[toots]

Hi Folks,

As a keen photographer this was my first time pointing a camera at trials riders. These were taken from my seat at Sheffield.

Are there any more experienced trials photographers out there who can critique these of Dougie, Adam and Fuji and give advice?

Cheers

Neil

This post has been edited by toots: 18 March 2009 - 11:58 AM

[Lee Harris]

Yeah I think dougie needed a higher gear and fuji wasnt leaning back enough.......


great pictures, no faulting them!

thanks

lee

This post has been edited by Lee Harris: 18 March 2009 - 04:17 PM

[tombo46]

love them. the only bit of critique i can find is something i see in lots of photo's. I always think they look better when you can see the whole obsticle they are going over. looks much more impressive.

but obviously you lose out on the close up, would be cool to incorporate both into 1 photo!

to have taken them from your seat is a very good job, keep it up =]

and if you ever fancy coming and taking some pictures im free most sunday's

but dont expect anything spectacular (other than falling off....)

All the best

Tom

[copemech]

Sweet, must hav some good glass! Specs?

[Bentspoke]

Very nice,
Sharp too tell me, on the last shot there appears to be vignetting, have you done this with post processing?
Or is a result of the camera lens being offered upto another lens?

[toots]

Taken on a Nikon D300 with a Sigma 70-200 2.8 lens. The vignette was post processing and an attempt at removing distraction from the edges of the frame. Looking again I am not sure it has worked and may have been better left alone!

[Bentspoke]

It's subjective,
Nothing wrong with it, I was just curious,
I do quite a bit of digiscoping with a Leica APO77mm Televid and Nikon P5100
this arrangement needs careful alignment to avoid Vignetting, that's why I was intrigued.

BTT, there is no substitute for F2.8 when it comes down to indoor work and I gather the D300 has a good low noise sensor well useable at high ISO.
(Nikon finally caught up and perhaps overtook Canon with this)

If these were taken with the lens wide open then you must have been some distance away as the background is not completley blown right out of focus,
I like the second shot best, the bike really "pops out" of the picture.

This post has been edited by Bentspoke: 19 March 2009 - 01:38 PM

[toots]

Just checked the metadata and it was wide open at 2.8, but only at the 70mm end of the zoom range. Exposure was 1/320th with no flash.

[copemech]

Agreed, love it!

I gotta see if I can get one of them for the D-40! I know it will require a larger bum bag, or another one just for it! Tradeoff though, I hate feeling like too much of a pack mule trying to ride with the gear, and still protect it in the case of a fall. Another reason I cannot really support the added flash units, must rely upon ambient light and short range built in flash if needed. Seems that Sigma really works!

[toots]

Yes, I agree, the 70-200 is a hefty old beast but gives some great results. I think I would just get a cover all 18-200mm to carry on the bike and sacrifice some Max aperture, size, weight and cost so I could feel better about having an off! I have seen some fantastic motorbike photography using flash, especially as fill - but so far I have enough to think about with composition and motion! I think I will try some flash work out and re-post for advice here.

I agree with Tom that I have to get more of the section in with these top riders to show the real drama. Oddly it is the opposite with my riding - often better to see just a bit and hope people presume it is dramatic!

Thanks for the comments folks.

[ageing]

i'm no photographer but i'd say these are damn good.

[Slapshot 3]

toots, on Mar 22 2009, 07:20 PM, said:

Yes, I agree, the 70-200 is a hefty old beast but gives some great results. I think I would just get a cover all 18-200mm to carry on the bike and sacrifice some Max aperture, size, weight and cost so I could feel better about having an off! I have seen some fantastic motorbike photography using flash, especially as fill - but so far I have enough to think about with composition and motion! I think I will try some flash work out and re-post for advice here.

I agree with Tom that I have to get more of the section in with these top riders to show the real drama. Oddly it is the opposite with my riding - often better to see just a bit and hope people presume it is dramatic!

Thanks for the comments folks.

Good images interesting editing.

You don't have to go all out to get the specific obstacle in, I always think that's down to personal choice. I find it's more important to get the bike sharp and some sense of motion in the pics. If you look through the threads you'll see the bike is the key to it motion and emotion. if you can get in close, real close then you can take exceptional images that capture that little bit of something special that gives you a real essence of the sport.

The Sigma 70-200 lens is superb but it's a heavy old bugger, (certainly not one you'd want to carry on the bike Copey). Get in close if you can and use shorter focal lengths...that would be my tuppence worth