tire wear. You want a touch of motion in the tires to imply motion.

BBones

Yeah, definately slow down that shutter. On the track, we call that "bluescreening someone"....at least at PR we do. Makes it look like someone just got on a staged object and you took the pic. Your pics ARE good

ysr612

mercphoto wrote:

Two more bits of advice. A few weeks ago I was second-camera at a dirt bike race. His best advice to me was to fire my flash (580EX) on every single shot I took. It really brings out the detail and softens the shadows. Much preferable over post-processing when you consider how many shots you will take at a race.

On my 20D/580EX combo I found the best was to have the flash head pointed straight ahead, with -2/3 FEC dialed in. Large-fine JPG, Parameters 1. I'm tempted to max out the in-camera sharpening next time. YMMV.

Flash: it's not just for night time anymore.

Last advice: shutter speeds. Take a bulk at 1/640. Then start slowing the shutter down and panning with the bikes. You can get very dramatic with shutters as low as 1/60 with practice. But if you notice, your tires are perfectly stopped. You can see individual spokes. You can probably judge tire wear. You want a touch of motion in the tires to imply motion.

was that digital rage (Tim) that gave that advice. He shoots great shots and gave me the same advice about the flash.