Biathlon !

No, not running and cycling. The real Biathlon, skiing and shooting! We are fortunate to have an excellent gun range and even more fortunate to have it surrounded by cross-country ski trails. After years of absence, the local biathlon club has started up regular practices and an annual race. This summer, they got a warming hut built and participation is beginning to build.

So, in honor of the Winter Olympics which begin this Friday, I present my photos of the Wisconsin Biathlon Winter Festival !

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7.

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Biff,

Great series! Your exposure, white balance and focus are all spot on. Nice action shots. We (Kansas) had several summer biathlons years ago that I use to compete in, great fun.

Thanks for sharing. Wonderful job!

Great shots. My favorite is #4, I like angle and look of determination on the athletes face.
Our local club (Madison) just received the permits for a course. Hope next winter it's up and running!
Tom

I agree that the exposure, WB and focus are spot on! What did you do to get the colors to POP (assuming you did some PP)??

DWW

Okay, here's my secrets for the 40D. Shoot in RAW, convert to TIFF (I used Irfan View to just batch them to TIFF), then Photoshop CS3 to denoise and sharpen. I'm still working with 16 bit files here and I use both 'unsharpen mask' and 'edge sharpen', back to Irfan View for JPG conversion (now 8 bit), then tweak in PS CS3 usually going under "exposure" and adjust exposure, offset, and gamma to get the 'pop'. Rather time consuming, but that's the process I've found gets the best results from the 40D so far. Those 59mb TIFF files are computer RAM killers! If it's a run of the mill event, I'll just shoot in JPG and be done with it, but I felt this event was special so I went the extra mile.

Oh, BTW, those telephoto shots were using the 2x tele-converter and 70-200mm f2.8, so you can get good results with that combo.

I am seeing some weird stuff going on in some of these. Way to much noise reduction applied, colors almost look painted and lack detail. Some seem over-sharpened. The color seems too saturated and blotchy. #6 looks like it was underexposed and brought back up in post and there seems to be very little detail throughout the entire picture.

Not sure why you would need any noise reduction on these especially in those conditions. I've used a 40d for about 2 years and always had great results using DPP (shoot raw, adjust & batch). It was a great High iso camera and I rarely used NR.

I would be interested in seeing the raw files.

I never said that they were perfect shots out of the camera! I'll upload a RAW file if you tell me where I can do that.

I couldn't view the exif data, mind sharing? I think what I'm seeing is a combination of the 2x converter and the processing.

You would have to upload one to server and link to it.

Biffbradford wrote in post #9573991
Okay, here's my secrets for the 40D. Shoot in RAW, convert to TIFF (I used Irfan View to just batch them to TIFF), then Photoshop CS3 to denoise and sharpen. I'm still working with 16 bit files here and I use both 'unsharpen mask' and 'edge sharpen', back to Irfan View for JPG conversion (now 8 bit), then tweak in PS CS3 usually going under "exposure" and adjust exposure, offset, and gamma to get the 'pop'. Rather time consuming, but that's the process I've found gets the best results from the 40D so far. Those 59mb TIFF files are computer RAM killers! If it's a run of the mill event, I'll just shoot in JPG and be done with it, but I felt this event was special so I went the extra mile.

Oh, BTW, those telephoto shots were using the 2x tele-converter and 70-200mm f2.8, so you can get good results with that combo.

Thanks for the info!!

In the procedure above, I used Helicon Filter, not Irfan View. Helicon filter can read RAW, I.F. cannot.

I know that Smugmug cannot take RAW uploads, nor Photobucket. Anyway, here's some EXIF:

#6: ImageWidth - 2592
ImageLength - 3888
BitsPerSample - 16 16 16
Compression - 1 (None)
PhotometricInterpretat​ion - 2
Make - Canon
Model - Canon EOS 40D
StripOffset - 60466420
Orientation - Top left
SamplesPerPixel - 3
RowsPerStrip - 1
StripByteCount - 60481972
XResolution - 72.00
YResolution - 72.00
PlanarConfiguration - 1
ResolutionUnit - Inch
DateTime - 2010:02:06 10:45:23
ExifOffset - 60497782
ExposureTime - 1/1250 seconds
FNumber - 6.30
ExposureProgram - Aperture priority
ISOSpeedRatings - 400
ExifVersion - 0221
DateTimeOriginal - 2010:02:06 10:45:23
DateTimeDigitized - 2010:02:06 10:45:23
ComponentsConfiguratio​n - YCbCr
ShutterSpeedValue - 1/1328 seconds
ApertureValue - F 6.44
ExposureBiasValue - 0
MeteringMode - Multi-segment
Flash - Flash not fired, compulsory flash mode
FocalLength - 75 mm
UserComment -
SubsecTime -
SubsecTimeOriginal -
SubsecTimeDigitized -
FlashPixVersion - 0100
ColorSpace - sRGB
ExifImageWidth - 3888
ExifImageHeight - 2592
InteroperabilityOffset - 60532558
FocalPlaneXResolution - 4438.36
FocalPlaneYResolution - 4445.97
FocalPlaneResolutionUn​it - Inch
CustomRendered - Normal process
ExposureMode - Auto
White Balance - Auto
SceneCaptureType - Standard

