Saturday was my first Cycling race of the year. All week they were calling for rain so I pick up the new ThinkTank Hydo rain cover.....ended up being dry and sunny! I was actually looking forward to a rainy day, just for a bit more dramatic image look. I was of course a bit rusty and didn't have a complete flow of my equipment, but the year is early with plenty of time to get my rhythm back.

I wanted to try some new things out and experiment a bit.....I wanted to work on my exposure and lighting on some "on the fly" sports portraits. Wasn't worrying about poses or anything at this race, just getting comfortable with the results of lighting & exposure. (I was shooting with a Nikon D300/D200 combo.)

#1
Cat 3 mens race winner Richard Schweizer (unatached). Goes to show you you don't need to be on a team or sponsored by anyone to win!
Shooting into the sun the best I can.


#2


#3
Here I was experimenting with White Balance and using gels on the flash.


#4
Here during the the Jr.s race the smallest rider is pulling the lead group.


#5
...again just experimenting with lighting...still not there, but it's a start.


#6
Stephan Kincaid riding for the Rite Aid Pro Cycling team leading the Peloton thru a corner - Stephan finished 5th in the Pro 1/2/3 field


#7



Here are a few examples of my "Sportraits On The Fly"
These were shot using the 17-55 and one SB800 of camera attached with the SC-29 cable. Flash was gelled with a 1/2 CTO and snooted.







Complete race day photo galleries if interested:
http://www.mlkimages.com/2008%20Sports/444761


Michael


Edited by MichaelKirk on Mar 17, 2008 at 03:23 PM GMT

Edited by MichaelKirk on Mar 17, 2008 at 03:24 PM GMT

Great images!

The flash experiments didn't come out all that bad. I think #3 came out the best.

I'm gonna have to start shooting more horizontal instead of vertical. I'm used to shooting vertical & now I've got a vertical mind.

On #2 & 4, were those cropped at all, or did you shoot with that empty space in the photos?

I think the main problem I had with the experimental "Sportraites" was I needed to underexpose a bit more as well as my snooted flash aim was off
It's a work in progress so this was a experimental day and hopefully will be able to get it dialed in a little better at the next race.


#2 and #4 have very minor crops, just enough to clean them up visually.

#2 - with cycling I almost always try and leave some empty space in front of the riders to lead them somewhere.

#4 I had a lot of image garbage (signs, mailboxes, poles, etc) to the left so I changed it up a bit.

Michael




Scott Mosher wrote:
Great images!

The flash experiments didn't come out all that bad. I think #3 came out the best.

I'm gonna have to start shooting more horizontal instead of vertical. I'm used to shooting vertical & now I've got a vertical mind.

On #2 & 4, were those cropped at all, or did you shoot with that empty space in the photos?

Looks good I cant wiat for the tour to come here to Philly I shoot it every year

You did a good job, I really like your "sportraits on the fly".

Number one does it for me.. I love the DOF and the moment you captured. I might have cropped a little bit more on the left but that is just me. Good luck playing with that flashwork too. I started using gels for color correction of the flash but never for color adjustment of the ambient.. Pretty cool idea for the subject matter.

Thanks for the comments!

My cropping...I know it's not the best way, but I pretty much leave all my images cropped at a 2:3 ratio since this is how I see/shoot them as well as post them on my website - it will not be the best 100% of the time for viewing on forums, but it's just how I have been doing it.

I also cannot take any credit for the flash idea - I got it from Dave Black:
http://www.daveblackphotography.com/workshop/06-2007.htm

I love the work he does so I am trying my hand at some of his techniques. Cool the WB in camera and shoot with a CTO gel to warm the subject. The difficult thing I noticed with cyclist is they all wear sunglasses so you get the reflecting of the flash in them

...all a work in progress!

Thanks,
Michael




Grieverlust wrote:
Number one does it for me.. I love the DOF and the moment you captured. I might have cropped a little bit more on the left but that is just me. Good luck playing with that flashwork too. I started using gels for color correction of the flash but never for color adjustment of the ambient.. Pretty cool idea for the subject matter.

good work
what lens were you using? Also have you heard of strobist? if not I think you might be interested in it. I am keen to gel some flashes next time i shoot some sport. Did you set the camera to Tungsten and gel your flash to output color correcting light? It almost worked.
Keep posting cycling images, i really enjoy it!

Lenses used were a 300 2.8vr and the 70-200 2.8vr as well as the 17-55 2.8 for the still images.

I've have been hanging around the Strobist website and Flickr group for over a year now - really good info and ideas to be found there (that's why I own 3 SB800's).

For the Sportraites I set WB in camera to 3600 and used a 1/2 CTO gel (which is to balance to 3600). I think the reason the color was off at times was I did not under expose the image enough as well as I need to check my import default in Lightroom - I may have my WB not set correctly as I noticed when working on the images the WB was different than I shot so I have to set it again manually on a number of the photos.

Michael



andrew81 wrote:
good work
what lens were you using? Also have you heard of strobist? if not I think you might be interested in it. I am keen to gel some flashes next time i shoot some sport. Did you set the camera to Tungsten and gel your flash to output color correcting light? It almost worked.
Keep posting cycling images, i really enjoy it!