What would you want the photographer to know?

[leam]

My wife does well at outdoor portraits. This year she's been working with the local BMX racers and she enjoys action portraits. Not sports photography, where you take pictures of the event, but she spends time highlighting the individuals in the event. I may have her talked into trying some portraits at shooting events.

What would you want to see in a portrait? What suggestions would you make to improve the outcome? Is that something you'd be interested in?

Thanks!

Leam

[jar]

The tough part is finding the right location to shoot from. The pictures I like the best is when you can see the whole shooter and the target they're engaging. I think the trick is to find the points in the stage where you can get the best view of the shooter and just camp there. Trying to chase a shooter through a stage makes it tough to get good compositions.

[calishootr]

the late nyle Leatham(father of TGO) used to take great pictures of shooters, he was one of the first??? to use the remote camera's placed UPRANGE to get action pics of shooters faces(not their backs) as they ran a course of fire, his works were featured in American Handgunner for years...

[AzShooter]

Yep, that's the big trick, using a remote. You can place the camera where you will get a good action shot and then when the shooter is there take the picture.

Another attachment that works great is a sound trigger. It fires the camera when it hears the gun shot so you can set the camera and go away. The camera will do all the work. Use a second camera to take action shots from a different vantage point.

[leam]

One of the things we have talked about is letting the shooter run a stage empty. That is, no ammo anywhere on them or in the gun. That way the photographs can be very "down range" and instead of a tripod mounted "hope you're in the picture" shot or "wide angle so cropping and blowing up loses detail" shot, you can get exactly what the shooter wants.

Of course, the other issue is daylight. The best pictures are not in direct bright sunlight. If the day isn't overcast then the pictures have to be taken early or late in the day. That gives the best contrast for the images without washing out some areas.

Leam

[wide45]

One of the things we have talked about is letting the shooter run a stage empty. That is, no ammo anywhere on them or in the gun. That way the photographs can be very "down range" and instead of a tripod mounted "hope you're in the picture" shot or "wide angle so cropping and blowing up loses detail" shot, you can get exactly what the shooter wants.

Of course, the other issue is daylight. The best pictures are not in direct bright sunlight. If the day isn't overcast then the pictures have to be taken early or late in the day. That gives the best contrast for the images without washing out some areas.

Leam

Photographer down range of the empty gun?

Not acceptable.

[jkatz44]

One of the things we have talked about is letting the shooter run a stage empty. That is, no ammo anywhere on them or in the gun. That way the photographs can be very "down range" and instead of a tripod mounted "hope you're in the picture" shot or "wide angle so cropping and blowing up loses detail" shot, you can get exactly what the shooter wants.

Of course, the other issue is daylight. The best pictures are not in direct bright sunlight. If the day isn't overcast then the pictures have to be taken early or late in the day. That gives the best contrast for the images without washing out some areas.

Leam

Photographer down range of the empty gun?

Not acceptable.

+100

[Steve J]

Accidental shootings are always with "I thought it was unloaded" firearms.

Watch this. It's 5 minutes well spent. > http://www.guntalk.tv/gtv/library.php?video_id=284

LINK IS FIXED NOW

Edited September 6, 2010 by Steve J

[DarkSmileyX]

Accidental shootings are always with "I thought it was unloaded" firearms.

Watch this. It's 5 minutes well spent. > http://www.guntalk.t...hp?video_id=284

Link no worky...

[P.E. Kelley]

Remotes are nice.

Side views work too.

Better photos usually come from those who shoot and know shooters. Can you say Yamil?

I can count on getting better shots from the better shooters.....they can be counted on to break shots consistantly.

While "sound triggers" work they don't usually get more than one image per activation and only get what they heard.

The human photographer can "time" the event to capture some good stuff.

But I may not know nuttin.

Patrick

[edwin garcia]

I've setup my camera to face the shooter or at an angle that will dq my camera. I use a sturdy tripod and a radio remote shutter. I also carry 1 or 2 shoe mount flash rigged for remote trigger for shadow fills. In my experience, there are lots of safe(?) positions within the stage you can set your cam and flash and get a great composition. I also set it to manual to prevent the auto focus from randomly searching. I use a test subject to get the right focus and exposure then lock it down. Of course, it takes experience to be good at it and chances are you'll develop your technique. I tried it several times, it's cool but it just takes a lot of time off the real shooting so I don't do it as much now. But it definitely is cool and fun. Here's a sample

[edwin garcia]

I've setup my camera to face the shooter or at an angle that will dq my camera. I use a sturdy tripod and a radio remote shutter. I also carry 1 or 2 shoe mount flash rigged for remote trigger for shadow fills. In my experience, there are lots of safe(?) positions within the stage you can set your cam and flash and get a great composition. I also set it to manual to prevent the auto focus from randomly searching. I use a test subject to get the right focus and exposure then lock it down. Of course, it takes experience to be good at it and chances are you'll develop your technique. I tried it several times, it's cool but it just takes a lot of time off the real shooting so I don't do it as much now. But it definitely is cool and fun. Here's a sample

[Steve J]

Accidental shootings are always with "I thought it was unloaded" firearms.

Watch this. It's 5 minutes well spent. > http://www.guntalk.t...hp?video_id=284

Link no worky...

It's fixed now.

[edwin garcia]

Sorry for the2x post damn iphone

[High Lord Gomer]

Since she does a lot of BMX...

One of the biggest problems I've always had with photographers at MX races was that they would get a photo of a person in the air without any ground to really understand how high/far they were jumping. I'm no photographer, but when I do take pictures I try to get the takeoff, the landing, and the rider all in the picture.

These are old pics so the quality is poor, but the are both of the same jump. Even though the rider is is more detail in the zoomed in version, I prefer to see the takeoff and landing:

http://themxtrack.com/gomerjump1.jpg

http://themxtrack.com/gomerjump2.jpg

Similar thing goes for turns...I want to see the entry and exit, like this:

http://themxtrack.com/BillyTurn.jpg