Last weekend I went out to Fort Marcy to watch the cyclocross event that some friends of mine organized. As a keen cyclist, I was happy to be there for itself, but I also brought my camera and took some shots.
It was the first time I’d shot any cycling, and so while I’m a long way from being Graham Watson, but I enjoyed it, and came up with a few lessons learned:
Close, middle or wide
When I sorted through the images I saw the best ones fell into three categories:
1) Close
Just face, with some nice bokeh behind. Since everyone’s going to be wearing helmets, situate yourself so there’s some light on the face.
2) Middle
Shots of the cyclist pretty much from the waist up. Here it seemed better if the handlebars were in the shot – it provided some context somehow, to show that they were on the bike, and what they were doing
3) Wide
Full-length shots with the whole bike in. I bunch of my pictures had almost all of the cyclist and bike in, but clipped off the bottom of one or both wheels.
That doesn’t sound like much, but it made the whole shot unbalanced – as if they were floating somehow.
So I’d definitely recommend getting some ground in the shot to put the wheels on.
You don’t need a giant lens
Unlike a lot of sports, with most cycling events you can get really close to the action. Since they’re riding on a marked trail or road, standing on the side of the road, especially at a corner will the cyclists right in front of you.
Some of the shots I took with my Canon 70-200mm f/4 L, but some of them with my Canon 24-105mm f/4 L. The shot at the top of this page was taken at 70mm, which is 122mm when you take into account the crop.
Showing speed
It was a bright sunny day, so freezing the movement wasn’t a problem, even at low ISOs. But with this comes a challenge – to make it look like the cyclists are really moving.
You could do the slow shutter speed with camera panning motion blur approach (which I’ll try next time), or you can capture the moment when the cyclists are doing something dramatic.
If they’re just riding along in a straight line, it sort of looks like they’re just standing up somehow. But get people leaning the bike over in the corners, or get a really strong expression on their faces (or both), and it communicates the effort better.
That’s one of the many things I like about Graham Watson’s photos – they’re all pin sharp (he often uses a fill-in flash), but they really show the passion and commitment of cycling.