** EVERYONE please c&c? I'm new here! Thanks**

[DazzlewMissy]

Hi Everyone,
First off, thanks for taking the time to view AND read my post. I appreciate your time. And comments / advice is encouraged!!

I've been fiddling around with my Canon Rebel T1i for about a year and a half now. Here are a few photos to show my work. Please give me tips to help better my work! Thanks again!

#1 - A shot I took off my Hubby at his race at Dade City Motocross.
#2 - A shot I took in Tennessee at Loretta Lynn's Ranch for the ATVA AMA Nationals.

 

[dakkon76]

So you've been fiddling around with photography for a year and a half and you're ready to open up shop eh?

 

[Compaq]

Here are my views

#1
The first thing I noticed in this, is that it's quite soft. Meaning: you've either missed the focus or moved the camera during exposure. I'm guessing the latter, because everything in the frame is blurry. If you'd missed the focus, then something other than the subject would be sharp - now: nothing is.
Your exposure seems fine to me.
On your composition, it's good that the trucky thingy is placed in lower left => driving into the frame. Very often (most times) when dealing with motion, it's better to have the subject moving into the frame, as opposed to out of it (trucky thingy in upper right corner).
That said, you've cut off part of the vehicle (part of the wheel). That bugs me!
So, work on your panning and zoom enough out to be sure everything's in the frame. You can always crop out a little if you need to.

Why were you shooting at f/10 and ISO 400? You could easily get a shutter speed of 1/1500th here, which would freeze the vehicle. f/4 and ISO 200 and around 1/2000th of a second. No need for such a low aperture as f/10 in this shot, IMO.

What I would do: bigger aperture meaning faster shutter speed to really freeze the bike OR pan the bike, which should be quite possible at 1/100th of a second. I'd try to frame as you've done, but not cut off part of the bike.


#2
Technicalities: seems underexposed to me...and not too sure about the focus. Seems a bit soft, but hard to say on such a small size. Again, f/10 isn't ideal. Shot in auto? Auto often prioritizes smaller apertures rather than bigger and bumps up the ISO. This image is noticeably darker than the first.
Composition: IMO, there is too much dead space in this: left of the vehicles and under them. It took a while before I noticed the other bikes in the back. Not an ideal background (RVs), but you got to work with what you can.

I would lighten it, crop tighter on the bikes, quicker shutter speed.

I don't want to sound mean, or rude, but I would buy these. Why? See above.

 

[DisasterDan]

As stated previously above.
#1 is OOF - Out of Focus
#2 is underexposed - Or in other words too dark.

 

[DiskoJoe]

get.a.tripod.

 

[KmH]

Content wise, #1 would be much stronger if the rider were approaching, rather than going away from, the camera.

In #2 the intended main subject(s) is to small in the frame and lacks visual weight.

 

[Compaq]

get.a.tripod.

As a general advice, I agree, but I don't think it relates to these pics. Unless the OP was shooting at a very high focal length.

OP, can you post your exif data? (exposure info and focal length used)

 

[DazzlewMissy]

@ dakkon76 - Where I show my photos, people have no problem hitting the right click button so I put my name on it to let their viewers know who took the shot. Reguardless of the clarity.
@ Compaq - Pretty harsh.. lol but thanks. I use to shoot in the auto modes until a fellow established photographer told me how to use the Manual... (Before then I didn't know what ISO and Shutter meant.) So she said when your ISO is up but never over 800 your Shutter should be down and the opposite. I've been fiddling with it ever since. But as for the clarity I have two more shots (From different times..) which are unedited so you can pick at them as well.. thanks again!

 

[Compaq]

You might find the comments harsh, but they have all the best intentions

As for the two new shots, they are still soft. At which focal length did you shoot? And which lens?

But, ask yourself, would you buy blurry shots? Action shots like these are impressive if they are razor sharp. I.e. the earth flying everywhere would look wicked if sharp.

That said, they aren't bad.. Just, imo, lacks technical perfection.

 

[kcirtap]

The two new ones are OOF as well

 

[DazzlewMissy]

With all of these shots I'm no where near the ideal position for the shots, most, if not all of them would be 300mm. The lens is a 100-300mm telephoto.

I'd like to take sharp photos. That's my goal, but I always second guess if it's the camera or me that has the clarity issue. (Probably me haha)

 

[Compaq]

I'm guessing user malfunction How fast are they going? Sure, some lenses are just soft, but not like this, I think.
But seriously, what mode are you shooting in? Continuous shooting? How many frames per second does your camera handle? Are you shooting RAW or jpeg? Do you have abnormally shaky hands? How's your posture? If you give us as much info as possible, it's easier to run diagnostics and help you

 

[DazzlewMissy]

- These are amateur riders. They're consistantly in 3rd - 4th gear which if I had to guess runs about 40+mph??
- I ALWAYS shoot in Manual.
- Yes, it's on continuous shots.
- I'm not sure the FPS??
- They are JPEG images.
- No shaky hands.
- Posture's pretty normal I'm either kneeling or standing upright.

Here's what I do: I will try to find the best spot where I can see the section of the course I want to shoot. Then I'll get a few practice shots of other riders to find my angle and to help focus my camera. Then I wait for the subject I want to come into view and I hold down the shutter button for a few shots let up focus again just in case it blurred and press the shutter again until they are out of my view.
For most of my daylight shots I keep my ISO between 200-400 with f/4.5-5.6 and 400-800 with f/10+ my shutter speed ranges between 600-1200 depending on the ISO....... I change my aperature to try to find the best way to sharpen the subject, obviously it's not working.

 

[subscuck]

Did the established photographer tell you the shutter speed rule of thumb? To eliminate softness, or all out blur, from camera shake, ss should no less than 1/focal length. At 300mm, you want at least 1/300, for action, if you can get faster it's even better. I'm thinking the softness may be from camera shake. What was ISO and SS for these shots?

 

[Compaq]

Are you panning (following the subject with your camera) or holding it in one spot whilst bikes are passing?

If you don't want to blur the background, I'd choose settings which gives me the shortest shutter speed. I'd stop down a few stops to f/5.6 or f/4 or something (depending on how fast your lens is), choose the ISO to give me a desirable shutter speed (1/1000th or something). I'd angle myself so that I'm not shooting the subject at an angle of 90 degrees, choose focus servo mode or whatever it's called (focuses automatically when you're recomposing) and pan the subject and keep shooting. What is the name of your lens? Quick auto focus?
Getting sharp photos require no motion blur and crisp focus. If the lens is slow to begin with, that's not something you can fix, though you can sharpen a bit in pp.