Cycling Photography Tips
Use your flash. Ever ask why the pro photogs on bikes in the Tour de France use flashes under a blazing lunchtime sun? The mid-day sun casts dark shadows on the faces and bodies of riders. Employing a strobe fills those shadows with light and creates richer, more dynamic photographs. Follow the pros' lead and turn your flash oneven when intuition and the bright sun tell you it's the very last thing you want. If you happen to use a point-and-shoot camera, you could need to change out of the vehicle mode and into fill-flash mode.
Select the right shutter speed. To stop action, select a shutter speed that's 0.5 fifty of a second or quicker. Many point and click and digital SLR cameras have an automated sports setting that looks after this for you. But don't be afraid to utilize a slower shutter speed together with even handed panning. As the bicyclists go past, move your camera with the riders and shoot.
This fusion of slow shutter speed and panning keeps the cycle rider in focus while blurring the background. It is a brilliant effect that, when done properly screams out the rate, excitement and drama of bike racing. A shutter speed of one / one hundred or one / 125 of a second is sometimes exactly right. For rather more dramatic effect, drop your shutter speed even lowerto 0.33 0 or one / fifteen of a secondand pan while employing a fill flash. Three. Be aware of backgrounds. Pro photographers pay as much attention to what's behind their subject as to the topic itself. When selecting a location to shoot passing cycle riders, mind what's across the road. The colourful peloton will truly pop when shot against a dark, uniform background. Covers of dark green trees are good, as are cliffs or open skies. Avoid distracting elements like light poles, nauseating buildings, parked vans or street signs. Anything that competes with the key subjectthe cyclistsis something you need to keep out of your photograph. Four. Shoot high and shoot low. Great pictures scare us with a fresh way of looking at the world. To make arresting cycling stills, try shooting up from a low-to-the-ground angle or down from up in the air. These mouse and bird's-eye perspectives work because humans are used to seeing bicyclists go by from the standpoint of our eyesabout 5 feet off the ground. By shooting from high and low angles, you create pictures that short-circuit the human expectancies formed by a life of seeing cyclists from eyelevel. Five.
Practice. Before today's auto focus lenses and digital imaging, changing into a good cycling paparazzo was an annoying and pricey company ( 15 greenbacks to buy and process thirty six slides adds up fast ). Today, it costs the same to shoot one thousand photographs as 36. So take masses of cycling photographs! Like any craft, photography rewards those that practice with better results. Find a local triathlon or bike race and spend the day messing with shutter speeds, flashes, angles and backgrounds. When you get the photographs on your PC, you can see what works and what does not.