Tour Down Under

[Ricco]

A few snaps from the peoples classic yesterday. I've found a way to combine two of my loves - cycling and photography.







In hindsight, I think I could have gone a little more shutter speed / depth of field and my focus was a little off in a couple of the shots, but thought I did alright for a first try at photographing the sport. It really is fast moving action.....

[Shadowman]

Nice series.

[NorthernFocus]

I think you did good. I like the DOF. Was this a road race or crit?

[rpcrowe]

Great shots, especially for a first timer.

As far as focus... I like the shallow DOF but, would prefer the front cyclist (especially in the last two images) to be the point of focus. As an example, IMO, image #3 might have more impact if the front rider was in sharp focus with focus of the following riders falling off. The same thing is true for image #2. This would be especially dynamic because of the strain on the face of the lead rider.

How to capture that would be determined by the camera/lens you are using for the shoot. Generally, with most cameras, single center point focus might be the best way to ensure just where the camera is focusing. My Canon 7D, and I think later 1D (series) cameras have a very sophisticated auto focus system and allow the photographer much more control in the focusing. However photographers have been capturing action shots long before the advent of the 7D and 1D focusing systems...

I would use Servo AI focus (Canon terminology for focusing on moving objects) or the equivalent focus mode for your camera brand. I would also shoot in burst mode. Burst mode might ensure that one frame might have better focus than others.

One thing that I noticed is that you have allowed a lot of unnecessary space at the top of images 2 & 3 while cutting off parts of the wheels and rider's feet at the bottom of the frames. This could just be the way you are viewing the scene. I often notice when I change cameras, that I need to modify the way I look through the viewfinder.

I have not viewed them but, there are numerous YouTube videos on photographing bike races. Some might be interesting...

[Ricco]

Thanks for the comments.

Richard - I did have centre point and servo AI with the aim to getting the front rider in focus. Unfortunately I didn't achieve this and I'm guessing because the subjects are so fast moving with a shallow DOF (these guys hum along close to 50km/hr and my positioning was front on). I didn't really figure this out until getting home. Probably next time I will try to aim at a point ahead of the riders and go on burst mode as you suggested.

Interesting points on the space - I think I probably needed to think about the framing a bit better rather than point and shoot.

There are a couple more races later this week that I'm going to try to get to so I'll see if I can improve.