Motorsport photography Part 2

[calcium]

Hi ginettag27. I bought a Canon EOS 300 with a 75-300mm lens. I'm using 400 film and I've got a couple of books from the library (very basic which is what I need!!)

I'm using the programme settings and you're right they are very hit and miss. Thanks for all the advice, it really is useful.

I would be very willing to take any advice/criticim on my photos, that's how I learn to improve, but I don't know anyone who could cast a knowledgeable eye over my first attempts, maybe I could post a few here for you all to give me advice on??

[bella]

tell you what, practice panning shots. i use about 1/80th and whatever aperture (set the shutter speed, and let it do the rest), and the occasional picture that comes out really well is sooo satisfying... when you're doing head on shots, or stuff that requires a fast shutter speed, make sure you're got the biggest aperture setting you can get (f6.3 with my 50-500).

it's definitely down to practice. don't use the programme settings, they encorage laziness. i've just got a nikon d100, and apart from taking 600 pictures at gp practice day (and getting about 250 really good ones), i've found i could lean on the auto settings and get a lower hit rate, but still get loads of good shots. bad move, film's expensive (and i don't fancy shelling out for another microdrive...).

just play around, half the fun's in discovering one time you've got a whole load of useless shots, and the next finding you're a short term photographic genius...

[SolemHill]

Some of my personal learnings….

Having spent about 18months out of four years love of photography trackside I have to say that if you want practice do get along to Oulton the press guy there is extremely friendly and is willing to sign on freelancers. Get your face known first though. The guys and gals in the pits there are good folk too and will chat with anyone......get them to recognise you and they'll probably give a nod if asked about you. During most club meetings there are usually about five or six snappers on the day (including me!) and usually only two of them are accredited ( autosport MSN ).

The only lesson I learnt very slowly was there isn't a program for motorsport that works on most cameras and even the quickest autofocus generally misses the moment. Use the camera with a separate light meter and a long lens, set up a "kill zone" with the right D-O-F to cover the piece of track you want, check the shutter speed is above your focal length and you should be OK. I always go for the landscape shot with as many cars in the way as I can, Oulton being as picturesque as it is you can't go far wrong - take a look at TOCA-tour.com's galleries of the Oulton Rounds.

Autosport and Tom Dooley are both wanting pictures of club sport racing showing packs of cars – not individuals. tom is the secretary for BRSCCNW I think - but he does the programs for oulton and is always on the lookout for shots for the cover and inside, you can get his details at www.brsccnw.co.uk you won’t get paid – but you will get credited inside - something to show to teams \ autosport \ MSN and anybody else under the banner of published work. He and Alistair garret are always saying they want pictures to update the website – Alistair if your on this forum – please just update the website – anything, we have seen the pictures of the 2000 party long enough.

As for panning - there is no secret formula - practice, practice and practice some more - even without film in your camera for a while just to get the muscle memory, once you get it right - you'll keep on getting it right – it cost me a damn fortune – I am not a natural at it but now I get 15-20 useable pan shots out of a roll of 24 of which 5 – 10 are pin sharp – I shoot at least 1 roll of 24 panning shots every time I go out.

PS.Always make yourself known to the post observer - good manners, ask if you can take pictures at his \ her post - they will tell you where the pro's usually stand and why in most cases......

PPS.if your at knickerbrook and you see marshal’s running away - treat it as a race.

PPPS. Don’t forget to snap the marshal’s at work now and again and hand the pictures out. you may need one or two of them to save your life one day, but until then they won’t mind you asking the occasional favour…..

and one last thing

All the marshalls at every post know exactly where cars usually exit the black stuff should there be an incident, just smile and ask politley if those are the shots your after........

