Olymic Pictures

Is it OK to discuss both the artistic and technical aspects of those photos?

Dan, you have been allowed to in both previous threads, nobody has stopped you expressing your opinion on photography. Perhaps the way you've behaved is why people are not listening.

@AlanSh I've said everything twice now, and am not going to repeat myself again. Perhaps just removing the last few posts would've been better? All you've achieved here is to decrease everybody's involvement. See who comes back and who doesn't...

Yes I wasn't stopped from posting but you and Nigel made it very clear you preferred I didn't comment on the technical aspects.

It was the resultant to'ing and fro'ing that caused the first 2 attempts to run this thread to end up in the dumpster.

Let's hope this is 3rd time lucky for this thread and it runs its course.

The link is missing Alan.

I made what I believe to be intelligent on topic replies to the first two attempts to make this a conversation between adults. Why did you not just trim the last attempt? It started of well until...........................................

It is a great set of pictures with a lot of lessons to learn, but I cannot be bothered to repeat my posts as I certain the thread will end up the same way as the other two attempts-

Sure, I had some fun when the thread had irredeemably run off the rails.

You also made a significant contribution to the first 2 attempts ending up in the dumpster. Even Andrew posted words to that effect in the second attempt.

You posted your opinion that lambertj at dpreview and danhasleftforum here are 2 different people and accused danhasleftforum of stealing a photo from lambertj without posting any proof they are 2 different people.

You also didn't post anything that eliminated the possibility that lambertj stole the photo from danhasleftforum or had permission from danhasleftforum to post the image if they are 2 different people. You have effectively left yourself wide open for anyone to justifiably think of you as a liar.

Any case, I put my face mask on and dived into the dumpster to retrieve the link.

www.theguardian.com/sport/article/2024/aug/12/shoot-like-a-pro-how-the-best-photos-of-the-paris-olympics-were-taken#img-7

I'm off to take a shower now 🙂

Ok let me see if I can reconstruct my earlier thoughts.

If you read through the comments made by these photographers, you can see that a lot of pre planning went into being in the right place at the right time.

A lot of thought and planning went into setting up a camera at the bottom of a swimming pool and making luck happen, to get a unique picture. The guy who shot the weightlifter knew what shot he wanted even before he entered the arena. Nearly all the shots demonstrate that planning is a vital part of getting a good shot.

Why are these shots so good? Because they tell a story. The Ukrainian high jumper, tells us about patriotism via her yellow and blue eyeshadow. The weightlifter with his expanded neck viens and facial expression tells us about the difficulty of lifting heavy weights. The blurred cyclists convey speed.

There are important lessons in these pictures that can help improve our photography. We can learn to plan a photographic trip and be prepared to achieve our photographic goals much better.

We can look at the framing and compostions of these shots. They all get their point across very quickly.

These are all agency shots. The photographer must have top notch technical skills as these pictures are almost always out of camera JPEG, as they need to be transmitted to their agency, to stay ahead of the pack. Timing is now measured in minutes. We want to see news photography almost as it happens. Just take a look at any online newspaper.

The Guardian received nearly 16 million photos during the Olympics (~62,500 per day).

It appears they invited photographers from wherever to submit their best photos and the Guardian posted a selection of their favourites.

Source: www.theguardian.com/sport/article/2024/aug/12/shoot-like-a-pro-how-the-best-photos-of-the-paris-olympics-were-taken (17 Aug 2024)

These are all amazing photos that required planning (any professional photographer worth their salt will do significant planning for an event like this).

Given the very large number of photographers that submitted photos some would have been sooc jpegs and some would have been processed from raw. There is no exif in any of the "final cut" photos so I can't tell with certainty if they are sooc jpegs or not.

I suspect the photos of fast moving action were shot either in shutter priority with auto ISO or aperture priority with a minimum shutter speed set and auto ISO.

Fwiw, for fast action shots I normally use aperture priority with a minimum shutter speed set and auto ISO.

The composite soccer match shot is one of my favourites. Assuming there was no immediacy requirement to submit the final photo, given the photographer stated it took a long time to put together, I suspect the photographer would have shot raw to help minimise visible noise and processed the individual images and final composite in a layer driven app like Photoshop.

The composite is in my top 3 favourites. The final image is amazing given the challenge of blending the individual images into a seamless composite with so many elements.

The "Marchand underwater by Marko Durica (15-35mm, 1/200th sec, f/2.8, iso 2000)" photo is also amazing. I don't know if it was processed/edited in camera or in post but unfortunately the hands look a little too rubber or plastic like which detract from the image for me. They are an unfortunate eye-magnet for me.

"Floating surfer photo by Jérôme Brouillet" is my second favourite photo. It's a great capture. Almost certainly part of a burst sequence and talk about being at the right place at the right time for the photographer 😀.

My favourite photo is "Kayak cross by Tom Jenkins". Whether it's a sooc jpeg or processed from raw doesn't matter. It's a sensational photo capturing the action at the start of the race.