My first attempt at snowmobile racing photos...

Please critique the exposures and what's good/not so good in each..

I honestly didnt spend any time really for cropping, so no need to be too picky on that.

It was an overcast day as you can tell for most of it, but the sun did peak out at the end, but it was still hard to get real good "stopped" shots, which was what I was going for. ISO was 400-800 in every pic.I'm pretty pleased for my first time though! I need to work on my "crendentials" now! I ran out of room! Ended up filling my 3 cards (8gb worth)... I had to delete some to fit the last 2 races in! Ugh, Newegg here I come!

1

I think all your exposures look reall great given the white out only blue sky would make em better in my book . Where was this at also and how did the 40D handle in the cold ? just wondering for future reference... Regards Ed

Crop #1 to just the sled and rider and it would be great. Exposure looks good but they look a touch soft. May be cause I'm viewing on my laptop. Good stuff.

I think the crop works in #1 it would be posibly too tight cropping it in that manner "imo" I think it adds a sence of what is going on and well composed with all subject matter fitting pretty well .

Thanks for the comments so far!

Ed, The 40d handled very nicely! The only explanation to the "soft" pics was from the cold. I was shaking like a mo fo after about an hour and tack on about 20% user error for whatever reason i'm sure! It was a bit windy and 18 degrees with no sun! I could hardly change memory cards! The battery held up suprisingly well too! Keep in mind it was running my 70-200mm 2.8 IS and YES i really needed the IS with me almost having Parkinson's disease after standing out in the cold for 5 hours! I took well over 700 pictures and still had plenty of battery for another 100+ im sure.

I paid a TON of attention to the histogram as mentioned here to do and thank GOD i did! The pics on the LCD are decieving. They look great on the LCD and underexposed on the computer every time. The histogram as everyone has said before is your best friend!

Keep the CC coming! Thanks in advance!

marcus769 wrote in post #4704862
Thanks for the comments so far!

Ed, The 40d handled very nicely! The only explanation to the "soft" pics was from the cold. I was shaking like a mo fo after about an hour and tack on about 20% user error for whatever reason i'm sure! It was a bit windy and 18 degrees with no sun! I could hardly change memory cards! The battery held up suprisingly well too! Keep in mind it was running my 70-200mm 2.8 IS and YES i really needed the IS with me almost having Parkinson's disease after standing out in the cold for 5 hours! I took well over 700 pictures and still had plenty of battery for another 100+ im sure.

I paid a TON of attention to the histogram as mentioned here to do and thank GOD i did! The pics on the LCD are decieving. They look great on the LCD and underexposed on the computer every time. The histogram as everyone has said before is your best friend!

Keep the CC coming! Thanks in advance!

Great too hear 40D is what I am about to purchase real soon So good to hear it does good in the cold weather as well. As for the histogram That is so true ! It took me forever to stop looking at the dang LCD as you said they come up dark on your monitor same whent for me for a long time till I found that out ! Maybe we need a lil spider for our LCD's lol J/k I take that back !

marcus769 wrote in post #4704264
I need to work on my "crendentials" now!

Lotsa luck trying to get those from WPSA

marcus769 wrote in post #4704862
I was shaking like a mo fo after about an hour and tack on about 20% user error for whatever reason i'm sure! It was a bit windy and 18 degrees with no sun! I could hardly change memory cards! The battery held up suprisingly well too! Keep in mind it was running my 70-200mm 2.8 IS and YES i really needed the IS with me almost having Parkinson's disease after standing out in the cold for 5 hours! I took well over 700 pictures and still had plenty of battery for another 100+ im sure.

LOL..........welcome to shooting snowcross. But it sure makes you sleep great at night........LOL.

Try two days and eight hours a day, with the only time your not outside, is when you hit the port-a-john, or toss in night racing under the lights, and you'll soon learn why its such a tough gig to do wek in week out.

Granted, I have only ever had one occasion where I got a bit chilly, otherwise, its not much different then shooting during summer, save for battery life.

Some nice shots there only spoilt by the copyright

In #3,#4 and #6 i think it would be nice to see the jump to get a feeling of hight.

where is the motion? which i feel is the essence of motorsports photography? for me everything seems so still.

ruchad1 wrote in post #4719891
where is the motion? which i feel is the essence of motorsports photography? for me everything seems so still.

How do I obtain this? I didnt have much light as it was an overcast/windy cold day. I was having trouble getting clear/blurry (movement) with slower
speeds.

What settings/speeds should I stay around to get the "motion" look?

I tried staying AT LEAST at 1/500 by adjusting aperature and ISO accordingly..


Petrolhead: Yeah the watermark on the pics does take away from them, but I dont want my pics stolen!

Thanks for the tip!

ruchad1 wrote in post #4719891
where is the motion? which i feel is the essence of motorsports photography? for me everything seems so still.

That was my only complaint. Maybe a slower shutter speed on some of them to blur the tread a little? Great job, though.

marcus769 wrote in post #4727563
How do I obtain this? I didnt have much light as it was an overcast/windy cold day. I was having trouble getting clear/blurry (movement) with slower
speeds.

What settings/speeds should I stay around to get the "motion" look?

I tried staying AT LEAST at 1/500 by adjusting aperature and ISO accordingly..

Petrolhead: Yeah the watermark on the pics does take away from them, but I dont want my pics stolen!

Thanks for the tip!

To get a sense of motion into the image you need to get your shutter speed down and pan with the subject, maybe 1/60th to 1/125th of a second depending on several variables. With the jump shots it would have let the tracks spin out of focus as well as the background banners/poles but kept the rest of the sled sharp. A static/frozen shot just does not have a sense of the speed and excitment of the contest.

And fwiw it would take maybe 10 to 20 minutes to remove your watermark if anyone "wanted" a low res web shot, it really isn't any "protection" against theft.

Cool, thanks for the info Brad! I'll surely practice up on my panning and slower my shutter speed a bit to get more movement. I do agree that, that would add another dimension to my pics. Thanks!