Pure Road Racing - NW200.

Here are a few shots taken on Saturday at the NW200 Races. The racing was awesome, some incredible performances and bravery. Unfortunately one young promising rider tragically lost his life, may he RIP.

All were shot on canon 350D & 100-300 f4.5-5.6USM, however I try I cannot seem to get images as sharp or crisp as all these other postings. Any C & C on how I can improve would be really appreciated.

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Mill Road roundabout.

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York Corner Audience

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mikey_mac
Seems to be a lot of JPG compression on some of the images. I assume you did this to reduce the file sizes. A better option would be to reduce the resolution first, smaller size images but less compression problems.
Also it would help to post camera settings (can't see any exif info in the images) to see what your settings were.

As for sharpness, I started with the 300D and the 75-300 cheapo cannon zoom and had the same softness issues. There are 2 main factors here:
1) lens quality will reduce the sharpness
2) slower focus time means the lens will take longer to track in and with bikes they will soon be out of the focus plane.

So simplest method I found was to chose a place on the track/road and manually focus the camera to that point. Pan with the bikes and take the shot as they pass through that point on the track.

Last but not least, keep practicing you will find a method which suits your style and things will improve from there.


Alan

crawford wrote in post #7955229
mikey_mac
Seems to be a lot of JPG compression on some of the images. I assume you did this to reduce the file sizes. A better option would be to reduce the resolution first, smaller size images but less compression problems.
Also it would help to post camera settings (can't see any exif info in the images) to see what your settings were.

As for sharpness, I started with the 300D and the 75-300 cheapo cannon zoom and had the same softness issues. There are 2 main factors here:
1) lens quality will reduce the sharpness
2) slower focus time means the lens will take longer to track in and with bikes they will soon be out of the focus plane.

So simplest method I found was to chose a place on the track/road and manually focus the camera to that point. Pan with the bikes and take the shot as they pass through that point on the track.

Last but not least, keep practicing you will find a method which suits your style and things will improve from there.

Alan

Thanks Alan for your comment/advice. I know the 100-300 lens I use isn't the best tool for the job, my preferred choice would be probably a 70-200L f2.8 or similar quality Sigma. But no point I reckon in having all the right gear and not knowing how to use it - so I will perservere in the meantime until I get a grip of the basics - what do you think ?
Bikes are'nt what i usually shoot so it was interesting going back through the shots to see what worked and what did'nt (lots) . Iwill take your advice on manual focusing at a spot on the track/road the next time out. This is something I had considered before but never actually attempted. The shots I posted seemed to have suffered resizing so will submit again to see if it improves.

Exit Mill Road Roundabout towards Coleraine. Hopes this image is better quality than 1st post.

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