To the First Turn at Ky. Derby 2011 (Click to view LARGER)

Ken,

I like the image.

Where is the data ?

Regards,

Mike

For those of you who are interested, I have now entered the data for this image.

Ken,

I noted that you used ISO 1600 and F4. I would say that you wanted to stop the action, but your exposure was only 1/320 second with a 500mm lens.

I did not recall the lightning being that poor that 1/320 second would be required.

The image is good , but no where near as sharp as I see from my 500mm F4 Canon or 500mm F4 Nikon lens using the same camera.

Last observation: the image appears to be adjusted by the PS tool , Highlight and Shadow because the colors ,including the background blur are not as vivid as I seen from the 500 F4. Perhaps it is just the dust and dirt from the race that reduced the contrast.

I would expect that you did not use IS with your monopod , because the fast action was coming right towards you.

Again, I like the image. I just expected a bit more form the lens/camera combination.

Regards,

Mike

I really didn't have much of a choice than to shoot at 1/320 without going even higher than ISO 1600 I used.  I was already as wide open as I could be at f4.0  The skies darkened just before the race and I didn't really have any other options.  I had IS turned on and I hoped that it would help compensate for the slower shutter speed. I wasn't aware that IS should not be used on a monopod with the movement coming towards the camera.  Why is that? Is that generally accepted?  I  did have it turned on. I post-processed with Photoshop and Neat Image to compensate for the grain from ISO 1600, among other things.  If I had more light, I could have used a faster shutter speed - which I would have preferred.

As far as contrast goes, what you see is what I like in my images - more shadow and highlight detail that I have adjusted in PS. You are very observant and correct that I used the shadows/highlight function in PS.  The images that roll out of the camera tend to have less shadow/highlight detail than I prefer. 

That being said, I fairly satisfied with result, considering what was under my control.  If you have any more suggestions about what I could've done differently, I'd love to hear them.  Thanks for your comments.

Thanks Ken for your inputs.

I will contact you via email such that we can continue the discussion.

Regards,

Mike