Mountain Bike Race - Barjarg

[PiroStitch]

G'day everyone,

Finally managed to upload them. I took too many photos over the weekend and had so much fun dealing with them.

Here a few of the pics

















Check out the rest of the gallery.

http://www.digifocal.com/pub_photos/rockymt/

As usual, C&C would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers,

Wayne

[Alpha_7]

Some great shots Wayne, none as good as your POTY (you've set a high standard) but still awesome. The have the technique down pat, almost makes me feed giddy the motion blur on some of these shots. Excellent stuff.

[Mal]

I actually feel motion sickness looking at those pictures. Great stuff. Love the sharpness and the eyes of the riders. Great work

[Technik]

great action photos! brilliant stuff #3 is the best IMO.

May I ask what shutter speeds you were using to take these photos?

[greencardigan]

Great shots!! I love number 6. And the last one makes my eyes go all stupid.

What was the event by the way?

[baboo]

Hey Wayne, great shots. Can I ask which lens u used?

[Willigan]

Great shots mate - the eyes in 3 are excellent & the blur in the last one draws me to the rider's eyes. You've got this stuff down to a tee.

[ABG]

Great series of action shots Wayne. As previously said, your ability to convey speed in an image is outstanding. As the EXIF isn't embedded in your images, could you share with me what shutter speed you're using (as a rough guide) and what power setting you have your flash on?

[Alex]

Great shots as usual, Wayne. Some really nice and sharp action shots.

Alex

[PiroStitch]

Thanks for the comments everyone. So many viewed but so little comments Hope I didn't make people nauseous and throw up Should've put a *Puke warning* on it....

Craig, thanks mate - I'm still not quite sure why that captivated a lot of ppl yet other ones didn't...

Thanks Mal - I try to make sure the person's eyes and face is the sharpest to show how hard it is to race on these tracks.

Technik and ABG - I was hovering around 1/100 and 1/125 with ISO at 200 and aperture also hovering b/ween 5.6 and 7.1. Some parts of the track were a bit darker 'cos of cloud cover and sometimes the sun decided to play peek-a-boo. I used the SB800 on manual setting - 1/4 power and during overcast I pumped it up 2/3+

Greencardigan - I try to make as many people sick as possible The event was a downhill mountain bike race in Barjarg, Vic (it's about 20 mins from Mansfield).

Baboo - I used the kit lens believe it or not

Alex - Thanks mate

[baboo]

Wayne, there's absolutely nothing wrong with the kit lens. I actually use that lens the most out of all the other lenses I have. I gotta say, it's one of my favourite.

[Jeff]

Great shots as usual my favorite is No 4
Thanks for sharing

[O1]

Pirostitch

A few questions if I may as I am fascinated and impressed with the shots that you are producing.

I do not look to question the authenticity of the shots but more so look for explanation for some technical details that I cannot understand and have tried and failed to reproduce.

As you have mentioned you are using a relatively slow shutter speed. The thing that I , and others, cannot understand is how the spokes on the bike are so sharp.

Why in some areas of the shots there seems to be motion blur and not in others.

Is there something special that you are doing with Flash ?

How you have managed to get the rider /bike/ cogs/ spokes so sharp with such a shutter speed. Is it the perfect pan and if so how many shots do you take to produce these few shots.

Discussions between a number of photographers and myself have resulted in the suggestion that motion blur in PP has been used on some of these shots. Is this the case?

I am asking these questions in admiration of the work that you are producing and in the hope that you will reveal the method you are using so I may replicate it at the motoX this weekend.

Thanks and regards

Owen Fielding

[PiroStitch]

Owen,

No offense taken mate Actually I'm humbled by your comments.

All the shots are straight from the camera with minimal PP - all I do now is adjust shadow and highlight + curves if required. I'd still be working on the images if I attempted to photoshop the background blurs. Also the blurs in p/shop wouldn't look authentic. It'd be too uniformed, while some of the pics the blurs have patterns in them due to panning "technique" (otherwise known as me slipping on the track).

Basically you've mentioned my method in a nutshell - pan the subject. This is my 4th race, and while I'm hardly an expert at this sort of photography I'm beginning to get the hang of it in terms of preparation. I reduce the shutter speed to around 1/100 or 1/125 on fast sections and on slower sections down to around 1/50 or 1/60. All I do with the flash is set it to rear curtain instead of front sync. This way the flash goes off at the end of the pan, thus "freezing" and capturing the final moment of that jump/turn/crash.

