Newbie with 40d. Ski racing shot.

[sjc*2]

So I am really new to this so thought I would post for some feedback.
Used the 24-105L and 6.4 fps. Cropped and tried some work with Elements 6.
C & C please.

Steve

http://i105.photobucket.com/albums/m240/sjc4us/Racer4_small.jpg

[Dramatis]

Hm. Wish there was a bit more room in front of the skiier (sp?). Other than that, a bit of sharpening and I think you'll have a very nice picture. :)

[chauncey]

IMHO to much red, colors over the top.

[sjc*2]

Thx for the feedback guys. I took this guy because of his suite colors but will be careful with pushing the colors to far. Trying to find a spot without a catch fence is a challenge but I guess that's what we do tihis for. Have to focus on so many things to get it right.
Cheers
Steve

[joedlh]

Exposure's good, given the amount of snow in the image. However, the colors look oversaturated on my monitor. Is this a major crop? The skier's face looks a little mottled. Or did you push gray snow to white from the original image, which can have that effect on colors?

[Kaya75]

the poles are the major issue for me the blue on blue - but i guess to get that lean and pose you need to be at that angle has the skier closers the turn..

i just whipped this through PS to give you an impression of the comp i'm on about - hope you don't mind :/ - but with a bit of time and effort it'd be easy to remove that pole quite effectively..

http://www.thepons.co.uk/webcritics/Racer4_small.jpg

[joedlh]

Anyone who knows anything about skiing will wonder where the pole is if you remove it.

[vpnd]

expose for the snow and the subject wil follow, this image is a bit underexposed. yes it is a little too red also. If you are a newbie though its a great start..

[sjc*2]

Really appreciate the feedback gang. I understand about the colors and next time out I think I'll try some head on shots to clean up the background.

Only have a 24-105 so I have to be careful not to get in the way. These guys are going really fast. Maybe a nice 70-200 is in order. I'm already 3G's into the camera, whats another $1500....

[Kaya75]

Anyone who knows anything about skiing will wonder where the pole is if you remove it.

oh yeah, good point - lol - :rolleyes:

[SwingBopper]

The face tone does look a little warm. Maybe de-saturate a bit. It's a nice capture. I wouldn't worry about cloning out the blue poles - there are places in skiing where you're making tight turns with no poles in sight; but you could also just change the pole color from blue to red or green or whatever and improve the shot.
I have a 40D too and love the burst mode. Just curious though, how do you have your sharpness set in camera?

[tdodd]

The first thing that struck me was underexposure, especially having just come back from a ski holiday last week and shooting action in the snow. My simple solution for exposure was to shoot in manual, with the sunny 16 rule as a starting point. It was then easy to rattle off shot after shot with no concern what proportions of snow/sky/skier were mixed into the shot. Looking at the picture quality on the skier's face and suit there seems to be a lot of grain, which looks to me like the photo was originally underexposed further and that you have brightened it in PP.

I also think you would do better not to have cropped, especially to 5:4 ratio. The picture would benefit from more space in front of the skier and a bit chopped from the top and bottom of the photo. Your subject is placed dead centre, which is a bit boring and not really suited to an action shot with a subject moving across the photo.

Here's an example of one of mine, regarding exposure....

This was shot at 1/640, f8, 200 ISO, HTP enabled, 100mm. Applying the standard sunny 16 rule the shutter speed should have been 1/800 for the given ISO and eperture but I squeezed an extra +1/3 EV without clipping highlights.

The only edit was to set contrast to +1 and sharpness to +3 in DPP. Exposure and WB were untouched, and there is no cropping here, just a resize.

[PETERSYMES]

The Saturation is a bit strong, but for me the main thing is this shot needs the same technique used with car racing, pan with the target to blur the backgrond.
As it is there is no movement, no sense of motion and speed.

[tdodd]

<snip>...., but for me the main thing is this shot needs the same technique used with car racing, pan with the target to blur the backgrond.
As it is there is no movement, no sense of motion and speed.
Good point.

While we're at it, perhaps a wider aperture would have been a good idea to help isolate the skier from the background and make him stand out more.