Tour de France

[Muffin Princess]

Me and my boyfriend were on the Champs Elysee for the final stage of the Tour de France this year. I'm very new to photography so these are first attemps, I think we did not too badly actually, although feel free to tell me otherwise! These pictures involved 7 hours of standing around beforehand to get a good view!

Ignore the "Pete Lorence" all over it, my bloke put his name on ALL of our pics to stop people stealing them, but these ones ARE my own! :) (I think! :shock: )

http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/petelorence/SLA6.jpg

Lance Armstrong in yellow, who won the Tour for the 6th time this year. Could do with some cropping I think, the policeman spoils it, but it's hard to get it framed correctly when they're going over 30mph 6 feet away from you!

http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/petelorence/SLA1.jpg

I quite like this one, but there's something not quite right about it, I can't quite put my finger on it...

http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/petelorence/SLA5.jpg

This one shows the speed, but why is it all grey??

Comments please! :D

[OviV]

Were these digitals? What camera? Taken RAW or JPG? If RAW, how did you convert them?

The grey as you call it can be easily bettered in PS. You need to use curves to get better contrast. The pictures look flat because, in my opinion, there is a lack of contrast. Looks like maybe you had the sun in front of you.

Here is a quick example (You can do much better with original image and more time):
http://www.shareapicture.com/vsalbum/getpic.aspx?fld=\OviV\Misc&pic=sample.jpg&OV=0

On the second picture (as in the one above), you should try to get the subject in focus while blurring the background. This is accomplished by tracking the subject and taking the shot (requires some practice).

Lastly, Tell your bloke that:

1) He should not put his name on your picture :wink:
2) The copyright across the picture is very distracting and will turn people off about them. It is unlikely that anyone is going to steal a low res image so keeping it at 800 pixels or so should be enough. If you still want to put your name on it, make it small and in the corner.

Keep shooting,
Ovi

[Muffin Princess]

Canon Eos 50E, still on film over here!
28-80 Tamron
70-300 Canon USM
400mm Sigma

Needless to say, we DO need more kit, but we're both very poor at the moment and are saving up for some nice pieces of glass, hopefully a couple of L IS series, and a 10D which we're hoping to get cheap (ie 2nd hand) sometime in the future with the release of the 20D :)

Shame we don't have PS either, pah! We're very new to photography so kit is limited at the moment. You're right, the sun was in front of us and we were standing in shadow. We did try some panning shots as well the still shots, to try and get an interesting contrast between sharp subject/ blurred background and blurred subject/ sharp background. You're not kidding to say it takes some practice, it was tough work taking these pics! But hey, practice is all fun too!

Thanks for the tips and that pic looks so much better even in the 5 minutes you had a fiddle with it! Cheers :D

[Leighow]

MUFFIN PRINCESS

What a great image of Lance!
There are many ways to mix muffins (make mine blueberry) as there are to alter your beautiful image of Lance as he rides to history. Here is alternative approach:

http://members.rogers.com/hleigh/PETE.jpg


WHY THE EXPOSURE PROBLEM
Your exposure problem may have been "ficable" on site by adjusting the histogram in your camera. The grey is probably due to light metering. Your camera tried to 18% of the image into "grass tone". Manual exposure control is always best if you can afford a meter. Even so, better to shoot first -- than to miss Lance altogether!

ADJUST LEVELS
This is probably the best first step. These LEVELS are mapped on a histogram and represent the 256 (max) B & W tones in your image. Here are the before and after of this adjustments to your histogram. See how I simply moved the BLACK and WHITE pointers. Those moves told the program to alter all of the captured tones accordinly.

http://members.rogers.com/hleigh/LEVELS.jpg

A GOOD COOK IS ALLOWED TO BURN THER EDGES
To keep your eye on Lance I selected the edges of your image, feathered 100, and dropped the brightness.

EXTRA -- EXTRA ...READ ALL ABOUT IT
Why am I so "bright" ? Becuase I read it all in Epson's Complete Guide t0 Digital Printing" by Rob SheppardISBN 1-57990-472-0 .

You too can bake super photos -- just play with the yeast and alow yourself to "burn " the pastery!

[IncompletePete]

Yea, the copyrights are my fault, couldn't figure out how to make a nice subtle copyrights....any hints?

We were limited with a slow shutter speed to panning was quite challenging, there were also a few tress infront of us lol

[OviV]

Pete,

What graphics software do you have available?

[IncompletePete]

I've got Photoshop 7.0, although I still don't use it enough to become a skilled user!

[OviV]

O.K. Here is one of many ways to do your copyright.

1) Create a new graphic with whatever you want your signature/copyright to be. Be sure to use a transparent background.
2) Click on Edit -> Define Brush

Your new signature will now be a brush that you can select using the brush tool. You will be able to size it according to the size of your picture and "stamp" it on your picture.

Ovi