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Downhill bikes – blast!
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Actually the event was called the blast :-)
#1
#2
Super place to try a little off camera flash.
Merv.
Great shots love the action and expression on the face.
Warren
Thanks!
If you want expressions….It may not be as sharp as I’d like, but for a guy with a flat back wheel, he was hauling ass!
Vibrant shots – did you use flash on #1? It looks exceptionally well lit.
Well spotted. I used flash in them all. in 1 and 3, there was a 580 on about 1/4 power just below camera level to camera right (sitting on the edge of the track).
in #2 there was the same flash tied to a tree on camera right, about 6′ from the jump as the sunlight was coming in from the left.
Merv.
Cool. How are you triggering the flash?
I have a few mates into this type of cycling – would like to capture them in action.
I was using pocket wizards, but there are a few other options out there now. The big thing is sync speed because most of the remote triggers mean your shooting in manual flash mode, and no high-speed-sync, so your sync speed gives you a fixed maximum shutter speed.
for me, that as 1/250 with the camera I was using, which meant that I had to close off the lens to between F4 and F6.3 at different times for my correct ambient exposure. Then I simply dialled enough power into the flash to fill in the shadow side.
on the shots on the berm I put the flash low because I wanted to fill in the riders faces – normally in midday sun, they are in shadow and you can see nothing. on the jumps, we were side lit by the sun, so I put the flash higher, about the same height as the camera.
if you search on pocket wizard or “ebay cactus trigger” or radio poppers you will find radio based options. Both canon and nokon standard systems use light to trigger remote flashes, and I dont find it reliable enough in these environments. for a start, I did’nt have a line of sight to the flash in either case.
As the flash is in a fixed position, it gets very repeditive as you’ve to shoot each rider in the same place, or near it at least. You’ll see what I mean if you look at my site, http://www.mervcolton.com and look at the blast event. I’ve basically got 3 different photos from all day, just with different riders :-)
Merv.
Cool – thanks for the info Merv. Must do my research..
I wonder if a homebrew “wired” solution would be feasable? 10 or 15 yards of wire and some sellotape? I don’t think I can really justify splashing out on Pocket Wizards.
Excellent shots. And as was said above it’s the expressions that make them.
Hi,
Yes, Wired will work just fine. In fact, if you get the wire organised and somewhere safe, it’s going to be 100% reliable, while any radio device will have it’s moments. And they can run out of batteries.
the shots on the berm, the flash was about 5 feet away from the camera, so this would have worked perfectly.
Merv.
Thanks for your help Merv. Going to try and get set up for a trip now.
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