Guidance for action photos

[patmoore]

Yesterday I took a number of shots of a bike race in Massachusetts. It was a drizzly and gloomy day and I parked myself under a beach umbrella to keep my gear dry. For many of the shots I used a Tamron 300 mm lens on my Canon EOS XSi with the sports setting. I'd fire off as many shots per second as I could but it was difficult to focus with the riders coming at me a 25 mph.



For this shot I set the shutter at 1/30 second and panned. The effect wasn't what I expected but I don't dislike it. Can you folks offer any advice for shots like these?

[Patrick]

Re: Guidance for action photos

Yesterday I took a number of shots of a bike race in Massachusetts. It was a drizzly and gloomy day and I parked myself under a beach umbrella to keep my gear dry. For many of the shots I used a Tamron 300 mm lens on my Canon EOS XSi with the sports setting. I'd fire off as many shots per second as I could but it was difficult to focus with the riders coming at me a 25 mph.



For this shot I set the shutter at 1/30 second and panned. The effect wasn't what I expected but I don't dislike it. Can you folks offer any advice for shots like these?

If you want sharp images the old fashioned none tech way may prove more successful. That is turn off your auto focus and pre-focus. That is select and focus on a point you know where the riders will pass. As they reach this point take your pictures. set the camera to shutter priority with a higher shutter speed, with a 300 mm that is at least 1/300 sec i would advise 1/600 at least, a higher ISO will help depending on the available light. With practice and that's the other word of advise practice, practice and practice. Sports photography is not easy, so the more you learn the better you will get and the higher number of successful shots.
I personally do not like camera modes, preferring to make my own decisions.

I do like the slow shutter speed picture, that is one of the techniques you can learn more about. If I was to criticise the picture I would say you should have captured it with them coming toward the camera, and into the picture rather than out of the picture, but that's a subjective opinion.
The group picture I find confusing, better to look for gaps so its possible to pick out smaller groups of riders three always works, or at least odd numbers. Also look out for opportunities to photograph individual riders, getting in close to show the effort and strain on their faces.

Patrick

[patmoore]

Re: Guidance for action photos

Thank you Patrick! It would not have occurred to me to try manual focus and increase the shutter speed. I'll try it at our next bike ride. Here are a couple more from Saturday.





I put together a video of the event combining still shots, camcorder footage and some GoPro footage. A young recording artist friend gave me permission to use one of his songs as a soundtrack.

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4gxK67Sa_B8"]Video[/ame]

[devilgas]

[patmoore]

Re: Guidance for action photos

hi pat,

with the slow shutter speed, i'd suggest that something needs to be sharp and unblurred. when i photo downhill mtb events, i'll usually use off camera, 2nd curtain flash, with the camera manually set to underexpose the available light shot by ½ to 1½ stops. this means i can get the bike & rider sharp, with the background nicely blurred. there's an example shot hiding in my gallery (not shown here as don't want to detract from what you've posted).

It always helps to see examples. Is this the photo you're mentioned? It's terrific and helps me understand what you've been saying.



The other shots you couldn't see were hosted by TinyPic.com as I didn't want to clutter up my DPNow gallery too much. I just uploaded them to my gallery and converted one to BW. It still isn't in as sharp a focus as I'd like.

[devilgas]

Re: Guidance for action photos

yup, that was the one. only editing was boosting saturation and cropping. i had the strobe unit strapped to a tree (which is why there are dark bits behind the wheels - the shadow of the wheel against the background trees from the flash) but was using some radio triggers that didn't fire 100% of the time.

i like the b&w one, but again, the guy in focus is just about to leave the frame so it leaves the image unbalanced and claustrophobic. if the guy in the dark helmet were the centre of focus, this'd be a really cool image. i have similar shots on my www that deal with this 'problem' and the easiest to equate it to is shooting a rugby lineout - http://www.devilgas.com/viewImageBig...12&i=rh12_0287
i have isolation on one player, but he's not tight against the edge of the frame.

i like the shot with the video camera, but would be tempted to crop a little bit off the bottom - at least as far as the shiny reflection bits on the tripod, maybe going as far as a 16:9 ratio as per the video camera?

[Ian]

Re: Guidance for action photos

This is a very nice thread - well done folks!

Here's one of mine from last year - Pentax K-30 and exposed at 1/13th second:



Ian

[devilgas]

Re: Guidance for action photos

that works perfectly ian. lots of space for the guy to ride into and his head is pin sharp.

[patmoore]

Re: Guidance for action photos

I'm learning a lot! Can't wait to get another chance to try the focussing suggestions. I took a lot of shots but none had the sharp focus of Ian's shot. I tried experimenting with PhotoShop this morning and used the Adjust Sharpness/Radius Tool to get this effect. I then applied a little Gaussian Blur to the two riders in the background. I still wish the lead rider was sharper but I like that he's looking intently at the camera.



Here's another effect I'd like to achieve. I couldn't upload it to my gallery as I didn't take it. Someone else took it of me at a ski race and I like the blurring effect. I've never been able to replicate a shot like it.

