you may have some pretty basic questions here about manual photography, which is good. I have seen a lot of people who just point and shoot for terrible results or set the camera on “automatic” and fire away, producing very bland, unimaginative photos. The best way to learn is to learn the manual way. I shoot a Nikon D100 and I almost never use the auto settings because they are often wrong in that they do not expose the photo the way I want it. Later on, you will learn that shooting bmx photos means you must use manual settings on your camera and on your lights because it gives you maximum creative control.

First, what camera do you have? if your camera does not allow manual control of aperture and shutter speed, the creative possiblities are pretty limited. if you have manual control, you will need to master the basics of balancing shutter speed and aperture for good exposures.

the settings you will use depend on how much light there is and what part of the scene you want to expose and to what degree you want to expose it. your camera should have a built-in light meter that tells you when the scene in the frame is exposed correctly. Learn your light meter, love your light meter, BECOME ONE WITH THE LIGHT METER! every manufacturer has a different kind of light meter but they work about the same.

start with your aperture set at, say, f/5.6 and your shutter at 1/125 sec. point your camera at your subject. your light meter should tell you if the setting will over- or under-expose the scene at that setting. if the light meter says it is under exposed, you need to let in more light by opening up the aperture (set to a lower number like f.4 or f/2. or a slower shutter speed like 1/60 sec. If the scene is over-exposed, you need to set your camera at a smaller aperture (higher number- f/8, f/11, etc) or set your shutter speed at a higher speed. Or some combination of the two.

Your shutter speed controls your ability to stop action. For shooting bmx, you want the highest shutter speed possible for your lighting situation. You can always achieve this by setting your aperture wide-open (f/2.8 or f/4), however, a wide aperture also means a narrow depth of field. ideally, you want a decent depth of field and a fast shutter speed to freeze action of a basic exposure. Manipulating your depth of field is a useful artistic tool because it can allow you to put emphasis on one small aspect of your image or show a wider focus on the overall scene. Learn how to use it in conjunction with shutter speed to convey motion and interest in your images.

When you have “perfect” lighting conditions (ha!), you can achieve this. Since perfect lighting conditions never exist, you have to do one of two things: 1. compromise or 2. manipulate or create the light you want.

1. compromise. a) If you are looking at your subject jumping a dirt jump and there is nothing but bright blue sky in the background, the exposure settings that your light meter gives you are going to have a fast shutter speed with a narrow aperture. However, when you take a photo based on those settings, your rider is going to be in a shadow or a total silhouette (which can also look very cool!). So you can compromise by estimating the exposure needed to expose your rider and sacrifice the sky. So you will have a well-exposed rider but the sky will be completely blown out. to do this, expose for the nearest object that has the same amount of light bouncing off it as your subject.

another general tip: shoot with the sun to your back, especially if you dont have a flash. if the sun is in front of you, it will over-power your subject and put him in a shadow. when there is no sun, or you have to shoot with a bright background, that's where flash comes in. more on that in a minute...

b) Another example might be that you are photographing a rider who is in sunlight grinding a rail but behind him is a dark, shady tree. When you meter the scene, you will need a longer exposure with a wider aperture to expose the tree and shade, but the rider, who is several “stops” brighter than the shade will be blown-out and over-exposed. So you will need to switch up to a faster shutter speed and/or smaller aperture to expose the rider correctly. The space behind him will be a dark, murky blur but the rider will be well-exposed.

2. light manipulation/creation: this is where flash comes in. you can create light with a bright constant light (waste of time), you can bounce, amplify or block the existing light (doesn’t work in bmx, too large-scale) or you can create your own brief bursts of light using a flash (or flashes when you get more advanced and spend every penny you have on radio slaves and other expensive toys.)

So in the event of scenario a), you can expose for the sky, then pop a flash or flashes at your rider so he will be exposed as well. How this occurs all depends on the flash you are using, the film speed you have and how fast your camera can sync with your flash.

every camera has a limit as to how fast it can “sync” with a flash or x-sync. For my D100, the maximum shutter speed that will sync with a flash is 1/180 s, although my maximum regular shutter speed is 1/4000 s. on my Nikon FM2 manual film slr, the max is 1/250s. some newer cameras sync up to 1/500 s. since a flash will only burst for many thousandths of a second, it will freeze the action even with an apparently slow shutter speed. this is why it's important to under-expose the background's ambient light, so you freeze the rider hard against the background and don't get blurs. Most modern cameras can handle at least 1/125 and some of the newest can do 1/500 or faster. If you have an older camera, it might only be 1/60. look at the shutter speed dial on your camera. Is there and “X” or a lightning bolt next to one of the shutter speed settings? That is your maximum flash sync. If you set your shutter speed faster than that and use a flash, your flash will pop while the second shutter curtain is moving, so only half or part of your frame will be exposed by the flash, creating an image that looks like part of half of a frame. Basically, don’t use a shutter speed above your x-sync if you are using flash. (there are ways around this on some modern cameras, but that's light years from where you are now. tuck that away in your mind for later.)

How you use a flash depends on which one you have. There are some basic rules to manual flash though. Many have auto-thyristors that put out a measured amount of light. when enough light bounces off your subject, the flash shuts off. this takes fractions of a second, but that's how it works. so if your camera is set at f/5.6 and your shutter at 1/60, you want to set your flash to put out enough light to expose a scene at f/5.6 to get an even exposure. the shutter speed doesnt matter at this point because the flash is so darn fast it doesnt even register on the film (unless you go above the x-sync of course.)

ideally with flash, you actually want to under-expose the background to make the rider pop out more. so if the ambient light (existing, natural light) is f/5.6 @ 1/60, set your flash to put out f/5.6 and set your camera at 1/125. this will make the background darker (under-exposed) but the flash will expose your rider correctly for the f-stop setting you are using.

setting up a scene and taking test photos is a good way to save time, energy, exposures and film, if you are using it.

to get a good exposure, stand exactly where you will be standing when you snap the picture and have the rider stand (pose?) for a minute where he is going to be when you take the photo. Look through your viewfinder and set your camera accordingly. Also, ALWAYS USE MANUAL FOCUS because the camera will never focus fast enough to catch the rider at the exact moment you need, unless you have a really fancy camera with a very advanced, precise auto-focus motor. Set the shutter speed, aperture and focus ring where you want them and wait for the rider to come back and do his thing. This is the beauty of bmx/skate photography instead of documentary photography, you get to tell your subject what to do if they want the photo to come out good.

You can also save money on film by taking your film to a lab and having them process just the film with NO PRINTS and have them burn the images on a disk. This costs less than buying prints and allows you to manipulate the images on your computer. If you don’t have Photoshop, download GIMP. It’s a open-source program, so it’s totally free and legit, no software pirating involved.

ISO 400 is a good middle-of-the-road speed. Use that most of the time while you are learning. When you get more advanced, use lower-speed films to get better detail. Most of the stuff you see in magazines is shot on medium format film cameras with ISO 50 film.

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