Hey all, liking the new section! I have been using my Fujifilm S7000 for almost ten months now, and where I ride is quite dark because its in a wood with fern trees. I have been using a flashgun on the lowest setting and it always seems to produce a nice effect for the rider but the backgrounds always soooo dark as I have to run usually a shutter speed of 1200/second on the smallest aperture.heres an example:



Any CHEAP tips and hints on gettin a decent picture without using the flashgun? Ive been told about panning the camera and am going to try it but is there any other way? to get a normal lighted photo I would have to run it at a real slow shutter speed which wouldnt work for the type of shots I have been getting!

I have the flash on the lowest it will go.It does look blurred but It was very dark that day and My camera often has a problem coping with focusing in dark light like most.Alot of the other pics came out fine like:



I havent tried the ISO but it goes up to 600 and I usually keep it on 200.Ill try panning with a higher ISO.

I dont know,I usually use it in manual and do some test pics before I try out,but i spose if I whacked it into auto it would do it all for me....

hmmm,ill try.It should come up in red shouldnt it if its too low surely? what I ment about auto was surely I could just check auto to see what it recommends for the area and go back to manual to fine tweek it?

I'm probably about to say what Ady has above, but I'll say it anyway!

Easiest thing to do is Shoot in manual (M) mode and try to stick to the Same ISO and Same aperture (e.g f2.8 adjusted by holding down a button on the top right of the camera and turning the wheel) while you are playing around to keep things simple.

Ok, look at the camera screen/viewfinder at where the rider will be there is a little dial, something like -

I like to keep the shutter at 100th ish for panning...

but there are personal reasons for that! I like sharper images of the rider and I don't like dark backgrounds too much - as you can see above it can provide excellent images (nice 1 Roo) but I dont shoot many like that personally.
 
I use the camera in either aperture or shutter priority (usually shutter for biking) and check exposure on the nearest neutral area to what im shooting (its bad practice to take a pic to check exposure then delete it as its not full proof and hardly makes you think - photography is about seeing the picture and thinking about how you want it to look). After checking the exposure for aperture values I decide whether I need a larger aperture or not and adjust the ISO and shutter to suit. I then use flash to help illuminate the rider if needed and remove harsh shadows, the flash also helps sharpen up the rider whilst panning.

I dont mean to sound arrogant with the slaggin of chimp and shoot but really if its worth doing its worth doing right besides learning is fun and makes for waaaay better pics.





the two above (barring the orange one) were taken in crappy light with resonable ISO and shutters of atleast 100th with flash.

those are not bad likes! I love the face plant! pure classic! hopefully heading to canada in 2007... cant wait

crashes happen - besides feel lucky he didnt hit you! I got ploughed inot last race by a riderless bike during practice and on his next run (race run) he went for me again! luckilly i got out of the way in time and he missed me altogether, best bet is to scream encouragment like get back on or cmon!!! thats what our group does!

oh and sim4 i think you labled it is also a very good pic!