Sports Photography - Evening Mountain Biking

I was riding around this park just this past Wednesday (Feb. 18th) and came upon some guys doing some jumps on their mountain bikes. I immediately busted out my camera and starting snapping some shots. This is my first time really taking shots of anything in action.All were shot in RAW. Edited in DPPfor brightness,sharpness, contrast, and saturation (practically the whole gamet).What can I do to take better shots? I am shooting in one shot focus. I tried AI Servo in burst mode but with an XS 3 fps did me no good. Also, I already know some of them are overexposed, how do I combat that?


Canon Rebel XS, Av Mode, Canon 75-300 f/4-5.6 III USM, 1/400, f/4, 75mm, ISO 200[img]/cfs-file.ashx/__key/CommunityServer.Components.UserFiles/00.00.00.26.45/IMG_5F00_2678.jpg[/img]


Canon Rebel XS, Av Mode, CanonEF-S 18-55 f/3.5-5.6 , 1/800, f/4.5, 37mm, ISO 800


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Canon Rebel XS, Av Mode, CanonEF-S 18-55 f/3.5-5.6 , 1/200, f/4.5, 36mm, ISO 100


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Canon Rebel XS, M Mode, CanonEF-S 18-55 f/3.5-5.6 , 1/200, f/5.6, 18mm, ISO 800


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Thanks in advance for all your comments, critiques, etc.

Bike Trials (the form of cycling their doing) are a blast to watch. Watch a guy leap from a stand stillto 8 feet in the air is amazing.


I used to do trials some, and in cycling in general you want to shoot a side to 3/4 frontal angle on the riders. Anticipate where the jumps and/or obstacles are. If your having problems with expouser, use center weighted or even spot meter. We shoot riders generally at 1/650 or faster and adjust ISO and exp to account for light. Shooting at a slow speed will also give some cool movement in the legs and wheels of the rider and the bike.


Overall, I like the shots, brings back memories.

Better? Both are cropped tighter than the out-of-camera shots.


Canon Rebel XS, M Mode, CanonEF-S 18-55 f/3.5-5.6 , 1/1250, f/3.5, 18mm, ISO 400


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Canon Rebel XS, M Mode, CanonEF-S 18-55 f/3.5-5.6 , 1/2500, f/3.5, 18mm, ISO 400


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Shots are not too bad considering the angle, camera and lens. A frontal angle would have been better because you could have captured not only the riders facial expressions but had the rider coming at you more instead of going away. You could have captured some nice silhouettes too shooting into the sun for an artsy look. An f/2.8 lens like the 70-200 2.8L would have blurred out the background more and made the riders pop with a faster shutter speed.

Those are some nice shots. Many of them look like they could use a bit of fill flash. A speedlight would help. I agree with the last post, a more blurred background would be of benefit as well.

Definatly better the 2nd time around. Try center or spot metering the riders. When shooting sports like trials and cycling events, be wary of using a flash in close proxmity to the riders. It has been known to distract them and cause a crash.

Try this, use wide angle lens take the shootslayback on the ground...