Saturday I shot another cycling race...same equipment as always (Nikon D700 with the 300 f/2.8 and a 1.4x converter at times). I get home and am processing the images. I'm getting to the end of the days images when I come across one image (the one posted below), that makes me go - WOW, What the F*(%) did I do here To me it looks like the image just jumps off the screne....has a very 3-D look to it. Checked the exif and nothing special: 1/1600, f/4.0, ISO1000 (no flash). Was God sending down some magic ligting?
The images I shot right before this one really don't have this pop.....the images I shot righht after this "might" have a bit of it, but this one just stood out. The image was taken after we had a storm so the sun was popping in and out.....is this purely caused by "perfect" lighting? Looking at the images a bit closer from a photographers eye - is it caused because there is no other plane on the screen that is in focus (grass, road)?? I would love to find a way to duplicate this on all of my shots all of the time.
It's kind of hard to tell without seeing the other images. You have a nice background, good bokeh. What camera mode (M, Av, Tv)? If M, you might have just had the right light for just that perfect exposure.
It does have a very 3-D look to it. I think it pops because the bike and rider really stand out in the blue/red/white against the green background. Very nice DOF too. Nicely done.
My guess is the lighting. Obviously the sun is on camera-right but he seems to be a little back-lit. At least that's what the light in the top-center-rear of his helmet is telling me. Seems to light the head, shoulders and arms well. Kind of like where you'd place a hair light in a portrait session.
Then again, to me, it's just another of the great shots I expect from you. You have a beautiful setting to shoot in and you make the most of it.
_Rob_S_ wrote:
It's kind of hard to tell without seeing the other images. You have a nice background, good bokeh. What camera mode (M, Av, Tv)? If M, you might have just had the right light for just that perfect exposure.
Nice shot!
I shot these in AV mode - no exposure Comp.
As far as the lighting, it was pure cloud cover. I looked at the images I shot before and after trying to pick up any shadow direction and best I could see from a very minimal reflection on the wet road was the sun was pretty much driectly overhead and to my left (riders right side). There were open fields left and right so no reflective lights unless it's possible that light could have been reflecting a bit of my parked car to my right - possible but not probable
Hard to explain what produces the WOW factor. It could be lighitng, color, background. For me, all three are jiving, but the quality that puts it over the top, is the composition... rule of thirds done great.
Michael, I agree, it's a fantastic image. I think the riders colors,the background with lighting you had were superb. I also like how you captured the winding road in the background. IMHO, the lighting was "just right" and you got it!
Was there something reflecting light on to his right arm? Seems to be a little bit of rim light which adds even a bit more pop. A giant white billboard?
i think the lack of the foreground, being such a tight crop, leads the eye straight to the face and then pop from the background. if the foreground was there you'd see something like a lead up to it and it wouldn't be sooo 3D.
I think i see the source of this 3D effect. It is actually the Depth of the DoF caused by NOT shooting wide open. !!!!
You do have great even lighting and great colors; so the basics are there.
The shot is f4 and you caught some of the grass in the left side that is starting to look focused and the road to the right is discernible as a road. The image leads the eye to the rider, to the almost focused grass, and back to the rider, and on to the ribbon of road in the background as one strains to see if there is something there; a pack, another chase group, something.... The rider's head background is totally blurred so it forms a nice contrast to the less blurred foreground. If the non-rider areas were all totally blurred out by using, for example, an f2 lens, i think you would loose the 3D effect you are seeing.
PS - Nice shots on your site. Graeme would approve.
Tim,
Here is the image you requested (#1), but I don't think this has the same efect. I think a big thing that helps the image with that 3D look is not having anything in the forground. I posted another image (#2), which is a similiar shot. I think by framing the image with nothing in the forground and the first plane of sight and focus is the rider. DOF blurrs out the BG a bit causing the only item being in any focus is the main subject....add to that the decent lighting I had in the original image caused that 3D effect.
I was thinking the same thing about the crop being the factor. There is nothing else in the image that comes anywhere near sharp to inadvertently distract from the main subject.
Trying to analyse my eye movements, they hover occasional on the sharp grass & road for a couple of seconds, I guess trying to judge the DOF. Whereas on the cropped version and in the original image in post #1, there is no such distraction.
The WOW factor is there....
Thanks Micheal for sharing....It sure is a magic shot
To me it looks like the image just jumps off the screne....has a very 3-D look to it. Checked the exif and nothing special: 1/1600, f/4.0, ISO1000 (no flash). Was God sending down some magic ligting?