Archive of ‘Sports’ category

Ice-Skating Fashion Show

Skaters out on the ice skating rink on the Plaza at Tysons Corner Center
Skaters out on the ice skating rink on the Plaza at Tysons Corner Center

Tysons Corner Center

If anyone asked me if I would ever photograph and ice-skating fashion show, I would ask them to check their globes. This sounds like something that would happen in Canada or Norway, not in metropolitan DC. But here I was last January covering a fashion show held on the ice rink on the Plaza at Tysons Corner Center.

If any of the models look like they are cold, they were! I know because I was extremely cold. And with the large buildings going up around the Plaza, the wind was also a player in the extreme weather! These models were definitely troopers going through with the show in these conditions like they were out on a beach in the Caribbean.

While the models were changing and getting a little blood back into their extremities, the audience was treated to some talented ice skaters! They have a similar look to the ballroom dancers that I have a lot of experience covering, but they move so much faster! They have beautiful lines and lifts that look so daring from the sidelines. I tried to keep up with the skaters, but I would love the chance to photograph them again now that I know a little more of what to expect.

When I was given this assignment, I definitely went in with only a small amount of confidence that I would be able to pull it off. I had a few more frames that were not worth keeping. I should not think of it as a failure as I know my percentage of ‘keeper’ photos was much smaller from the ice skaters. That is the challenge of doing action photography. There are so many difference conditions and circumstances that you would not have the opportunity to set things up perfectly for the camera. But you bring as much knowledge as you can as the music starts to play, and you do your best. I’m still looking for the next time to be much better.

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Content Aware Photoshop | Tech Tuesday

Outdoor Photos

It has been a busy week for putting in print orders – Thank you!! Some were talking to us about photos at the last ballroom dance event and had questions about dimensions of photos. This is an old discussion that photographers have been having for years. The cameras that most consumers use create images that have dimensions that are 2 x 3 natively. That means that to get the entire images onto a piece of paper without any borders or cropping, the size of the photos has to be 4” x 6”, 6” x 9” or 8” x 12”. Notice that the popular 5” x 7” or 8’ X 10” dimensions are not listed!

Initial-image-prior-to-editing-©TimeLine-Media
Initial-image-prior-to-editing-©TimeLine-Media

Photoshop Editing

In order to create those, some cropping is needed for these sizes. For the most part it means that something will get cut off in the frame. Please do not worry about this! As part of the editing process (that week where I am off social media and blogging after a big event) I am looking at each photo. With this in mind, I am cropping them down from their original state out of the camera to make sure the subjects are more prominent in the frame, and that they are placed better in the frame. This means that there are lots of cases where there is extra room where if you need an 8×10 print, I can redo the cropping to ensure nothing gets cut off, and all the important parts of the frame will still be in your photo before you receive it in the mail.

New Functionality

For extreme examples, I may have to do some Photoshop tricks to get things to work. At this point, this is where “Content Aware” functions do their magic. Using this example of my nephew riding a motorbike, you can see that the composition is not quite right. In fact, he is too far on the left of the frame riding out. A better composition would be for him to be more on the right with “room” to go through the frame. To move him back, I select an area around him with the Lasso tool: Select-subject-with-Lasso-tool


Then I click the “Content Aware Move” tool from the toolbar:

Select-content-aware-move-tool
Select-content-aware-move-tool


Then I just click the selected area, and move it down the frame – Photoshop will fill in the space that I cut him out with surrounding content.

Move-subject-in-frame
Move-subject-in-frame


In that way, I can move subjects around a frame, and put them in a place that is easier for cropping images. Not every case is as easy as this one, but if you have a specific request, please know that there are lots of options to get the final photo that you need in a specific frame dimension.

Final-edited-photo-©TimeLine-Media
Final-edited-photo-©TimeLine-Media

TimeLine Media – www.timelinedc.com
703-864-8208

Panning and Tracking | Tech Tuesday

Hope everyone had a great Labor Day holiday yesterday! It was a nice three day weekend, and it was nice to have a break from working on the computer. However, I did not take a break from the camera. I covered the last of the Tysons Corner Center concert series on Friday, helped a colleague cover a wedding ceremony and reception on Saturday, and Sunday was a track day!

I went out to Summit Point Raceway in Summit Point, WV to photograph cars racing in the Labor Day Double. There were lots of races throughout the warm day, and we had some rain storms come through during one of the runs.

Summit-Point-Racing-©TimeLine-Media - Panning and Tracking example
Summit-Point-Racing-©TimeLine-Media

Trying to photograph race cars as they speed by on the track is a fun photography challenge! As with all photos, I try to get as clean a background as I can. Around the track, there are areas where there are not too many tire barriers, but these are hard to avoid. What helps to clean up the background is to blur it out of focus by panning, or following the cars with the camera as it goes by.

If you have a slow enough shutter speed, only the car body will be in focus, and everything else in motion will be nicely blurred. This includes the wheels and tires on the car making a much more dynamic image. If your shutter speed is too fast, your car may be in sharp focus, but the wheels will be sharp. It may look as if the car is just sitting motionless on the track!

Summit-Point-Racing-©TimeLine-Media - Panning and Tracking example
Summit-Point-Racing-©TimeLine-Media


Set your camera’s auto focus to track subjects, then pan along with the cars as they go by and fire off the shutter as many times as the motor drive will allow. You will have a much better chance of getting at least one photo in sharp focus, with motion shown in the wheels. It takes me a few races before I really start to feel confident in getting good images. It is a fun subject to spend the day shooting!

Summit-Point-Racing-©TimeLine-Media
Summit-Point-Racing-©TimeLine-Media
Summit-Point-Racing-©TimeLine-Media
Summit-Point-Racing-©TimeLine-Media

TimeLine Media – www.timelinedc.com
703-864-8208

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