[Ian]

Re: Guidance for action photos

I pre-focused too, Pat - from my long time experience of photographing motorsport but not the same high standards as Dave of course!

Ian

[patmoore]

Re: Guidance for action photos

Couple more.

The first is busy and has too many riders but the expression on the guy on the left was too good to pass up.



This young lady sure caught my attention on a descent. My body doesn't bend that much! I bumped up the saturation. Too much?



And lastly, here's a link to some of my other sports photos. I'd love some input as to how I could improve them. The bike wheels shot was picked as Kodak's Photo of the Day a couple years ago and featured on the jumbotron screen at Times Square. I'm having fun trying to be creative but I'm self taught and my "instructor" has run out of experience.....

[devilgas]

Re: Guidance for action photos

hi pat, not a fan of the 2 b&w ones as they look too contrasty and excessively USM'd (seen in the black halo around the light bits of the riders). agree about the expression! don't agree about it being too busy. it gives a nice claustrophobic feel and accurately reflects what i think it'd be like being in a pelaton.

i do like the last one as, whilst there is little space for her to ride into, the inclusion of the other riders gives a hunted down feeling.

the shot of you racing would be great if the shot had been accurately tracked on your head/torso instead of your left hand. i know it's not easy doing that, but when doing slow shutter speed sports photos, machine gunning is king. you usually get 1 keeper out of a series. it's not impossible to get it in just 1 shot - the panning technique needs to be totally nailed.
i'll try and dig out some comparable shots and some failures to try to show what i mean.

[devilgas]

Re: Guidance for action photos

Inot the same high standards as Dave of course!

Ian

ha! if only!!

[Patrick]

Re: Guidance for action photos

hi pat, not a fan of the 2 b&w ones as they look too contrasty and excessively USM'd (seen in the black halo around the light bits of the riders). agree about the expression! don't agree about it being too busy. it gives a nice claustrophobic feel and accurately reflects what i think it'd be like being in a pelaton.

i do like the last one as, whilst there is little space for her to ride into, the inclusion of the other riders gives a hunted down feeling.

the shot of you racing would be great if the shot had been accurately tracked on your head/torso instead of your left hand. i know it's not easy doing that, but when doing slow shutter speed sports photos, machine gunning is king. you usually get 1 keeper out of a series. it's not impossible to get it in just 1 shot - the panning technique needs to be totally nailed.
i'll try and dig out some comparable shots and some failures to try to show what i mean.

If a little critical advise in order I would agree about the B/W, I would also say the colour shot is a little over saturated and the contrast is also to high, in my opinion.

Patrick

[devilgas]

Re: Guidance for action photos

I'd love some input as to how I could improve them. The bike wheels shot was picked as Kodak's Photo of the Day a couple years ago and featured on the jumbotron screen at Times Square. I'm having fun trying to be creative but I'm self taught and my "instructor" has run out of experience.....

apologies if i'm taking this back to basics too much, but the first thing any sport photographer must learn is how to accurately pan with the action.
elbows need to be close in to the chest for support with your body directly facing where you intend to take the shot. twist from the hips and follow the subject as it passes, taking the photo at the right time (or machine gun it ), smoothly following the subject as it passes. it is vitally important that you pan with the person, preferably the head, being in the same place in the frame.

start with fast shutter speeds, then as your panning technique improves, move onto slower and slower shutter speeds. image stabilisation (vertical axis!) can help, however all of my decent glass doesn't have this as i deemed it unnecessary.

also start taking shots perpendicular to the subject as this makes things easier for focussing and virtually eliminates parallax (?) distortion. it also gives you good panning practice.

when you've nailed this, and it doesn't take long, practice taking shots at an angle to the subject, then getting closer and using a wider lens. you'll then get to see the effect of parallax distortion and start challenging the focussing on your system.

if the focus is slow on your camera, pre-focus on a particular point and flick into manual if necessary. take the shot as the subject hits your chosen point. panning is still needed - you start slower, but need to pan faster as the subject approaches.

typically the framing should allow the subject space to move into - that is, there is more space in front of them than behind them.

you should also be aiming for a degree of background motion blur. this conveys movement rather than a 'car park' shot. the amount of background blur depends on your shutter speed and the speed of your subject. e.g. when shooting F1 in valencia, i initially tried a shutter speed of 1/160s which was WAY too slow for a car moving past me at close on 200 mph. i started at 1/800s, eventually moving down to 1/200s as i got used to the speed

finally, getting to know your sport helps. being able to anticipate what your subject is likely to do helps a lot. with motorsport, i choose locations where the car can: get airborne, get sideways, show it's unbalanced, crash - basically getting dynamism into a still photo. this thinking gets applied to all other sports i shoot.

easiest thing to practice on is something that involves your subjects doing laps - be that racing cars, runners, cyclists etc as then you get LOTS of opportunity to get the shot and to play with settings and different vantage points.



once you've got that lot dialled in, you can then start playing with 1st & 2nd curtain flash, off camera flash, multi flash setups etc - THEN, it gets exciting!



apologies if it's too 'teaching granny to suck eggs', but this isn't directed at you pat, just sports photography in general.