Cyclocross

[SunnySideUp]

Hello all, been a while since I have posted and these may go more in the Sports Forum but I was hoping for some critiques. There are six more races and I would like to get progressively better. I have four shots with different sytles for the lack of better words.

Let me know what you think of the cropping, DOF and panning... Anything else that you could think of would be cool too. Thanks All.
Enjoy
Shane
www.oregonvelo.com

[greg hxc]

I'd say the first (slightly) and third (more so) are both great shots lacking an overall sharpness. The second shot I like alot, although I may suggest expanding the shot or shooting from a different angle to better show what's going on. The fourth is excellent and shows a great sense of speed. The pan looks great.

[TwinsInParadise]

I don't know much about sports photography, but I saw your shots as I was browsnig and wanted to comment. I like the first three well enough, but the fourth is really interesting. The blur in the background of the still athlete and his bike is very cool... evokes speed and stillness at the same time. Nice.

[Spike]

Photo # 1: Wow, I can't believe a guy on a cross bike is jumping like that! I would love to see the ground so I could tell how far up in the air he is. Unfortunately, the focus in this shot is pretty soft. Overall the pic looks a bit too light to me too, try a levels or curves adjustment.

Photo # 2: Best focus of the four. IMHO works well as part of a series (as you've done here) than on its own.

Photo #3: Way too out of focus. Good capture of emotion though.

Photo # 4: Nice panning, gives a great blurred background. Again, not as sharp as I'd like to see, but pretty darn good.

Spike

[SunnySideUp]

Thanks for the critques...
#1... I actually croped out the little bit of ground that it showed... I found it more dramtic without it, because comparatively he isn't that high off the ground. He was just in the pack, knew he wasn't going to win so he played for the crowd...

#3... I have been playing a lot with DOF, getting better with non-moving objects but now have to work on objects coming at me with a fairly decent rate of speed compared to my lenses autofocus. Have tired some manual focus but still missing the exact spot... Practice, Practice, Practice...

Thanks again...
Shane