Commonwealth Games

[TG]

Here are some pictures from the Commonwealth Games Women's Road Race.

[philneast]

TG
Good shots as usual.

[pj1974]

Yeah, really good clear photos. Is it normal practise to crop some photos (e.g. cut legs / wheels off) and for others to include complete rider and bike?

I'm not a sports photographer, so I'm just curious... thanks for sharing!

Paul

[JohnG]

pj1974 wrote:

Yeah, really good clear photos. Is it normal practise to crop some photos (e.g. cut legs / wheels off) and for others to include complete rider and bike?

I'm not a sports photographer, so I'm just curious... thanks for sharing!

Paul

Paul - as with any other type of photography, the answer depends on what it is you are trying to achieve with the photo. Sports photos are most often about a single point of interest. When you want to highlight that point, you may be required to crop tighter to eliminate objects (or even body parts) that aren't relevant to that point of interest. There are some general rules for cropping though - you don't want to crop at joints - i.e. not right at the knee or right at the ankle.

Now, that's the ideal world. In reality sports action happens fast and often unpredictably. So, you don't have the liesure to frame every shot perfectly and you mistakenly crop something out. Then, it's a matter of working with what you have left. So, from experience I can say - sometimes the crop is intentional to focus interest on something (very often a face) and sometimes its a matter of "I really like this shot but I cut the guy's foot off by mistake". For the record, feet are a common thing to mistakenly crop off



TG - I really like the first two shots. The third doesn't do much for me because the helmet is a focal point rather than the face.

[pj1974]

JohnG!

Thanks for explaining, this is very useful info. Much appreciated you took the time to explain... that will probably come in handy should I do sports / action photography some time in the future.

I agree totally that the 3rd photo misses the "face focal" factor (FFF)! To me the eye is drawn to the helmet (or arm or leg in the sun). Still I think you've done some good photos, TG! Thanks for sharing!

Paul