Freestyle contest

[Cascador]

Picture taken at the Geneva Supercross last week.

[Overbeyond]

Brilliantly exciting photograph. The inclusion of the cameras in the bottom corner adds all the tension that is present.
Tom

[Cascador]

Thanks Overbeyond.

Any critics that could help me improve for the next time I shoot sport pictures? Or anything to change in this photo?
I was thinking about a bit of cropping...

[CLKunst]

I think you could get away with cropping it just below the catwalk so the cyclist looks as though he is nearly running the edge of the image would be really cool. Brilliant shot By the way! My mind will not even let me imagine being inverted in midair with a motorized bike on top of me! You must have some very fast zoom lenses to accomplish this kind of frozen motion in an indoor environment. Sweet!

[Overbeyond]

I think you could get away with cropping it just below the catwalk so the cyclist looks as though he is nearly running the edge of the image would be really cool. Brilliant shot By the way! My mind will not even let me imagine being inverted in midair with a motorized bike on top of me! You must have some very fast zoom lenses to accomplish this kind of frozen motion in an indoor environment. Sweet!

I think that is a very good suggestion for a crop.
Tom

[livin4lax09]

the picture looks kind of flat. I'd try to bring the biker out more with some more contrast and saturation. Right now it's hard to pick the biker out of the background. There's not a distinct difference between them. Fun composition though, just try playing around with contrast and saturation.

[mtbbrian]

I think what it is missing is part of the jump.
It helps for a lot of reasons.
It gives the photograph some balance, plus it shows where the rider cae from.
Showing the other photographers is good.
Welcome to PR.com by the way!
Brian

[SmartWombat]

Great subject, good timing, captures the feel of that event nicely. Scary !!

Shooting into the stadium lights is tough, and there's a haze too, I guess from the exhaust of previous jumpers.
But all that makes it look a little flat at crowd level, and there's not much contrast between the bike and the background..

Was this automatic exposure or manual?
I have problems with the headlights of racing cars pushing the camera to expose for them and not for the car, so the image is underexposed.
If you took this in RAW mode you may be able to bering out more detail by adjusting it there before going to Jpeg.
It's definitely worth working on, it's a great image.

Yes, like everyone else I like the photographers in the corner.

[jakobevers]

Hi there

Critics - the focus is not on the bike but on the people i the back, When I shoot sports event, I only use one focus point (useally in the middle), for faster focusing the the objekt. And set the camera focus to track the objekt (AI Servo, on a Canon)

Jakob

Thanks Overbeyond.

Any critics that could help me improve for the next time I shoot sport pictures? Or anything to change in this photo?
I was thinking about a bit of cropping...

[Photo-John]

It's cool to see a moto freestyle photo here. I think this might be a bit tight. I'd actually like to see more of the photographers at the bottom. But the biggest problem is the lack of separation of the ride from the background. Two possible solutions are using a flash, or shooting with a larger aperture to make the background more out-of-focus. You didn't say what camera you were using so I don't know what kind of options you have available. I probably would use a larger aperture and a flash.

You can also improve this photo considerably with Photoshop. Digital images usually have a lot of information in the shadow areas. You can selectively lighten this to brighten up the rider and make him stand out more. If you have the full version of Photoshop, use a masked, Levels adjustment layer. That will give you the most control and deliver the best results.

[Cascador]

Thanks to everyone for your opinions.

I've used a Canon EOS 20D with a 70-200 1:4 L USM Canon lense.
I used the max aperture but couldn't use a flash because of the smoke. The pictures I took with the flash looked like there was a deep fog in the place.

Smartwombat: it was automatic exposure and not RAW but directly JPG. I took a lot of picture this evening so I couldn't use the RAW format.

Jakob: I'll probably use the one focusing point method next time.

John: Good idea for the masked layer, I'll try this.