This shot was taken of a rider going up a large hill at a local motocross track. In the background you can see other portions of the track, blurred by the movement of the camera as I followed the rider.
The only editing I did to the picture was a little contrast and some shadow/highlighting.
Statistics
Place: 25 out of 123 Avg (all users): 5.9887 Avg (commenters): 6.3750 Avg (participants): 5.8750 Avg (non-participants): 6.0413 Views since voting: 1156 Views during voting: 293 Votes: 177 Comments: 10 Favorites: 0
*Critique Club*
A great panning shot, good action, subject and colors. The focus is a bit soft, but not truly distracting. The background is nicely done and shows motion.
Cropping is a bit tight which kind of forces the viewer to see that some of the uniform lettering and other areas are soft, though the bike is fairly sharp. A bit more of the track in front of the rider would also move the subject to the left of center a bit and give the viewer a sense of perspective(where the rider is going).
The main colors here are red, blue and green always a good combo - the problem is the red and blue look a bit washed out, not hot, but lacking a bit of normal contrast. I believe that this might be due to the shadow highlight function, it tends to wash out colors. Next time you use it make a hue and saturation layer and give the dominant colors in your shot a little boost(try the individual colors instead of the RGB setting - they can be found in the drop down box).
Something you might try next time - Use a bit faster shutter speed (in the 1/125 or higher) capture the bike and rider in sharp focus, use the shadow/highlight function if needed, then use the hue and saturation function on your dominant colors. If the background is not blurred to your liking - then add a duplicate layer use the blur filter then a layer mask to paint the rider back in. (Though this might not be "legal" for a challenge here as it does add a motion feature - it would make for an excellent photo!!)
Overall - it is a good sports panning shot, a difficult technique to master, but one you have done a good job with.
Well this is my best showing so far in a challenge. I am not sure as to why I receive two 2's, there were no comments, even though the picture clearly met the challenge. Oh well... Thanks to all who left comments and voted, I appreciate it! Feedback is what is great, especially when it justifies a low vote so I can improve whatever was the perceived problem.
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