cyco

[tbond]

This shot taken handheld at local skate ramp in bright sun.
Canon 550d, sigma 170-500.
ISO 500, f5, 1/600 sec

http://www.photography.ca/Forums/members/tbond/albums/action/13409-cyco-2c.jpg

[Bambi]

excellent moment captured! well done!

[Anuj]

strangely, I almost feel like i am upside down right now...nice

[edG]

well captured!

[Iguanasan]

Nice action shot. I may be mistaken but it looks like you added some Gaussian blur to enhance the subject as to me the background doesn't look "right", I'd like to see the original. The simple trees in the background should be good enough even if they're not very "bokeh". Also being able to clearly see the other parts of the skate park (bottom right) would lend more context to the shot.

Very good control of exposure but the elbows are just a little too bright. With the harsh lighting conditions you probably couldn't do much better as you may have lost a lot of detail in the blacks but another stop under might have been better. Also, I would have loved to be able to see his face.

Overall a very good action shot though.

Oh, and one more small thing. "Psycho" is the word you are looking for, I think, as a title.

[tbond]

Yes, Gausian blur was applied to background in an attempt to focus on the cyclist. Some cropping was also applied.
As for the title... maybe my play on words missed the mark, psycho was in my mind, imagine stuffing this up with no helmet! However I went with 'cyco' to combine cyclist and psycho. Just my warped sense of humour. Below is the original.

http://www.photography.ca/Forums/members/tbond/albums/action/13489-cyco-original.jpg

[Iguanasan]

He really doesn't look like he's got enough room to land... I hope he made out OK! :)

[tbond]

He landed it safely!
So... Is it better with or without the background blurring?
How does one know when to blur or not to blur?

[Iguanasan]

Well, it's really a bit of a personal choice as to how much you blur. In this particular instance the blur, I thought, was overdone and so it didn't look right. By leaving more depth of field here and not blurring the background as much it gives the image context as you can see the skate park that the guy is biking in. It's always a choice. In this particular case, because the blurring was manufactured rather than natural I didn't like it as much. Maybe it was a matter of degree. Maybe you could have blurred it less?

[tbond]

thanks, I will have another attempt with a little less blur.

[pixieplease]

I think if you work on just blurring the background, maybe 50% what you did, and keep the foreground in focus, it will look much better.

[asnow]

In addition to inproving the blurr, the other other thing I find is the rock and wall, in the foreground a distraction. Perhaps a lttle better angle to remove these would have helped.