Do you consider the second photo to be a good photo, Elfin?

Well, in that I achieved the effect I was going for, I spose yeah. As for it’s greater appeal, I’ll leave that for others to decide.

Could do with a tighter crop, the colour’s a bit off (was shot on film and I’ve not tweaked it bit of a magenta cast), mebbe a tiny tiny bit of flash on rear curtain sync cooduv picked the rider out from the background by just a little touch….

Considering the bugger was tooling along at over 30mph and I weren’t using a tripod/monopod to steady the pan, I think it ain’t turned out too bad really. The lighting’s not ideal as it’s a bit too side on but there’s now I could do about that.

I kind of like it, but from my point of view, I don’t think it’s a good photo, or shall we say it could be improved upon (IMO).

This’ll sound lame cos I removed the bit I was going to write about the photographers intentions. 😀

The lighting’s not ideal as it’s a bit too side on but there’s now I could do about that.

Move?

Fair enough, I’d be inertested in hearing your views actually.

It’s all personal choice and if it’s your intention and you achieved your objective, then it’s perfect.
Pesonally I prefer shots with movement to have at least some in focus element. I’m not overly keen on the full rider being fully focussed, kind of like this.

I don’t like ^^^^^^ It’s flat and not too challenging.
I prefer something like this.

Where we have the movement and a bit of action.
But my favourites have more movement, like this…

Or

Also bear in mind that non of these have been near Photoshop or any other editing software shite. 😆
Feel free to criticise and comment.

Looking at the two that you posted elfin, I didn’t realise you took the second :oops:, is the first one of yours too?
The first one doesn’t give me the idea of speed, there’s nothing to gauge speed with. Track cycling is very fast and one of my favourite subject. To be honest I don’t know if the guy in the photo was racing or posing, you know like the mags do.
Speed.

The second photo as I said above. [Remember, you can’t see the wheel on the right, ok?]

Put the above on Talkphotography for a flaming opinion, on the last you really need to get rid of the tyre

Why? I’m not particularly interested.

Feel free to criticise and comment.

I’m interested in Fred’s opinion and anyone else here. Not that interested in the views from a photography forum, I guess it’d probably be like here and the bike forum. I spend a lot of time in the chat forum.
And you missed the dirt on the censor too. 🙄

Some good examples of cycling photos Tyler138, no I didn’t lol

And no, the photography one is useful and not full of bullshat

Just stuck some up, it could be quite good fun. 😉

Seriously, they give alot of good advice

Need to use the Critique prefix 🙂

Need to use the Critique prefix

apparently there are rules already and I don’t do rules very well. 🙁

Don.. your track cycling one doesn’t do it for me.. I think it’s the lighting of the rest of the building. It looks cold, depressing, grimy.. that overshadows the coolness of the racers for me. Pretty tricky to light, that.. I think perhaps some post processing would be good.. black and white, dim the background a bit, that sort of thing, but I am not really experienced in such things.

I like the cyclocross one best – brings to my mind the effort and the struggle of racing. The movement of his limbs and body shows effort, which is harder to capture in cycling other than facial gurning.

Am I waffling enough for this? 🙂

Shots two and three are ok but just so obvious – bloke on a bike, like every magazine cover. I guess that’s more me than you tho 🙂

I love Elf’s B&W track shot – looks retro, brings to mind a century of history and heritage which over-rides the rider’s high-tech getup. But I guess those things are only meaningful to me as a cyclist. It’s also very crisp and clean which emphasises him slicing the air and being very neatly tucked up on his bike. The blurry one tho I’m not so keen on. Not quite blurred enough to be all zoomy and abstract for me, and the blur on the rider isn’t going in the right direction. Colours are nice tho. Maybe I’d crop it heavily to show just a bit of the bike and background, make it a proper abstract splodgy thing that would just hint at cycling, so you might see it you might not.

Be interesting to see what feedback you get on TP.

For me, I like them although the “effect” could be overused and end up looking like you can’t get the shutter speed right.

It’s all personal choice and if it’s your intention and you achieved your objective, then it’s perfect.

Well I wanted an image that summed up the intoxicating excitement of the event, when all the noise, movement, colour etc blur together and leave a more abstract idea. That was the effect I was trying for; seen it done with sports photography before and like it.

