Great colours in the trail, looks an awesome place to ride. However they have obviously used a flash on this guy, and a bright one at that, so, unless he is REALLY high, where is his shadow? The rider stands out so clearly yet there is nothing happening on the ground to suggest he is there?
Look below him in the image, the ground is lighter and the wet leaves have reflections, evidence of flash. The reason the ground is not lit to the same extent as the rider is because the flash appears to be low and pointing up. There is a faint shadow behind the rider but it is lost in the outlines of the leaves. Faint shadow would suggest a flash not being fired directly at the floor, which backs up the theory of an upwards pointing flash. I could be wrong but I don't think this is photoshopped.
By the looks of it the flash is placed near ground level with it pointing upwards. Look at the top of the front tire, its darker then the sidewalls. Plus his left side of him is detailed but his shoulder is not.
The flash was fired from close to the ground on camera left, so the shadow is not projected onto the ground. You can see the direction of the light from the reflection on his forks etc. That's also why there's no light falloff on the ground; flash pointing up.
That looks like a photoshop image of a rider with a cool background to me... theres no roost from his line and it doesnt look like a flash because the ground isnt lit up around him by any means... (considering not much light in the environment) and hes obviously on the ground or just barely off it... horrible pod.. what the hell is this
ok guys, let me tell you some words. i´m the rider in this photo. this shot was taken by my girlfriend with a 10mm wide-angle 3 meters above the ground. she used one flash light on a a gorillapod 20 centimeters above the ground. so i think this is the reason why you can`t see any shadows and the photo looks like photoshoped.
by the way: i agree with you and i even think this shot isn`t pod worthy. but dont worry - i`m sure tomorrow will be a better pod...
I really like the discussion that is happening now with the POD's. I questioned this shot as POD for a while, but in the end I decided I really liked it. The biggest issue I had with it wasn't the fact that it looked photoshopped, I like that part of it. What I struggled with was the composition. If the framing had been just a little bit down so the rider was a little up in the frame, less trees at the top as well, this would be a really sick shot, and I think less people would be complaining about it. Be aware that I actually do pay attention to a lot of the comments on the POD, at least ones that have some thought in them. I could care less about the people that say "worst POD ever" or "not POD" but the comments that describe what you like and or don't like about a photo are important. While it's easy for me to say the photo would have been better if the framing had been a little lower, actually doing that is not so easy. The photographer is obviously on a ladder or in a tree, and changing the angle probably would have shown that....
I'm not sure why people think that anything with a flash like this is photoshopped but that's always the conclusion that's jumped to first. It's extremely difficult to shop a rider onto a background, spokes and all, and make it look even half decent. It's a cool shot, reminds me of that first section in Life Cycles.
redrook- that was the first thought that came to my mind as well. I lived with the boys when they edited that section of the film and must have watched that transition 1000 times. Every time I look at this picture it screams life cycles.
Since the flash is pointing upwards where do people expect there to be shadow? The flash is close to the biker so has only lit up the biker and with a 400d the flash isn't powerful enough on it's own to light up the background, it's a good photo POD
The flash is clearly off camera, that has nothing to do with the on board flash. But you're right, a flash aimed up is not going to produce shadow. Also, if the exposure is enough to catch the scene without flash then any shadow produced by the flash would be eliminated by the longer exposure.
Cool shot and a good POD in my opinion.I love riding in the autumn on leaves and this makes me wanna ride.This should be the main criteria upon which PODs are selected.
To be honest at first I said why is this POD?? But some seconds later after I looked this photo more carefully I could imagine the trail continue for thousand meters in those orange leaves and trees.. it looks easy line but so dope to ride too! ahhh must be so nice feeling to be riding this...
Didn't know what to write? hardly... I occasionally leave no comment if you've noticed, usually to see what people have to say about a photo. If I explain in detail what I like or don't like about a photo there seems to be far less in the way of discussion about what others like or don't like about it. And sometimes I like to see what others think, it makes everything a little more interactive...
that's clearly not photoshopped… the flash was standing on the ground so there is no shadow on the ground but you can see one on the tire but i agree, energiemg has a lot of better pictures on his site
i dunno where you ppl got your "knowledge" from but its obvious how you can take a shot like this the flash simply doesnt aim at the ground and there was no sun to give him an obvious shadow.... its as simple as that, get real lol
P.S.: i dont realy like the shot aswell.... but photoshopped? no way...
oh and... you wouldnt believe it, nowadays you treat every picture with photoshop.... good morning! you wouldnt believe how much "photoshoped" pod's pinkbike had...
Look at the fork, you can see a black line off of it, not a shadow. Probably PHOTOSHOPPED! Plus the color of the background compared to the rider is all wrong
Neumarkt in der Oberpfalz, Germany 
and nice pic...
sorry guys ... do love the colours tho
Great colours in the trail, looks an awesome place to ride. However they have obviously used a flash on this guy, and a bright one at that, so, unless he is REALLY high, where is his shadow? The rider stands out so clearly yet there is nothing happening on the ground to suggest he is there?