I hope my explanation was correct If anybody else thinks differently, feel free to rip it to shreds. I can work out how to do things and when it comes to explaining it, it takes a while before I can put my crazy methods into words

[Slider]

Great shots. Number 3 is my pick. The rider really has the eyes on

[O1]

Pirsostitch
Thanks for you explanation and and my post was intended as a genuine compliment for your work.

I still do not understand how the rear curtain flash has managed to freeze the spokes on the bikes. Is this a result of something that I dont understand about rear curtain flash , if so ,Please help me to understand.

The reason for my participation in these forums is to abate my curiosity, learn , and move onto the next level. Can you please help

Kind regards

Owen Fielding

[PiroStitch]

G'day Owen,

That's cool mate I took it as a compliment anyway. I believe that if someone believes you photoshopped something because they can't believe it's done in camera, you're on the right track

From my understanding, front curtain sync flashes the moment the shutter is open and rear sync flashes just before the shutter closes. So with my settings of 1/100, the following scenario would happen:

Front sync//
* Shutter opens - 0s
* Flash immediately when shutter opens
* Pan to follow object
* Shutter closes - 1/100s

Rear sync//
* Shutter opens - 0s
* Pref-flash immediately when shutter opens
* Pan to follow object
* Flash just before shutter closes
* Shutter closes - 1/100s

Rear sync will freeze the final motion before the shutter closes, so in this case it would capture the rider, spokes, etc up sharply.

Once again, that's from my limited understanding so hopefully somebody else will be able to correct me if i'm completely off.

[O1]

Pirostitch
I must confess to still being in awe of your methods and results.
I could not understand what the difference between front and rear
Curtain would be at that shutter speed. If there is someone on the forum who can explain why rear curtain freezes action better than front I would appreciate it. I can sort of understand how it might with no ambient light but with daylight kicking around it is my understanding that the shutter is open for the same amount of time and the flash is exposing for the same amount of time??

I did not get a chance to do the motox today but did have a play in the backyard panning my young son running along.

No difference between front and back curtain flash. All shots were soft and orrible.

Any help/suggestion as to what I am doing wrong would be greatly appreciated.

Kind regards

Owen Fielding

I

[Hybrid]

Nice shots Wayne! My vote also goes for #3 as the pick since it is the "cleanest" looking shot (no trees in awkward positions) and the rider's eyes are great. The rear curtain flash is a nice effect that you've mastered well. The only pity about some of these shots is the white tape along the side but there's nothing you can do about that...

Cheers,

Stephen

[Hybrid]

I can sort of understand how it might with no ambient light but with daylight kicking around it is my understanding that the shutter is open for the same amount of time and the flash is exposing for the same amount of time??

Hi Owen,

I'm no expert on these things but from what I've read, the flash duration is usually very short (like 1/10,000s and faster). So the flash is only firing for a fraction of the shutter opening (this also is the reason flash sync speeds are usually quite limited but I won't go into that here). When the flash fires on the front curtain, is the strongest light source and therefore lays down a strong image on the sensor. As the shutter stays open, more ambient light is hitting the sensor and combining with the recorded light from the flash. The image captured from the ambient light is weak and blurry and it effectively sits over the top of the flashed image to give you a soft looking shot at the end. With rear curtain, the same blur is laid down but this time it is first and then the flash fires a quick pop right at the end and freezes the subject's image on top.

I hope that makes some sense...

I did not get a chance to do the motox today but did have a play in the backyard panning my young son running along.

No difference between front and back curtain flash. All shots were soft and orrible.

Any help/suggestion as to what I am doing wrong would be greatly appreciated.

What shutter speeds were you using? Unless you were using at least 1/30s or 1/60s and your son can run really, really fast, I wouldn't expect you to get good results. In my experience it is hard to pan things that are moving slowly (relatively speaking). With slow moving things it is much harder to get a smooth and steady pan. You might also want to check your focusing and make sure that was locked on (try AF-C).

Cheers,

Stephen

[wendellt]

fabulous wayne you have captured the dynamism of your subject masterfully. I can see you have mastered your pannign technique

[O1]

Hybrid
Thanks for your explanation.
I am going to think about it and try a few things before I respond on a technical level.

This is one of those things that is stuck in my brain and until I fully understand it I will not be happy.

Kind regards

Owen Fielding