Old School On-Camera Flash Action With Olympus E-P3

[Photo-John]

I just wanted to share what I think is a good mountain bike photo I took this past weekend with the Olympus E-P3. Although the E-P3 is capable of off-camera flash control, I did this the easy way - kept the flash on the camera, pre-focused where I wanted the shot, and then panned with the rider. I used to shoot almost all my mountain bike photos like this ten years ago. Now I prefer natural light and if I use flash it's usually not on the camera. But this is still a good look and it's a solid, proven way to get a good action photo with a dynamic feel. This is also the best technique when all you have is a point-and-shoot camera.

[Tankus]

Dunno,............
but to me , the image gives the impression of a hasty photochop , particularly around the wheels , the riders doesn't appear to sit easy with the background , but superimposed on top

shadow from the flash , I guess ...but it makes it seem unnatural

[zerodog]

I like it. Between you and Jay you have me wanting one of those little suckers for backpacking and snowboarding.

The flash makes it pop bigtime. On this one, maybe a tad much. But on another not it would print very nicely as it is here. John did you use rear curtain sync?

[Photo-John]

Dunno,............
but to me , the image gives the impression of a hasty photochop , particularly around the wheels , the riders doesn't appear to sit easy with the background , but superimposed on top

shadow from the flash , I guess ...but it makes it seem unnatural

Fair enough. But... how would you have done it?

[Chris350]

I've never been a big fan of this style photo myself, because they do have a somewhat unnatural look to them. I see where many MTB mags run this style. Since I don't do much MTB work, I don't have a "better" approach. That said, the composition is good, my main dislike for the image is the gray black and white kit. It blends a bit to much with the background colors. Flatter DOF might help with that. I might have tried to catch him further toward the top right of the frame so that he's entering the image as opposed to exiting.. But since I shoot lots of road and CX cycling, I know how silly hard it is to get that framing/positioning.

[Photo-John]

Thanks for the comments, guys. I think it's interesting that the one mountain biker (that I know of, anyway) likes it and the rest of you are critical. That's cool. I have been letting the criticism settle and percolate. I agree that the on-camera flash doesn't look natural. This is a technique that was developed years ago to take mountain bike photos in low light, forest environments where not using a flash just wasn't an option. Since then, cameras and lighting have both gotten a lot better. I admit I was being a bit lazy here. I could have taken the flash off the camera - the E-P3 can trigger the hot shoe flash with the pop-up flash. But I also kind of just wanted to do an "old school" photo like this. To my eye, the thihng I could have done to improve it most would have been to use a slower shutter speed and darker exposure to blur the background more and make the rider pop even more.

[Chris350]

To my eye, the thihng I could have done to improve it most would have been to use a slower shutter speed and darker exposure to blur the background more and make the rider pop even more.

I agree with you here on this point.. On further consideration my usual approach is shorter DOF to obtain similar background result.