Open Track Day

[OmahaAdam]

Haven't seen too many motorcycles posted here in the sports forums, so here's a few I snagged at a local track this season. First photo post, though I've been lurking for quite some time.

Adam





The Before...


The After!...

[Photo-John]

That first one is great. Love the concentration. It's great when you can see the rider's eyes.

My first sports shooting was motorcycle roadracing. I used to go to track days, shoot everyone, and sell prints. That was before digital cameras and before the Internet took off. I went to my last World Superbike in 2000. I could never get a photo pass, I quit riding my bike, and I don't want to try to shoot over the fence and around spectators anymore. 10 years ago it was pretty easy. Now I think it would be impossible. Now I just ride and shoot mountain bikes. Keeps me healthier, too

I still love roadracing and good moto photos, though. Glad to see some here. Stick around and keep them coming. What are you shooting with?

[OmahaAdam]

Thanks, John. My bike is up on stands for transmission work, otherwise I might not be shooting as much! So for now I must live vicariously through my lens. I've been very fortunate at this track; in getting to know the people out there they've let me get into the corner huts to do shooting. Otherwise, I'd be stuck in the stands, though there aren't many spectators in the stands on Thursday afternoons.

I'm shooting w/a 20D and when I head out to the track I use a 70-200L 2.8 IS borrowed from my day job.

[livin4lax09]

those last two look a lot sharper than the others, and the colors are much stronger. difference in PP? If you can make the first one look like the last two as far as sharpness and colors go, it will be an amazing photo. It has the action and intensity, just lacks what the last two have.

I've never shot bike races, but from what i've seen, if you tilt that horizon when they're coming around the bend, it gives it a very cool look.

[OmahaAdam]

I'll have to take a look at the PP and see what I get out of it. There was a couple months between the last 2 photos and the first one during which I was making a lot of pp changes. I'll have to reexamine and see what I can get from that first pic. It is a bit of a crop, by the time that rider got closer his eyes were no longer visible. Next season I'm looking forward to trying some different looks for the pics, including the angles you had mentioned.

[SmartWombat]

I agree, that #1 is the best of the lot - just because of the eyes.
I see #173 has a new bike, same helmet, same number, same leathers & gloves though

I was wondering if you'd changed your equipment, or technique, because those last images look a lot sharper.

[OmahaAdam]

Yeah, #173 actually owns a couple bikes. His Kawasaki seems to be his regular track bike. He got his Ducati repaired and brought back out to track day. Shot #3 was his first lap around and on his second lap he went down right in front of the corner i was shooting from, hence #4. Yet, 1/2 hr later he was back on the track and back using the Kawi.

After going back to the original RAW and starting over by converting to jpeg, my process was: Crop, Noise Ninja (custom profile), Smart Sharpen (110%, .5px, Gaussian Blur), image resize, Smart Sharpen (same settings). I tried the Smart Sharpen for a second time just to see what I would get out of it, pulling the idea from Brent's post in the sharpening thread. It seems to have made a difference, but for the better?...dunno, it seems a wee overdone to my eyes, but perhaps I'm on to something, conceptually.

I would have to say the biggest difference between the last two photos and the rest is a matter of post-processing technique. To answer your question, Wombat, the same equipment was used for all images.

Adam

[JSPhoto]

# 1 is definately a nice shot. That would make a nice 20x30 poster! Everyone else covered these pretty well comment wise.

JS

[OmahaAdam]

I sure appreciate everyone's comments and observations. It certainly made me rethink my pp methods. Posting is much better than lurking!

[JSPhoto]

yeah, now if we can get the rest of the lurkers to realize that......

JS

[livin4lax09]

MUCH better edit! I like it a LOT now. great shot!

and yeah, always resharpen after resizing. If not, it will look soft, no matter how the original shot looks.

[SmartWombat]

Originally Posted by livin4lax09

always resharpen after resizing. If not, it will look soft, no matter how the original shot looks.

Right, I have custom setting on Thumbs+ for resizing all my camera images to 640x480.

I calculated these in Excel to get 639.5 or greater on the longest side.
Using percentage resize means it works independent of orientation.
Trial and error led me to add USM every second resize.

Next step is to learn from the sharpening thread and adapt my USM parameters for better results. Though I need a translation of hte Photoshop settng to work in Thumbs plus.

It's Unsharp Mask Gaussian strength 4 (it goes form 0 to 6)
That has paremters -10 to 20 at 400% - whatever they mean

Minolta A1 2560 x 1920
resize 73%
resixe 77%
Unsharp Mask
resize 77%
resize 76%
Unsharp Mask
resize 76%

Konica Minolta A2 3264 x 2448
resize 86%
resixe 74%
Unsharp Mask
resize 74%
resize 74%
Unsharp Mask
resize 75%
resize 75%

20D 3504x2336
resize 73%
resixe 74%
Unsharp Mask
resize 76%
resize 74%
Unsharp Mask
resize 76%
resize 76%

1DmkII N 3504x2336
resize 77%
resixe 77%
Unsharp Mask
resize 74%
resize 74%
Unsharp Mask
resize 75%
resize 75%

1DSmkII 4992 x 3228
resize 75%
resixe 75%
Unsharp Mask
resize 75%
resize 75%
Unsharp Mask
resize 75%
resize 75%
Unsharp Mask
resize 72%