Maker Note (Vendor): -
Macro mode - Off
Self timer - 32267/10 sec
Quality - Normal
Flash mode - Not fired
Sequence mode - Single or Timer
Focus mode - One-Shot
Image size - Large
Easy shooting mode - Full Auto
Digital zoom - None
Contrast - Low , -42834
Saturation - Low , -35810
Sharpness - Low , -39931
ISO Value - 4830
Metering mode - Center weighted averaging
Focus type - Auto
AF point selected -
Exposure mode -
Focal length - 28108 - 31269 mm (25475 mm)
Flash activity -
Flash details - Rear curtain sync used
Focus mode 2 - 34725
White Balance - Auto
Sequence number - 25514
AF point used - Center
Flash bias - 799.00 EV
Subject Distance - 32511
Image Type - PŠµrFc*’òwäh
Firmware Version - juÀd“‹-tc`ˆ(s{bÒ‚*o6_Õ
Owner Name - öj�[Á€5nR^AŠ÷w}f
�-oÞ[7~èlyXç{)
Camera Serial Number - 1110709367 (423405239)
File number - 223 - 14770


#8
ImageWidth - 3888
ImageLength - 2592
BitsPerSample - 16 16 16
Compression - 1 (None)
PhotometricInterpretat​ion - 2
Make - Canon
Model - Canon EOS 40D
StripOffset - 60466420
Orientation - Top left
SamplesPerPixel - 3
RowsPerStrip - 1
StripByteCount - 60476788
XResolution - 72.00
YResolution - 72.00
PlanarConfiguration - 1
ResolutionUnit - Inch
DateTime - 2010:02:06 12:19:14
ExifOffset - 60487414
ExposureTime - 1/2500 seconds
FNumber - 6.30
ExposureProgram - Aperture priority
ISOSpeedRatings - 400
ExifVersion - 0221
DateTimeOriginal - 2010:02:06 12:19:14
DateTimeDigitized - 2010:02:06 12:19:14
ComponentsConfiguratio​n - YCbCr
ShutterSpeedValue - 1/2656 seconds
ApertureValue - F 6.44
ExposureBiasValue - 0
MeteringMode - Multi-segment
Flash - Flash not fired, compulsory flash mode
FocalLength - 400 mm
UserComment -
SubsecTime -
SubsecTimeOriginal -
SubsecTimeDigitized -
FlashPixVersion - 0100
ColorSpace - sRGB
ExifImageWidth - 3888
ExifImageHeight - 2592
InteroperabilityOffset - 60522190
FocalPlaneXResolution - 4438.36
FocalPlaneYResolution - 4445.97
FocalPlaneResolutionUn​it - Inch
CustomRendered - Normal process
ExposureMode - Auto
White Balance - Auto
SceneCaptureType - Standard

Maker Note (Vendor): -
Macro mode - Off
Self timer - 8924/10 sec
Quality - Normal
Flash mode - Not fired
Sequence mode - Single or Timer
Focus mode - One-Shot
Image size - Large
Easy shooting mode - Full Auto
Digital zoom - None
Contrast - Low , -55606
Saturation - Low , -55877
Sharpness - Low , -55592
ISO Value - 10056
Metering mode - Center weighted averaging
Focus type - Auto
AF point selected -
Exposure mode -
Focal length - 9734 - 9701 mm (9627 mm)
Flash activity -
Flash details - FP sync enabled
Focus mode 2 - 9133
White Balance - Auto
Sequence number - 9358
AF point used -
Flash bias - 288.00 EV
Subject Distance - 8324
Image Type - �%6&Â&‚#~$ #g
Firmware Version - ç&Š'è+‰+é+('Á(Z)ø()*​
Owner Name - ú$#'ü%Ü#Ô%å#¿#%¨$ #U%​Ë%—$ß%Ð%¡
Camera Serial Number - 1110709367 (423405239)
File number - 605 - 15543