The Long Haul To Happiness

I've been doing a lot of bike racing photography lately trying out various lenses from manual primes to auto zooms, but what I started to realise is that I actually think my tecknique has come on leeps and bounds but as always I would prefer a second opinion. The first one is the Sigma 70-300 DG APO Macro and the second is a Soligor 200mm f3.5 I'm pleased with both, but as always your thoughts appreciated.


1/350th ISO 200 f11
[IMG]http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f343/Noddy750/SigmaAPO285.jpg[/IMG]

1/500th ISO 100 at f8 (i think)
[IMG]http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f343/Noddy750/SoligorMallery303.jpg[/IMG]

They are nice pictures it's just a shame that you've cropped them to tightly on the front wheel in my opinion.

Hi Richard
That is a deliberate crop on the front wheel to try and emphasise movement through the frame, when cropped centre they looked a bit static, but thanks for your comment, it may or may not have worked, lol.

No.1 for me - to get the best feel of action.
I assume that you could lighten it up just a touch to get the shadow detail up to match No 2.
Don't like the crop on the front wheel either - a crop too far?
Geoff

The crop is very tight which is good for getting close detail but I believe the racers need a bit more space to move through. Have you tried lifting the dark areas slightly to get more shadow detail?
Panning is an art which improves with lots of practise and your practise is certainly paying off.
David

Standard cropping technique for moving objects is to leave a bit more space in front of the object than behind. It doesn't have to be much, just enough to make the object look like it has space to 'move into'. No more than a 3:2 ratio of 'space in front' to 'space behind', frequently less.

Of course if you do this your shots will look like everybody else's, which may not be what you're after.

I think both lenses, coupled with your technique, have produced very acceptable images and I'm both impressed and surprised at the results from the Soligor lens.

Just think how much better these images might have been with modern high quality glassware.

Is that a GPS antenna on the back of the bike in #1 ? He's not on autopilot is he?

I'm inpressed too - I see you have found the Sigmas sweet spot being f11

I'd like to thank everybody for their constructive comments which as always I will take on board. Regarding the Soligor lens it is indeed sharp but can suffer terrible purple fringing in strong sunlight and high contrast areas, that is one area where modern glass outshines it's older breathren is the quality of the coatings which have come on leaps and bounds.