POTD 7 July 2014 - Peloton

[Mike Farley]

The Tour de France peloton captured at Canary Wharf earlier today.

[Paul Heester]

Wow, what a strong action shot! The bottle drinker is nicely separated from the peloton and you can see each front rider clearly. Im sure you were there in plenty of time before they passed and your patience has paid off.

[Mike Farley]

Thanks for the feedback, Paul. I have a similar shot without the out of focus rider on the left, but felt this was stronger. I have no doubts that there are some judges who would want the figure on the left to be in focus. Well, it did not turn out like that. I also had a lot more of the original scene which includes the crowds, but felt tha the crop was stronger. It was a question of which story I wanted to tell.

I spent an hour or so travelling in each direction and was at Canary Wharf, where I thought the crowds would not br so great as closer to the finish, 45 minutes before the main body of cyclists went past and it was all over in 14 seconds!

[davidb]

where I thought the crowds would not be so great as closer to the finish

You were incorrect about the crowds. They look as thick in your location as they were in mine (the Embankment, close to Temple) although I should imagine the the crowds in the Mall would have been horrendous to shoot through, over, under, around!!

[Mike Farley]

where I thought the crowds would not be so great as closer to the finish

You were incorrect about the crowds. They look as thick in your location as they were in mine (the Embankment, close to Temple) although I should imagine the the crowds in the Mall would have been horrendous to shoot through, over, under, around!!

The Canary Wharf side of Aspen Way was quite packed with people who came out of the offices at the last moment, the other side where I stood less so and I had my pick of vacant spots when I got there. By the time the race arrived, there was just one row of people behind me. According to your account, there were people standing in front of you, whereas my view of proceedings was unobstructed. Moreover, I was in the inside of a slight bend, which meant that the cyclists passed very close to where I was standing. You can see that there is a gap between the peloton and the crowds opposite which was larger than on my side of the road. The short end of my 70-200 (on APS-C) was almost too long.

[davidb]

You were lucky to find a spot.

I used a 18-200 EFS on my 550D and was luckier than you in that respect. I got a few shots where the focus was fine(ish) with the cyclists passing me blurred. So any shots I may enter into competition will have to draw the judge's attention to the in-focus area (with an appropriate title). Probably won't work!

[Mike Farley]

You were lucky to find a spot.

I used a 18-200 EFS on my 550D and was luckier than you in that respect. I got a few shots where the focus was fine(ish) with the cyclists passing me blurred. So any shots I may enter into competition will have to draw the judge's attention to the in-focus area (with an appropriate title). Probably won't work!

Judging by the two shots which you posted, it looks to me as though you might have used too slow a shutter speed. I set shutter speed priority to 1/250 and then adjusted the ISO to get the aperture I wanted. When I got there, it was ISO 400 to get f/8, but then the rain came and I lost a stop of light ending up at ISO 640 and f/7.1.

The AF on my Canon 7D was OK with single moving objects such as the cars and bikes which came through beforehand, but did not seem to cope so well with a mass of moving cyclists, although I think even 1/250 was too slow to freeze the action entirely.

[davidc]

Did you (all of you I mean) try panning to keep the cyclists sharp and the background blurry? It seems to perhaps suggest the people are the objects of focus rather than the cyclists.

Also, if it was shot close to f8, perhaps you could have manually focused ahead of time then, combined with panning, captured a greater depth of field on the cyclists rather than the background? Maybe even pushed a little above f8 and upped the ISO? With panning it should keep the shutter speed down to something manageable.

[Mike Farley]

Did you (all of you I mean) try panning to keep the cyclists sharp and the background blurry? It seems to perhaps suggest the people are the objects of focus rather than the cyclists.

Also, if it was shot close to f8, perhaps you could have manually focused ahead of time then, combined with panning, captured a greater depth of field on the cyclists rather than the background? Maybe even pushed a little above f8 and upped the ISO? With panning it should keep the shutter speed down to something manageable.

I wish it had been as straightforward as that. The road was wide, so I was not sure where the cyclists would be which meant that manual pre-focus was not an option. As previously described, I did check my AF settings on the vehicles which went past and all seemed OK. When the peloton arrived, it was closer than I had anticipated and went past in just a few seconds. All I could do was point the camera towards the cyclists, press the shutter release and hope for the best. I had the AF set up for the centre point with the four adjacent points assisting and maybe I should have activated all of them instead. Perhaps adjusting the AF to speed up its response might have helped as well. The light was changing all the time and I settled on f/8 as a compromise to ensure the cyclists were in focus and blur the background. In the event, conditions were dull and the light had dropped by a third of a stop since the last time I had checked it, which is why I ended up at f/7.1.

Bottom line is that this was really outside of my experience and based on what I learned next time I would do things differently. It has been seven years since the Tour last came to Britain, so not too long to wait.

[davidb]

My settings were ISO (fixed) 800; f/10 (camera set at AV); speed mostly 1/200, some at 1/160 and one at 1/320. Focal length was primarily 32mm or 50mm (wide-ish to standard).

I was therefore getting a lot of the race into one image at a good exposure rate but, as I had set my camera at SPOT AF and because of the angle I used (more straight on rather than at an angle) I finished up focusing on cycles further pack in the pack. If I could see what was coming it would have been a lot easier. I shot from the waist not knowing where I was pointing. A more general AF might have helped; I'll know for next time whenever that will be. Because of the success of this years race we might not have to wait so long for the next?


IT WAS A GOOD DAY OUT (apart for the light rain) ANYWAY.