My B&W attempts today

[ThoughtfulPirate]

I took a couple of shots today on black and white mode. I like the way they turned out. I also have some nice color ones. Here are my favorites.

First of all, I wish I hadnt cut his head off in this picture, but do you guys think it still works as a good picture without it? I really like the sun and all.



This one looks good, but his eyes are closed.



I like this one because of the contrast of his front rotor on the snow, I wish I got him a bit sharper, but i still like it.



Last one, Black and white. I saw that photo John had been working with higher ISO in black and white, so I tried it out on that one, shot it at 400.




Tell me how you like these.

[Peter_AUS]

This one looks good, but his eyes are closed.




This for example, so I got the photo, I don't think you mind, most people don't when it is a helping website, but forgive me if you do, just let me know.

I'm no expert by any means but just thought I would reply to your post.

[Poobah]

O.K. Thoughtful (or should that be Mr. Pirate?). Here's my 2 cents worth. I agree with Peter that these are too dark (at least they are on my monitor). This can be fixed digitally after the fact, as shown by Peter, but it is better if you can get them as close to what you want out of the camera (I am of course assuming you didn't want them this dark). You might want to study up on the theory on metering and exposure and then practice, practice, practice until you can consistently get the exposure you want out of the camera.

Secondly I’m not sure if the photos you’ve shot as verticals are best suited to that format (of course it’s hard to tell if they would be better as horizontals without seeing them as horizontals). In the third photo the front wheel is right up against the edge of the frame. Since the space behind the rider isn’t, for me, contributing anything to the photo I think it would have been better if you had left some space in front of the bike for the rider to ‘ride into’. The fourth photo is better in this regard – good stuff.

Also with the third photo, since the sun is behind the rider he is very dark. While there are plenty of great shots with the rider silhouetted I don’t think it works in this case. So in these circumstances it is often good to pop a bit of fill flash. You just need to look at Photo-John’s shots to see how useful a bit of flash can be. So I would also recommend you play around with your flash a bit more.

Keep shooting. I never get sick of looking at MTB shots.

Cheers, Poobah

[brianc]

With the first, if the flare was just a bit more to the right (in line with his head) then the lack of his head would work for me.

In light of your shadow post, as I was scrolling past #3, I saw some thing that would be neat and I think make a great pick. Take #3 crop it just about the fork arch. this cuts the top part of the wheel off, now look at the shadow, and retake the shot so that you get the Full rider shadow. This takes full advantage of your favorite part of the image (the contrast of the rotor and snow).

Of course you have to try and re shoot this, but I think it could be sweet.

b

[ThoughtfulPirate]

That would be so sweet to do that brian. I may try it if I am in a situation that I can do it again.