mountain biking photography help

[GlennByford]

Hey, im off riding today, and im going to try and get a few shots of people jumping for my flickr. i have a Canon 450D and both the 18-55 kit lens and a Tamron 70-300 (nice zoom, but no IS and bad quality compared to the 18-55. but yeah any tips on positioning, flash etc would be greatly appreciated.


thanks,
-Glenn

[OldClicker]

There are some good bike shooters (and riders) here, so you should get some help. If no one answers in a couple of days (probably low traffic this weekend - they're all out riding), try asking in the Sports forum. Also do a search on the sports forum. - TF

[jorgemonkey]

What type of MTB images are you looking at getting? You could get a nice wide variety with those lenses.

[GlennByford]

both dirt jumping, and singletrail. locally my mates jump, but i prefer going out to the nearest forrest with trails but thats rare. on my compact ive managed to get shots like these

http://www.flickr.com/photos/glenn61...7622508993414/

but now ive got an slr, and ive been finding it tougher to get images to this quality (which is worrying)
so yeah any advise would be good.

[n8]

It's kinda odd to hear that having an slr is giving you worse images. I'd probably keep the lowest f-stop you can being out in the woods with less light, and use as high of an iso that you can to use a shutter of about 1/250. This will still give you a bit of motion in your shots. I don't think freezing them is always best, but you'd want to go to 1/500 at least if you.

[GlennByford]

just had a good day in the forrest. got a few pic's trying what you said. ill link to them once they're uploaded.

[GlennByford]

http://www.flickr.com/photos/glenn612/4657648900/
this is a self portriat i got today

[DLB1973]

The first two photos made it into DirtRag and the last was a self portrait. I am still working on the action and jumping photos but a great location like in the middle 3 pics really helps a lot!

db

[Photo-John]

Nice stuff! Location makes a huge difference. And for some photos, a good rider really helps. Bad technique can really ruin a photo.

Did DirtRag pay you? If they're worth publishing, they're worth paying for...

[DLB1973]

photo-john from mtbr? DR and I have done some things, but nothing big.
db

[Photo-John]

photo-john from mtbr? DR and I have done some things, but nothing big.

Yep, I am the same Photo-John. Running this site is my main job

I just like to make sure people are getting paid for use of their photos. It's so hard to make money as a photographer, or even pay for the habit. When publications use photos, I believe they should pay. And the mountain bike industry is terrible about trying to get photos for free.

[DLB1973]

Cool and thanks. They did pay me for this one, taken at the Matador Tequila Bar.