It's physics. From the base exposure settings I posted: You've halved the ISO which dropped the exposure 1 stop Then you open the aperture 2 stops which brings the exposure up 2 stops Then you halve the shutter speed which ups the exposure another 1 stop. Take into account that the original was about 0.3-0.6 underexposed to begin with and you're still at least 1 stop over. Shooting at 1/640 is way too fast for a normal rider doing 40-50 on a public road. The maximum speed for tracking that shot is, I guess, 1/200 and that's pushing it. 1/50 -1/100 may give the most dramatic results (circumstantial) ... but it's a 400mm lens so even at 1/200 you'll end up with camera shake on most of the shots unless you have a monopod, a VRII lens and/or a dollop of luck Last of all, on a 35mm camera fitted with an 400mm lens: @f/5.6 you have a depth of field around 8" at 10m, 18" at 15m and 33" at 20m distance so even if your tracking focus is 100% dead on then, unless they're 90deg to you, you should expect a portion of the bike to be soft. The reason 'they' say underexpose is because cameras store a lot more dark area detail than light area detail as that's where most images fall apart with noise and artifacts ... and that's why you shouldn't underexpose because the less 'dirty' the image is, the less you have to do in post. Try this. Set your (D80?) to manual, NR off (if it has that feature), ISO to 800 or 1600 - wherever it starts showing noise, and shoot a neutral exposed image of a subject. Now use your shutter speed to shoot a frame 0.6 stops under and a frame 0.6 stops over. You should find the +0.6 image has a lot less noticeable noise compared to the -0.6. Use an curves to bring back some of the contrast to the +0.6 and to brighten up the -0.6 Which one looks better? If you shoot raw, on most higher end cameras you can 'recover' about 4 stops in the dark area and 2.5 stops in blown highlights. Those are extremes, but if you're only about 0.3-0.6 stops over then your image is already cleaner to begin with and if you really want that high detail then you can easily pull it back (but it probably doesn't need to be there unless it's key ... like a wedding dress) Know your camera and lenses. Know their limitations and strengths. One of the best exercises to do that is to use some electrical tape to cover your LCD screen, set the camera to be 100% manual, limit yourself to 35 frames (like old film days) and go for a long walk for a couple of hours to make some varying interesting images ..... and no cheating it's a pointless exercise. Treat it as if it were film, so no deleting pictures as you go It's tough, but it's the best way I know to connect you to the camera which will free you to think about composition and content *disclaimer* Everything I said above is bullshit. Don't believe anything you read or hear on the internet. There are no absolutes in art. Everything is variable and circumstantial (other than the fundamental physics that cameras have to follow), so it's best to get out there and find your own truth Ultimately the actions depend on the final result the photographer is trying to achieve. In the case of the original image (remember that ... it seems sooo long ago), the photographer wanted to make money. From the 4 of us on that ride he sold 12 pictures. If he was doing tracking shots, the most he could have sold was 4.
well for a start I have to say I misread your original post about using a 400mm lens, these settings are the one used on that pic I posted which was for a focal length of around 50mm.thats why I couldnt get my head around you saying its going to be over exposed when I can open any of my bike pics and they are all around 1/500-1/640. I started when slr's were the 35mm so I do know how it works so I dont need the pcv tape just yet I know the theory behind underexposed rather than overexposed as an underexposed photo will always record more detail than the later and can be fixed which the later cant.when I do any filming with the SLR or my other camcorders I use the same rule of shooting low and neutral then fix in post production. a lot of this is covered in Fenchel & Janisch's youtube channel which is worth watching. it was also something that was told to me by stephen davidson once an I tend to trust what he tells me. thats not my D80 that's my tog mate as he took that pic of me on the duke, I only have the D5100 due to budget as I wanted a few extra bit of glass for it.