With yours, they’re a lot more ‘standard’ sports photography, technically very good, you can see what’s going on etc, identify the riders and stuff. The bottom CC one I like a lot; great photo. The others just seem like ‘standard’ biking pics to me; they don’t convey much more than a description of what’s going on, for me. But they serve their purpose perfectly. If I was charged with providing visual information about an event, I’d be well pleased with them. The CC one is an great shot; full of movement, chaos and excitement.

Your track one; nice idea, but you’re hampered by the difficult lighting conditions, and it has the look of a ‘snapshot’ taken with a compact, to me. It’s a nice idea though, just not as well executed enough to do the concept sufficient justice.

But there’s more than one way to skin a cat. 🙂

Anyway I posted those two as examples of using different shutter speeds, not as entrants to a photo competition. 😮

Move?

Have you ever tried to get a good vantage point at a TDF Prologue? 😀

Elf, you said almost the same things as I said about simon’s pics 🙂

No I’m not being negative; I think they are technically great photos, and serve their purpose perfectly.

And I’ve said I love the CC one. That’s the only one, for me, which transcends ordinary description and becomes something beyond that. Really sums up the ethos of Cyclocross racing, for me. The others are just technically good shots of bods on bicycles.

All very subjective though.

😆
As you say, the first two are very standard as it was my first time in Llandegla and I hadn’t had time to find view the circuit. By the time I reached the two points I had already passed the better positions and in a 10 mile course I wasn’t back tracking. 😆
The CC one I’m very please with as all my pictures are a one shot capture, non of this “machine gunning” then selecting the best, neither are they run through editing software. It came out of the camera that way.
Secondly I like it becasue of the subject, Jose Maria Cristobal is a fantastic junior rider who has a great future in cycling if he wants it. He not only has speed, he’s unstoppable in both CC and MTB, I didn’t follow the juniors too much on the road, but he also has incredible grace which makes the picture more exiting for me.
Lastly I took the shot at 14mm and could feel the air rushing past my face as he came by, and didn’t/couldn’t flinch.
I have got better track pictures but couldn’t put my hands on them lastnight.
Here’s something that’s a bit better from the track, still not the best though.

stwcampeonato de españa pista 290610 las carreras 107 por kala y simon, en Flickr

Have you ever tried to get a good vantage point at a TDF Prologue?

You need to get yourself friends in high places and the correct back stage passes. 😉
What I do know is that alot of my work is KwikSave photography…
Thanks for the comments. 😀
I see we have another anonymous tagger who hasn’t the cojones to speak publicly. 🙄

Elf, I wasn’t being negative either…

Elf, I wasn’t being negative either…

I can tell the difference between constuctive critisism and being negative, thanks anyway. 😉

You need to get yourself friends in high places and the correct back stage passes

Yeah well I had to ask some grumpy ‘cycling club’ feller to let me get by the barrier to take just a few shots (about 5 or 6 altogether) before he started ‘harumphing’. On fillum, manual everything, can’t check each pic right after it’s bin taken.

I think given the constraints I had to work with, I achieved a fairly good result. I’m reasonably happy with it anyway.

all my pictures are a one shot capture, non of this “machine gunning” then selecting the best

B+W one is on a Nikon FM2, HP5, manual focus 24mmm Nikkor, no motordrive…

Hang on.. am I being accused of being negative or not? I certainly wasn’t trying to be, apologies if you thought so.. Come here and give me a hug…

On fillum, manual everything, can’t check each pic right after it’s bin taken.

And that’s generally where I differentiate in the manual/auto argument and have upmost respect for the (good)photographers who have come through the ranks. You had to learn how a camera works when working with film. You had to know the settings before hand because the darkroom didn’t give you the scope that software gives you today. There is no getting away from the fact that there was a huge element of luck with the Cristobal photo, he passed me the lap before and the photo wasn’t so good, I do have what I consider to be a better photo but of a lesser known rider.
A friend of mine, Oscar Matxin, takes the machine gun approach and also does a lot of work for the press, I took the one shot approach and the press used my podium shots only. 😥
All photography is good, when done with passion and when it’s photography (by my definition). 😀
Molly, I didn’t take it as negative. *hugs*

I like both of freds pics.

i don’t like the poor developing/agitation, you can see where the dev has flowed through the sprocket holes along the top but not enough to ensure even development, print has that chalky/grainy look of underexposure and going up a grade in paper to compensate. the pube on left is irksome too.