Half marathon in Milan, Italy - Full body photos

ZapoTeX · Mar 25, 2012

C&C always very much appreciated!

Thanks in advance!

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AceCo55 · Mar 26, 2012

#1: love this. Super expression ... you can just feel his pain and effort. If you could have used a wider aperture, it would have blurred the background out more so it didn't compete quite so much. (But it must have been bright light. ISO 200, 1/800 and f7.1 so you would have had to up the shutter speed to get a wider aperture)
#2: this is my pick of the set. Dynamic runners, the crowd going nuts and getting involved. Make for great emotional scene. Light is coming from good direction to light them up. (Nitpick? that little yellow "marker" in bottom right. I realise that you may have no/little control over whether it could have been avoided)
#4 is the odd one out - here the light is coming over the runner's right shoulder casting a shadow over him. (I hate it when I have to take shots with that backlight)

This whole set seems significantly sharper to my old eyes than the "close-ups" in the other thread.

Nice work - hope you had an enjoyable day!

ZapoTeX · Mar 26, 2012

Hi AceCo55, thanks for the very interesting comments on this thread too!

I DID have all the room I needed to use a wider aperture, the faster the shutter better. Interesting learning from these two threads: one setting only does not fit both full bodies and close ups. I should use wide apertures for full bodies (where the AF is more "relaxed" and you need to isolate the subject) and narrow ones for close-ups (where the AF is heavily stressed and DOF is low anyway). This is an interesting thought that I can't wait to experiment and that wouldn't have crossed my mind without the conversation with you. Thanks!

Number 2 is the only photo in the set that has been significantly cropped! Interesting that it is your favorite. By the way, they were the first 2: the winner, an Ethiopian, and the runner-up, an Italian.

Number 4 is the only one in the "second" of the two angles I tried. One of the official photographers of the race was shooting right next to me and I thought that meant the second angle was better than the first one! I actually thought that the reason for this was exactly the light coming from a side, which makes shapes more three-dimensional. I probably made some mistakes in post-production.

Thanks a lot again for the good words and for the very useful feedback!

brian_f2.8 · Mar 30, 2012

rock solid, i like these much better. the other cropped ones didnt do anything for me. i understand what you were trying to do but I didnt like it. these are useful photos.