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 p.1 #5 · Rodeo Bull Riding and Bullfighters | |
Regarding busy backgrounds at the rodeo:
stephenramirez wrote:
I like your first image the most, it has a nice blurry background, the others are a bit busy which is something I need to work on myself.
Rags Hef wrote:
....Tough to get back blurred in bull riding. Average rider stays on 5 seconds & how far can a bull get from the spectators in that time (even @ 2.8)
Rags
The web is full of rodeo photos by top professional photographers, but with busy backgrounds--spectators, fences, gates, advertizing banners, rodeo crews.... After seeing all these cluttered images, I thought I could do better, but then I tried it myself. Like Rags said, the action is close to the chute. In addition, the rodeo arena is constructed in such a way that it is nearly impossible to get a line of sight that has both good light and a lot of distance between the bull/rider and the background. For obvious reasons, rodeo officials don't let photographers get into the arena itself or into the row of stock pens where the bulls are, so even a 2.8 doesn't have sufficiently shallow DOF to blur-out the background garbage.
So, how'd I get the blurred background in the first image? PhotoShop CS5. I masked out the bull and rider and used "lens blur" on the background. However, the background clutter is so similar in the variation of color, edge types, etc., to the bull and rider, it is difficult to make the mask. In addition, masking is complicated by the intricacies of the leather fringes, hair on the bull's tail, etc. Also, flying dirt is part of the action portrayal, so the aerial dirt needs to be in the non-blurred portion of the image. It's an easily flawed process.
But I'll keep trying. For one thing, the spectators right behind the action are mostly family of the rider, stockmen, and fellow cowboys. In some of the photos from this event, the concerned expressions on the spectators' faces tell part of the story. Also, I'll be photographing the smaller rodeos where I can roam more freely.
Rags, I'm really interested is hearing and seeing how you fared at Salinas--a really big time rodeo by California standards. --- John
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