Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

_ ... ---~---- - --- _ . -- - Top lef t: A 1/4 second sh utt er speed co m bined wi th an interrup ted panning tech niqu e "sees" Honda rider Ja ck Kindberg as a blurred im pressio n of speed rather than as a sharp realist ic image of cycle and man. Abo ve: Use of a 1/ 125 second ex posure lends cred enc e to this interpretat ion of Mart y Trip es' bik e squash ing ability. Left : Brad Lack ey s incredible low-altitude cross-up is en· hanced in this photo b y use of a 1/250 seco nd shu tter speed. It captures the blur or spinning tires and throws th e background slightly out of sharp ness, while retaining good detail in th e main subject. ... By Char les Morey Picture mak ing is basically an easy process. Simply stated, it invo lves: ( 1) exp osing th e film to light in th e camera, (2) d evelop ing the fil m to produce negatives, and (3) using the stencil-like negat ives to pr int th e fina l ph ot ograph. It sounds easy , and it is. A ny ph ot ograph er who 's b een int o it fo r a wh ile has th e processing steps organize d to th e po int w he re the y require no more than a tok en gesture toward concentration. It's just a m eth odical seq u ence h e fo llows after a da y of shooting fi lm . It's often tim es dull. On th e oth er hand, step numb er one - exposing the f ilm - rathe r th an f alling into the realm of repeti tio us tediu m , expands fan like, opening a limitless panorama of subjec t interests to the adventurous fi lm burn er. One f airly ex pansive segme nt of this p ho tofan covers actio n ph otograph y, And wit hin this area, of course, MX ph otograph y finds its niche. ... We'll attemp t t o deal wi th six areas of ac tion photography as t hey appl y to motocro ss. T hey are listed here in no p art i cul ar o rder: and it should be em p hasi zed that n o o ne o f them is mo re impo rt an t t han another. Or as a shaman priest wo uld put it . all m ust fun ction tog et her in glo rious harmony if you wanta get a bitchin ' p hoto. Peak of the action Every ac tion has a point. o r a climax if you pr e fer , where it reac hes a maximum. ln a class ic cross -up jump sho t, it 's th e inst an t that the rider attains his highest alt itude and h as th e front end slap ped side ways fu ll agai ns t th e stops. If it's a be rrnshot , th e ins ta n t occurs just afte r th e bike sla ms agains t th e berm. The susp en sio n, wh ich h as probabl y be en b ottomed O U I, re bounds: the rear wheel breaks loo se afte r getting its bite at the point of im pact; the rid er is bu sy sh if t ing his wei gh t to stay o n top an d maintain tr action; and if y o u're lu cky enough th e front wh eel will lift six o r eight inch es o ff the tr ack, Click . Gotcha! The hardest part abou t catc hi ng the ex act peak of the ac tio n is learning 10 anticipate it. If yo u do it co rrectly , yo u won't ac t ually see it th ro ugh yo ur sing le len s reflex b ecause t he mirr or w ill b e up while the sh utte r m akes th e expo sure. Or , co nversely, if you DO see it: you missed the sho t. I t ' s easy to pract ice your PotA technique , however, and it does n't co st a cen t in wast ed fil m. When y o u set up for any p art icu lar photo , watch th e action through the viewfinder for a few min ute s. T h ink slow mo tio n . Try to dissect the m o vem en t an d determine the exac t peak . Rea lize th at in orde r t o catch it y o u'll have to re ac t with your shutter button finge r a sp lit second befor e the peak . Yo u should be rewarded with a: greate r pe rce nfage o f good shots, and it ge ts be tter and bette r the m OTC' y o u practice. Focusing While yo u 'r e still in posit ion for th at Pot A practice session. take the po in t tha t yo u 've selec ted as th e peak and double chec k t o see if yo u're fo cu sed exactly o n it, In almost all ac tio n photos , the simp lest an d mo st ob vio us meth od for acc urate focusi ng is to det erm ine a po int o n the grou nd wh e re the peak will occur and focus on it. T he n just relax and wait fo r yo ur subjec t t o ride through. Trying to focus o n a moving rider (fo llo w-focusi ng), is difficult and should be done only when there's no other wa y . Sometimes you'll be ca ugh t in the awkward position of being able to see a dynamite shot coming when y o u're not pre-focused and ready. Always attemp t to "grab" the photo by follow - fo cusing and using a fast shutter speed if there's time to check it. Lu ck helps, Tri-X film , o r an y o the r brand of high speed stuff helps, t oo . Tri-X's normal AS A rating is 400, fast enough to use a ct ion -st opping sh u tter speeds on a sunny day with an f-st op setting in the f·11 t o f·16 range. These apertu res allow an extra margin for error in focusing because they give grea te r depth of field ; that is, more of t he area in fro nt of, and behind, the p o in t of fo cus will be ac ceptably sh arp. An added bonus is the availa b ility o f these films in bulk ( 100 ') ro lls. It's well w orth the expense o f purchasin g a film lo ader when y o u realize th at it'll co st less than a penny ea ch time yo u push th e button. The ch ea per it gets , the more ph otos you can take. Shutter Speeds In ac tio n ph oto graph y it m akes sense to use a "sh u tte r spee d preferred" meth od for setting the right exp osnre. It's also im portan t to have a p rac tical un ders tanding of wh at the vario us shu tter speed settings will d o for yo u. (Once you det ermine which effec t you want from t he sh utte r sp eed setting, just dial in the co rre c t aperture acc o rdi ng to th e light meter reading .) J /I 000 second. Don't ge t moody if y o ur came ra d oesn' t have this setting. It 's not good for much, anyway . One of th e places wh ere it d oes come in handy, how ever, is wh en yo u ' re cro uc hed at th e foot o f a jump with a normal or wi d e -an gl e len s o n th e ca m e ra. O fte n times , yo u wo n 't be ab le to see the riders com ing until they suddenly burst o ver th e crest. Tak ing th ese shots requires a qu ick " grab-shot" react ion; and the I fl 000 second sp eed helps

• Cover