Straightliners

Something a little out of the usual from me. The weather was not great on Saturday and didn't fancy traveling far so spent a few hours at Elvington airfield near York watching bikers trying to travel as fast as they could in a measured mile or break the world wheelie record.

Started off with the Sigma 150-500 attached to the K5IIs and failed miserably - the combination of grey skies and poor light combined with bikes moving at up to 220 mph proved too much for it.

So I switched to the Tamron 70-200 2.8 and although the distance was a little too long for it - I think it did OK in difficult circumstances.

As always C+C welcome

Carl

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Wheelie good sorry - I had to go there

5 is my favourite - 7 has so many potential comments as well

These are all very striking eye-catching images, vibrant and sharp. Some have a slight hdr look, not in a bad way but in a way that suits. Lots of detail and your panning was very successful. No 3 has a case of the 'blues' - (look at the road colour and black jacket), so I'd pull down blue & cyan channels aggressively on those areas. No 1 for me has a kind of special quality, almost cartoon-like, it could be effective in advertising or other commercial uses. I'm no motorbike fan, but I can appreciate the skill and qualities of these shots.

Way over sharpened for me ( I do understand you were trying to rescue some blurry due to poor light/slow shutter shots here), it just looks bad with such amount. See the halo around contrasty edges (i.e tires)? that's the heavy sharpening.

Ha Ha Stuey

Thanks Neil - No1 almost did not get shared - there is a lot wrong with it and yet in some ways it is the most appealing of the bunch to me

It is strange Piotro, I agree that some look over-sharpened - perhaps most notably No 8. However, most of them have only a little sharpening applied - what most of them do have is fairly aggressive noise reduction applied, Not something I have previously considered but perhaps this can do the same as over-sharpening?

Carl

What makes #1 for me is the highlights/black bike contrast

Difficult one for me as I love the subject and especially the action shots so I can forgive the processing and the fact some of them are a little soft.

Noise reduction itself shouldn't cause that IMHO, could be worth checking your photo process, maybe there is something adding to it where you don't expect.

+1 with Mike-P on these, unforunately we have nothing like this by us

Well, whatever process was used, it just WORKS! I love the slightly surreal, cartoonish appearance, it sets them apart. Just remove the blue cast on the black's and road in No 3.

Which is your selfie?!

Back in my biker days (even raced for 3 years) could have been any one of them - but sadly those days are a dim and distant memory

Carl

I actually thought the processed look on these was intentional and as Nigel says I quite like the slightly surreal appearance. Apart from that I think you've done really well to capture these Carl, I don't think you would have expected them all to be pin sharp would you?

Regards
David

Hi David

Damn - I have been rumbled.

Truth is with the light conditions I had and the fact that I had resorted to a lens too short for the job - I did decide to process them to be a little different - but what I said about sharpening is true - I used no more than 20% max and most are much less than that - and there is a serious amount of noise reduction added - in some cases 100% - but I did boost various levels to create a slightly 'unreal' quality - especially in 1, 3 and 4.

1 is cropped to absolutely the max and is far from sharp enough - it seemed to work to create a slightly unreal quality by messing about with various levels

Interesting how different people react to this.

For what it's worth - for me - it works on some and not on others BUT I would have preferred a sunny day with winds below the 60mph we experienced!!

Carl