Action photography.

[UtopianStardust]

Hello again. Anyone have any action photography shots they could share? I'd really like to learn a little more about the subject. Thank you!

[carregwen]

Thread moved from the Lounge, as its asking for image posts.

[rpcrowe]

Like these?

1.


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4.

[wilgk]

Hello again. Anyone have any action photography shots they could share? I'd really like to learn a little more about the subject. Thank you!

I am wondering if maybe you gave us a clue of exactly what sort of action you would like to see?
e.g as Richard has shown below - or is it more people in action?
Then I am sure there will be several of us who can help you.

[UtopianStardust]

I am wondering if maybe you gave us a clue of exactly what sort of action you would like to see?
e.g as Richard has shown below - or is it more people in action?
Then I am sure there will be several of us who can help you.

anything, really. Panning shots, blurred shots. Anything in action. I'm new to this aspect, therefore i would appreciate anything I could learn from.

[moss]

any of these helpful?






EDIT: I used the Tinypic thing, so I'm not sure how I'd go about rotating them without re-uploading them, and its past my bed time :P

[Peter Ryan]

This one made the cover of the Toyota 4WD Club magazine for November.

[UtopianStardust]

Oh my! these are some great shots! I could never do that no matter how hard I tried. You guys are such pros! Does anyone have any panning shots, though? I seem to be having the most truouble with that. thanks everyone!

[wilgk]

Oh my! these are some great shots! I could never do that no matter how hard I tried. You guys are such pros! Does anyone have any panning shots, though? I seem to be having the most truouble with that. thanks everyone!

here are a couple I took over a year ago..at a weekend 'now you have a DSLR what are you going to do with it' type course.






they are on my computer here at work - I have a cyclist or 2 at home I'll fish out for you.

[UtopianStardust]

here are a couple I took over a year ago..at a weekend 'now you have a DSLR what are you going to do with it' type course.






they are on my computer here at work - I have a cyclist or 2 at home I'll fish out for you.

WOAH! These are amazing! thank you!

[Peter Ryan]

Oh my! these are some great shots! I could never do that no matter how hard I tried. You guys are such pros! Does anyone have any panning shots, though? I seem to be having the most truouble with that. thanks everyone!

If I recall you have use a compact camera and it is much harder to control the shutter speed. You need to start with a 1/30th sec shutter speed but might have to vary this depending upon the speed of the subject and whether it is moving towards /away from you or across your field of view.

[UtopianStardust]

If I recall you have use a compact camera and it is much harder to control the shutter speed. You need to start with a 1/30th sec shutter speed but might have to vary this depending upon the speed of the subject and whether it is moving towards /away from you or across your field of view.

Why yes, you are correct. I currently have a point and shoot until I can convince my parents to get me that $900 rebel to get me started. I basically have no control over the aperture and shutter speed. It's such a pain.

[Peter Ryan]

Why yes, you are correct. I currently have a point and shoot until I can convince my parents to get me that $900 rebel to get me started. I basically have no control over the aperture and shutter speed. It's such a pain.

Your best bet at the moment is to fully understand how your light meter works and develop an understanding of light and compsition. These things are common to all cameras. When you get an SLR you can add panning and altering your DOF.

[UtopianStardust]

My first attempt (FAILURE) at pan shots with an all manual film camera. -.-





And by the way, the crappy quality is because of the scanner, the prints themselves are not THAT bad, but not too great either. I only have four months of experience with printing.

[MiniChris]

I would need to know what it is you were trying to accomplish to steer you in the right direction. Tomorrow, I am going to send you some url's of some very good photography books that cover this and other photo subjects...and one which covers printing and darkroom techniques my students use. I am going to immediately suggest you use variable contrast paper and on the first image, go up one filter (#3) and stop down at least 1/2 stop in a test strip using 4, 3 second increments (for a 4 x 5 print, or 4, 7 second increments for an 8 x 10. As well, use fresh developer every new setup. Your chemistry looks exhausted.
As per shooting, I'd close a 1/2 to full stop on the top one and open a full stop on the bottom one. It's like baking a cake; not enough time gets you gooey dough and too much time a charbroiled brick.

[UtopianStardust]

I would need to know what it is you were trying to accomplish to steer you in the right direction. Tomorrow, I am going to send you some url's of some very good photography books that cover this and other photo subjects...and one which covers printing and darkroom techniques my students use. I am going to immediately suggest you use variable contrast paper and on the first image, go up one filter (#3) and stop down at least 1/2 stop in a test strip using 4, 3 second increments (for a 4 x 5 print, or 4, 7 second increments for an 8 x 10. As well, use fresh developer every new setup. Your chemistry looks exhausted.
As per shooting, I'd close a 1/2 to full stop on the top one and open a full stop on the bottom one. It's like baking a cake; not enough time gets you gooey dough and too much time a charbroiled brick.

Why thank you for the help. The chemicals are used by about 100 people daily, so I'm not surprised it is "exhausted"
And another problem I am having is every print comes out differently, even though I have the same aperture on the enlarger, the same time of exposure, and everything. One picture comes out with a nice balance of whites, darks, and middle grays, but when I print the same picture right afterwards with the same settings, it comes out looking gray-ish . I don't know what seems to be the problem. :\

[MiniChris]

I am going to point to chemicals first...and that's all of them. After that, do you know if your school has a power conditioner on their in-line. This time of year, especially where I live, power fluctuates considerable throughout th eday...it doesn't take much to change the output either +/- which can affect your exposure by as much as a full stop. Grayishness is almost always a filter or chemistry issue. When I was in high school, I made my own chemistry (especially making sure I was using paper dev and not film dev (another cause of nasty-looking prints). I kept my chems off to the side and found a nice coner where I could set up and control my print outcomes...if there is room, you might want to give that a consideration.
My school darkroom has 23 enlargers, a two sink setup and I run about 40 kids a day through the darkroom with each producing two to three prints per day. I have a timer setup that rings every 20 minutes ato tell them to dum the developer. On each second dump, they dump all the chems and put in a new batch.

[Dave Humphries]

Hi Utopia,

In addition to, or perhaps just an extension of, Chris's ideas; the chemical's temperatures in which the prints are developed will (if memory serves) also have an effect.

How stable is the room temp where the work is carried out?
(assuming they're not in temperature controlled tanks)

[MiniChris]

All the chemicals are balanced for 68 degrees F. Make sure there isn't more than a 4 or 5 degree shift in the stop or fix and wash. Also, dump that wash tank frequently and wash for at least 15 minutes to clear all the chems from the paper.

[rpcrowe]

PANNING...

I find that if I move the camera separately using my hands and head (I do not ever use live view for this type of shot) I do not seem to get as smooth of a pan. However, if I hold the camera steady with my hands and head and rotate my upper torso from my hips, the pan is a lot smoother.

Following a pan is a lot like skeet shooting with a shotgun. The rotation must be smooth and not jerky. I will often start behind my subject a bit and then rotate to catch up, try to maintain the same speed as the subject, and then start shooting in burst mode.

If I happen to be shooting with a lens that incorporates image stabilization with a panning (mode 2) mode, I will also take advantage of that.

BTW: I find that rotating my upper torso from my hips when shooting also allows me to do a limited (several frame) hand held pano shot such as this one of the Birdcage Olympic Venue in Beijing, China. In this case however, I shot the rotation for each individual shot.