Skating: Need critique

Currently doing a sports project for my Photojournalism course and one photo has to be a flash photo, naturally skating seemed like a good sport to cover as it lends itself well to flash. Obviously this was my first time and I was limited to one flash, but i'd like to know which image you guys & girls feel is strongest out of this set.

Cheers Adam

#1

#1: Tighter crop -- 2 inches in to the right and 1 inch up or basically where the orange sky ends
#2: same idea but a 4x5 crop to show the height
#3 is cool, i like a long crop here, do not think a 4x8 will work, but a 2x3 knocking out the black behind and below may work. also see if you can add a little vibrance to the blues and oranges. (and 5)
#4 & 5 just like a little select sharpening on the skater. #4 is cool.
#5 take away that dead space behind him.

see Photoshop User; Oct/Nov 2009; p. 60 "respect the crop" by Katrin Eismann (*sorry cannot find the article online *)

...

if you dont mind me asking, what kind of flash did you use ?

I like 2 & 3 the most.

If the objective was to show how to mix ambient with flash, very nice. If the assignment was to take a sport shot with a flash then I agree with VinnyC, crop the excess.
#1 and 4 would make a nice 2 page spread layout with words over the dead space.

#5 is great! I wouldn't call it dead space as you can see where the skater is coming from. You can see the stunt he is tackling and where he is going to. It's a win for me!

24alpha wrote in post #8811271
#5 is great! I wouldn't call it dead space as you can see where the skater is coming from. You can see the stunt he is tackling and where he is going to. It's a win for me!

Agreed on this

I love the composition on the first and it neatly follows the rule of thirds. What it needs, imho (and I do mean humble since I'm not the pro here on these but hopefully a few of them will chime in), anyway, you need another flash really low camera left to light a little of the transition. You don't want to overdo it with the lighting so perhaps a grid would work well there.

blindz24 wrote in post #8810039
if you dont mind me asking, what kind of flash did you use ?

I like 2 & 3 the most.

Thanks. 580ex, off camera trigged by ebay triggers.

ChunkyDA wrote in post #8810257
If the objective was to show how to mix ambient with flash, very nice. If the assignment was to take a sport shot with a flash then I agree with VinnyC, crop the excess.
#1 and 4 would make a nice 2 page spread layout with words over the dead space.

Cheers for the critique. I'll have a go at cropping as Vinny suggested.

24alpha wrote in post #8811271
#5 is great! I wouldn't call it dead space as you can see where the skater is coming from. You can see the stunt he is tackling and where he is going to. It's a win for me!

Thanks, I agree. A pre-requisite with alot of skate photography is to show the start and finishing points.

trt-reece wrote in post #8811311
Agreed on this

willshoot4food wrote in post #8809542
Like 4 and 5 the best, the others a bit to loose for my liking.

Cheers.

VinnyC01 wrote in post #8809286
#1: Tighter crop -- 2 inches in to the right and 1 inch up or basically where the orange sky ends
#2: same idea but a 4x5 crop to show the height
#3 is cool, i like a long crop here, do not think a 4x8 will work, but a 2x3 knocking out the black behind and below may work. also see if you can add a little vibrance to the blues and oranges. (and 5)
#4 & 5 just like a little select sharpening on the skater. #4 is cool.
#5 take away that dead space behind him.

see Photoshop User; Oct/Nov 2009; p. 60 "respect the crop" by Katrin Eismann (*sorry cannot find the article online *)

Thanks alot for the detailed response. I'll give it a go when I get chance!

namasste wrote in post #8812468
I love the composition on the first and it neatly follows the rule of thirds. What it needs, imho (and I do mean humble since I'm not the pro here on these but hopefully a few of them will chime in), anyway, you need another flash really low camera left to light a little of the transition. You don't want to overdo it with the lighting so perhaps a grid would work well there.

Yeah I thought exactly the same, however I'm limited to one flash the minute unless i'm with someone who has a flash I can borrow so I just did the best I could manage.