Photographing the Boston Marathon

[brucehughw]

Hi, all.
Tomorrow I will be photographing the Boston Marathon, probably using my 70-300 mm for all of it. Sunny weather forecast. With thousands of runners, I'll have many opportunities to experiment. Also, I'll be a few miles away from the finish line, away from the massive crowds.

The wheel chair racers will come first. I think they move about 18-20 kmh. I'd like to capture them with blurry spoked wheels, to give a sense of motion. A group of Kenyans will follow. They are fast, sub 5-minute miles.

Any suggestions for settings for wheelchair racers or runners?

Thanks, Bruce

[Shadowman]

Hi Bruce,

Hopefully this isn't your first action shot scenario, to blur you'll need a slow shutter speed. Prepare to work on timing as the action will involve the motion of participants arms, the wheel sprockets, and to get a reasonably interesting photograph; you'll need to get a reasonably in focused shot of the individual's torso and face.

[george013]

For what the wheels concerns you must find out yourself. Start with 1/60 and watch the picture. There might be a difference between the different angles and how big the wheels are on the sensor. A more frame filling wheel will give more blur as a same wheel filling the frame less. I think it also includes you must do some panning.
And what Shadowman said, anticipate on the action.
For the other runners just a high shutter speed.
George

[brucehughw]

Thanks for the suggestions. I've shot plenty of track meets (daughters) and know what works well with runners. Panning is tricky (will try it after the elite pack passes). I think I'll set up at the top of a hill and see more of the effort when they pass. I'll try the 1/60 with the spokes -- that's really the one where I never shot. We live close to the route, and I might have my son pass by the house on his bike and I'll get a sense what will work from photographing that. I'll post a couple here after the race.

[Dave Humphries]

Hi Bruce,

A couple of theoretical thoughts;
i) Do you know if the wheel chairs will even have spokes? These days, I thought racing chairs had 'composite' disk filled wheels, for lower aerodynamic drag.
ii) The top of the hill will mean low ground speed; yes, more strain showing on faces perhaps, but less speed on wheels or limbs.

I haven't shot such an event for many years though and even then, it was a conventional Triathlon, without wheelchair participants. I was lucky enough to be able to move about behind the barriers as crowds not too thick, allowing me to try several positions during the event.

Here's one shot you might like to try for: the classic Sunglasses reflection from June 2009.
Shot on Nikon D5000 at 200mm (FFE 300mm) 1/1500s, f/8, iso400.

Good luck, Dave

[Manfred M]

Bruce - I've played around with this technique of following a something with a slow shutter speed to provide a feeling of movement. I don't think I have practiced enough, because I have never been happy with my results, nor have I found that many images out there that work all that well, in my view. The ones I have been happier with are all a result of combining ambient light to show the motion and then freezing the figure with flash. That approach is definitely not going to work for you in this situation.

The images that came closest to working for me are the ones where the subject was more or less right angle to where I was shooting from, where I was essentially shooting on the plane that is in focus.

Expect to have a lot more failures than success with this technique, so try it lots, but don't use it for 100% of your shots. Try to get some "normal" shots as well. Make sure you set your camera on AF-C (continuous focus) when trying these action shots.

[brucehughw]

Hi, Dave.

Yes, I did notice that many if not most of the wheelchairs had composite wheels, or some sort of wrapping over the spokes. Despite this, the wrapping (or composite) usually had letters or some artwork, so that should show up blurred in the photos. I'll probably more around a little more next year and find some downhill spots, too. I live near mile 18, and there are plenty of gaps between viewers, so it's easy to get close to the action. I like your sunglasses shot. I did not even think of that. Hope to post a few soon.

Thanks, Bruce

Hi Bruce,

A couple of theoretical thoughts;
i) Do you know if the wheel chairs will even have spokes? These days, I thought racing chairs had 'composite' disk filled wheels, for lower aerodynamic drag.
ii) The top of the hill will mean low ground speed; yes, more strain showing on faces perhaps, but less speed on wheels or limbs.

I haven't shot such an event for many years though and even then, it was a conventional Triathlon, without wheelchair participants. I was lucky enough to be able to move about behind the barriers as crowds not too thick, allowing me to try several positions during the event.

Here's one shot you might like to try for: the classic Sunglasses reflection from June 2009.
Shot on Nikon D5000 at 200mm (FFE 300mm) 1/1500s, f/8, iso400.

Good luck, Dave

[brucehughw]

Hi, Manfred.

Thanks for the suggestions. I took both panning and high-speed shots, but haven't had a chance to view them. I know that panning is more misses than hits. Funny thing happened with the autofocus. The lead runners have very dark skin, and when I aimed at their faces the autofocus could not sense the contrast variation to set the focus. Next time I'll know to look for edges of their shirts (which are very bright). Hope to post soon.

Bruce

Bruce - I've played around with this technique of following a something with a slow shutter speed to provide a feeling of movement. I don't think I have practiced enough, because I have never been happy with my results, nor have I found that many images out there that work all that well, in my view. The ones I have been happier with are all a result of combining ambient light to show the motion and then freezing the figure with flash. That approach is definitely not going to work for you in this situation.

The images that came closest to working for me are the ones where the subject was more or less right angle to where I was shooting from, where I was essentially shooting on the plane that is in focus.

Expect to have a lot more failures than success with this technique, so try it lots, but don't use it for 100% of your shots. Try to get some "normal" shots as well. Make sure you set your camera on AF-C (continuous focus) when trying these action shots.

[george013]

Those dark skins can be a problem. Did you shoot with sun behind them? In PP dark skins can be difficult too. Quickly overdone.

George

[brucehughw]

Hi, George.

The sun was at about 2:00 (from the runners' perspective). So, no, it was not behind them.

Bruce

[brucehughw]

Hi, all.

Here are six images from this year's race. I experimented with slow shutter speed and panning. 1/60 to 1/90 is about right for the wheel chairs. It takes very little panning to provide a sense of motion. For the higher shutter speed photos (the runners), I'll probably opt for a more shallow DOF next year, although the DOF with the male runners is about right.

Bruce

First wheel chair:


Second wheel chair:


Third wheel chair:


Fourth wheel chair:


Female elite runners:


Male elite runners:

[mknittle]

All good but I like the wheelchair guys best. And the second one best of those.

[Shadowman]

Nice series.

[Donald]

A very good set of images.