Playing with motion - Road Cycling Time Trial

[Chris350]

ISO 200 ND -4 filter, 1/125 @F/9 16mm mid-afternoon direct sun.
Trying to minimize a crappy background. It basically worked.
It took some work in post to pull the red/magenta cast back from the ND.

[Chris350]

Oh yeah forgot the on camera SB-800 in rear sync, at EV-3 or so.

[mattb]

I like the panning effect but you are right about the background. I'd say you did reasonably well with what you had but a couple of thing might have helped:

1. being closer. Was that an option? One way to minimize a crappy background is to fill the frame with your subject.

2. the pole right behind the cyclist is distracting to me. Maybe if you had been a few feet to one side of this location or timed it a little differently it wouldn't line up like that.

But still a good effort in what looks like challenging conditions.

[Chris350]

So my host moved soemthings around.. here's the finished shot..

Nothing to be done about the pole in his back the other angles are worse... Very cluttered background. Hence the blurs...
Closer wasn't a good option. To much speed, too fast to adjust to each cyclist's line in to the corner. Also filling the frame means more subject motion and much harder to stop. I caught about 4 usable for a couple dozen tries. I used a another section of the corner earlier and got cleaner backgrounds. This one is one the cleanest motion stops.
Also monochrome:


I also work to editorial standards so I don't clone out my backgrounds. This one wouldn't go to press, but I still hold the standard.