Tips for shooting cycling...

macs

macs

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Rich
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There is a road race on near me on friday so I thought I might pop down to catch some cycling action first hand but thought i'd also take my camera with me to see what I can shoot.

What tips and tricks do people use to get some good shots and what settings to use?

My stab in the dark is this:
- Fast shutter speed, so big aperture and high iso
- Hand held, fairly obviously
- Try to capture a sense of speed, so practice my panning techniques
- Get some good facial expressions of pain

Anything i'm missing?

Thanks
 
macs said:
There is a road race on near me on friday so I thought I might pop down to catch some cycling action first hand but thought i'd also take my camera with me to see what I can shoot.

What tips and tricks do people use to get some good shots and what settings to use?

My stab in the dark is this:
- Fast shutter speed, so big aperture and high iso
- Hand held, fairly obviously
- Try to capture a sense of speed, so practice my panning techniques
- Get some good facial expressions of pain

Anything i'm missing?

Thanks
Click to expand...
the final strait, get down low (lie down) and shoot with a long lens 300-400 or 200 if thats your limit.

Try and get behind and above the crowd so when your panning there is a small rider and big colourful crowd.

if there are any high vantage points try and shoot down onto the pack dissecting the image into triangles.

Take a look at Darren Heaths work in F1 and try to emulate it for cycling.

Hope that helps
 
"Try to capture a sense of speed, so practice my panning techniques"

To get a successful pan shot, you will need a slow shutter speed - say 1/60th or less, depending on how close the subject is to you and how fast they are going.

So, freeze the action with a fast shutter speed (say 1/1000th and above), pan with a slow shutter speed (say 1/60th and below).

Assuming they are doing laps, then you can try both. Easiest to stick the camera in shutter priority with auto-ISO and let it work itself out, but for best flexibility be in manual and do it "properly".
 
i believe the IS can be used when panning but which setting?
 
I like the idea of sticking it in shutter priority and auto iso to get some idea of the settings.

I also wouldn't have thought about getting the crowd in the shot too.

Some useful tips - anymore out there?
 
Hi Rich, is this the event on Nottingham Embankment?

As everyone else has said Shutter priority, as it is a city centre race try and capture some of the crowd and buildings if possible

For ideas and styles from UK based photographers you could take a look at Andy Whitehouse (he does a lot of work for British Cycling) or Larry Hickmott
 
KIPAX said:
i believe the IS can be used when panning but which setting?
Click to expand...

Set to on and position 2.

Position 1 is to compensate for vibration on both axis 2 is for one axis.

Dont use centre point focus if shooting head on as that will normally be the handle bars so face out of focus.
 
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Iffacus said:
Hi Rich, is this the event on Nottingham Embankment?

As everyone else has said Shutter priority, as it is a city centre race try and capture some of the crowd and buildings if possible

For ideas and styles from UK based photographers you could take a look at Andy Whitehouse (he does a lot of work for British Cycling) or Larry Hickmott
Click to expand...

Yes, thats the race. Not sure which (if any) elites will be there but for me it's about seeing some racing and trying out a new genre of photography.

I'll try to use as many of the tips suggested so far and see what I end up with.

I'll try to move about the course to get different compositons and aspects of the race.
 
macs said:
Just a quick thought, would it be useful to use a flashgun? It'll be camera mounted as I have no way of firing it off camera.
Click to expand...

Sounds like an opportunity I'd like to trial trailing curtain flash...
 
macs said:
Sorry to be dumb, but what is 'trailing curtain flash'?
Click to expand...
Hey, I'm new to all this too, so I'm just as clueless, but as I understand it it's essentially a slow exposure with a flash at the end.

If you hold the camera still, or mount it on a tripod, then set the camera and flash to "trailing curtain" or "rear curtain" or "second curtain", then let the subject move into the shot you take, you end up with your subject having a "trail" behind them and then a "frozen" capture at the end of the shot. It's good for showing motion.

More than ever, a pic is worth 1000 words, especially mine!

I had a google, and these looked good examples (which link to pages about the idea):

#

Edit: Gah, the second image is better but the flickr user hasn't allowed reposting his pics. Here's the link:

"Second Curtain Flash"
 
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Paxie said:
Might be too late but the below link may be of some use

How to photograph cycling
Click to expand...

Didn't see that in time. But will have a good look at that link in due course.

I went last night and it was quite dark so coulnd't get many great shots but I did manage to get some decent panning shots - first time i'd really tried this technique but think i've got it mostly sorted now.

Will post up some shots when i've had chance to go through them.
 
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