MT bike critique

[ZL4life]

I've been looking at this shot for some time now. I got it last summer shooting the race for the Summit Daily. The girl's company bought 2 8x10's and she bough one that was larger than that, i think.
I personaly like the shot, but i wanted to get some more opinions on it.
Is there anything I need to do better for next year, is it just perfect the way it is, or just kind of ordinary (nothing bad nothing great).

Canon 350d 70-300
iso 200
TV 1/500 3.5

http://photo.ringo.com/196/196718721O514220032.jpg

[Beau Hudspeth]

I think you have a great shot here, it just needs a bit more contrast, as the color balance is basically dead on.

What to change?

I, personally, do not care for square crops.
If you can next year, maybe you can shoot from a bit further away, zoomed in and with a larger aperture if available. This should help you get the rider in clearly and add a bit more bokeh to the shot to help blur out the background.
Another option, maybe from time to time, shoot up at the cyclist a little more to get that 'big air' feeling - separate the rider from the ground.I hope that that is the info you wanted!

Keep posting the great shots!

[ZL4life]

thanks for the input
1. I didn't have much choice, i shot it virtical, and it looked terrible. this was as horiz as i could get it.
2. I wanted to do that, but my 70-300 lense wasn't happy with me that day for whatever reason, it wasn't focusing. and when i manual focused, they were out of focus.... strange.
3. I had done that in another race on that same mountain, a more of a down hill race. this was a X-country race and the jumps were tiny. If I was going to shoot up at her i would have needed about a 2mm lense.
but your idea worked for this shot.
http://photo.ringo.com/153/153594102O756541724.jpg

[Robert_Lay]

Please take notice of your lighting.

The subject is getting illumination from above and behind, so far as I can see.
Even though the shot does not look like a silhouette, the lighting is definitely not on the subject - the subject is being lighted primarily from secondary light - i.e., light bouncing off of surroundings.

You can see things like some of the trees and the ground that are getting direct sunlight.

So, now that you appreciate what your lighting situation was, was it the optimum? Probably not!

The best light would be open shade. Always try to find open shade for your subject.
Open Shade is light from an overhead sky, without any direct sun rays hitting your subject. Subject would be in the shade with open sky above. Typically found on the north side of structures or trees.

[feilb]

I like the shot, especially in event photography, lighting control can be a huge pain and i really dont think this shot came out bad at all and the lighting on the girl is really pretty even, i wouldnt complain. I would bump up the contrast a bit as the shot does feel a bit washed out.

I'm generally not a huge fan of square crops on an action shot. I would consider taking more of an angle and give a sense of motion by placing the subject on the left and giving a little space on the right.

Overall i do like the shot, nice capture.

[ZL4life]

is this better?
http://photo.ringo.com/197/197003833O119843985.jpg

And with the lighting, i know it's not optimum, but with events like this, i had to look for the jump, not the light... and the light's always changing throught the race, so that makes things tough. I was going to walk up to the jumps up above them around the turn, but as i was walking i see these three coming at me, so i had to get ready and shoot.