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xysmas
06-27-2007, 05:49 PM
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/xysmas/639369455/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1033/639369455_0b965c73bd.jpg" width="500" height="400" alt="Elated" /></a>


This was taken at Independence Pass outside of Aspen, CO. I was out there shooting Ride the Rockies 2007 and took a few promo pics before the bulk of the riders made it up the pass.

This shot was taken like so -

I had set my camera up at 18mm, ISO 200, F/10 for my promo shots here. The light was strong enough to stop motion at that aperture so I kept it there to keep the mountains nicely in focus here.

My body was set on the ground and I used my teleconverter and bag to prop the lens up and then took several test shots to calibrate my frame a bit more. The first few riders up were either not in focus, in frame, or not the main focal point of the picture. After about 10 people up, i got everything correct for what i was looking for and set my camera on manual focus mode to lock focus.

This shot was the last I could take before swarms of bikers started to hit the peak and I had to start really working again.


In PP, I cloned out a few distractions and added sharpening and HP sharpening as the rider was just a tad soft for my taste. I dodged her body a tad since it was a little dark and dropped a colored layer overlayed onto the sky to darken it a bit, and masked out the actual features not in the sky.

My only regret with these shots was that i should have taken them at a higher aperture, as the shots where there are as close as she was (6 - 8ft from the camera) they were a bit out of focus. What do you guys think?

Teewinot
06-27-2007, 05:54 PM
Love it! Great angle, perspective, color, and scenery! Wish I were there...:) At first I questioned the heavily slanted horizon, but it's growing on me and I think it adds to the feeling.

thingy
06-27-2007, 06:45 PM
Very nice shot and well worked up. Love the angle, both the low shooting position and the slant. Great colours too.

G

necktru
06-27-2007, 09:12 PM
Very nice, great and very difficult angle, congratulations. The composition is wonderful. may be cost some dirty clothe jaja

matthewchj
06-28-2007, 10:44 AM
Nice shot! I love the framing, the slanted angle works well.

wulf
06-28-2007, 11:59 AM
While I tend to be one of the "keep the horizon straight" crew there are shots, like this, where it looks great to be so slanted. I think that, combined with the low angle make the shot very exciting and, certainly in this one, the rider becomes the vertical figure holding things together.

Thank you also for the detailed write up on how you set up the shot - I'm sure there will be a few people who follow the instructions and end up with great pictures of their own.

Wulf

mikem12188
06-28-2007, 03:08 PM
Looks to me like you did all the right things for this shot. Please show us some more of the other riders.

xysmas
06-28-2007, 05:15 PM
Thanks everyone - I appreciate the input. These were fun shots to take and the event was awesome really - My first experience as a "pro" photographer. I'll probably post up a few more pics from the event (since combined we all took 10,000 pics and I took 3,000 of those) with write-ups as well.

wulf
06-28-2007, 05:23 PM
As long as it's not all 3,000! :D

Wulf

xysmas
06-28-2007, 06:55 PM
As long as it's not all 3,000! :D

Wulf

Ha, indeed. :)

s9am_me
06-28-2007, 09:07 PM
great shot! slanted horizon matches great... really makes it feel like you're biking up the mountain with her. Can't wait to see the rest of the pics