I rode over to the Brentwood Crit with Kevin this morning. I took along the Canon 5D camera and had fun experimenting with three very different lenses. I think I like the results. This will get a little technical, but I wanted to write down and think about what happened.
First: Lensbaby composer, women's category 3 / 4 race: All sense of motion is from the distortion of the composer lens. Shutter speed was a very high 1/2000 second so everything was frozen. I am almost lying on the sidewalk! Kind of fun. I did not get run over.
Second: Lensbaby zone plate, men's category 55+ / 60+ race: This one is at 1/15 sec because not much light is getting through the zone plate, which has an effective aperture of f/19. Getting an effective background was a big challenge with this 'lens' - it had to be simple and fairly light colored or everything became a jumbled mess. The image is worked a bit further in Color Efex Pro. I like the effect. Will have to play with both of the Lensbaby options some more.
Third: Used the Canon 24-105mm zoom lens, and applied a more common treatment of a bike race - lens at 105mm, 3 stop neutral density filter to slow things down, pan with the action. This is Rick Lilleberg wearing last year's club kit, racing in the men's 55+ / 60+ race. ISO 100, f/16, 1/13 second.