[brickkicker]

Just a quick shout out for Mallory. If you cant get an accreditation try going there. There are no fenses and you are generaly as close to the action as the pro and if you get good shots do what solemhill says give them out you cant expect to make your fortune at one meeting and the more you get noticed the better.
P.S
If anyone is at mallory snapping this weekend get in touch ill meet you there we can learn of each other

[pauldavid]

I have been taking photos at Brands now for over a year and the walls of my house are covered, me and the wife mainly stand on Paddock hill and if you have ever been in the kitty litter there then i will probably have a picture of it. now i have never bothered to try and get a pass as allthough i take a pictures of a few riders on a regular basis my main purpose of going to Brands is for the brilliant racing and non stop action you get at paddock especially during the M.R.O - BEMSEE, bike meetings.I against my better judgement was pursuaded to take my albums of action pics to show some of the riders,the responce was amazing i had so many requests for copys,as allthough there are many photgraphers there they tend to concentrate on the riders and drivers at the head of the field so those lower down are only to pleased to see themselves in pictures and even more so if you have one or two of them dropping it, i am glad to say i have never had the experience of taking a shot of a driver,rider who has hurt themselves bad and i hope i never do. Some of my best shotes were at last years World Superbikes where we turned up a day early and as we looked across at the pit garages Franki Chilli spotted us we had him all to ourselves and he happily posed for many pictures (wife thought she had died and gone to heaven). I also had a suzi Perry all to myself and the wife got some wicked shots of me and her, she turned up with that guy from the D.I.Y show, Nick Knowles but i failed to recognise him and he was not best pleased. Anyway sorry to stray from the subject but try getting to circuits a bit before everyone else and who knows what may turn up. good luck

[kdr]

calcium...when are you going to post your pics then?

[calcium]

When I work out how to do it!!!!!

[pauldavid]

nice one

[pauldavid]

.

[manicmarshal]

Another suggestion is find out who the local drivers are and who the local newspapers are. if you get some good photographs that could go with a story on the local drivers it would stand you in good stead to get an official pass. You usually need to have some photos in print before obtaining offical accrediatation.

[touringlegend]

This thread has soooooooo made me want an auto focus SLR camera, I have a manual, cheap one...now I'm off to ebay to have a hunt for one. Half my pictures are fine but aren't in focus!

[Dave Brand]

Originally posted by touringlegend
Half my pictures are fine but aren't in focus!

A couple of tips which may help.

Before you take any pictures, practice on a few cars & note where they are at the moment when you would be taking the photo, then pre-focus on this spot.

Use as small an aperture as you can get away with. This will give you more depth of field, allowing more room for error in focusing. Using a small aperture will, of course, force you into using a slower shutter speed, which will require more accurate panning to avoid blurring the cars, but it will give you a blurred background which gives a much better impression of speed.

Try experimenting with different aperture/shutter speed combinations until you find the settings which give you the best results (assuming your camera gives you control over exposure settings!).

[touringlegend]

I tried practicing on cars and used the lines on the old starting grid at Croft for reference, but I was still a tenth of a second too slow or fast!

I'll try out those settings Dave, cheers.

[Red]

Buy a tripod (or monopod) if you want to practice "panning" technique. Use the slowest available shutter speed, as Dave mentioned above, for that nice blurred background. (you can try a wide aperture for the same background but you will find very annoying that on your pics you can acurately read "Bridgestone" on a wheel supposed to propel a car at over 300 km/h)

When you use slow shutter speeds, the mirror (we're talking of a SLR) shakes the camera a bit when it lifts and without a tripod the effect is quite visible. As a general rule it is advisable to use shutters faster than 1/(focal distance of the lens), for example with a 300mm zoom use at least 1/300s.

Oh yes, a modern SLR that offers you "apperture (or shutter) priority" programs (and of course autofocus) are a blessing.

As for films, I developed a bad-bad habbit of using slow films, for example most of films I use are 100 ISO. Besides allowing slower shutters than let's say a 800, the color depth is somewhat larger. But so is the granularity. Not always desirable...

And have films. Lots of them. The chance to chose a "photograhy" among 500 pics is greater...

Even better, have TWO cameras. (and what's best, equipped with different lenses) You want to be prepared for everything

[calcium]

My best first attempt:

[calcium]

My best second attempt:

[calcium]

and my best third attempt:

[calcium]

Please be gentle on me!!!!

[brickkicker]

Calium
What shutter speed were you using on these and how much have you cropped off if any.

[bella]

pretty blimmin good even if he did crop loads

[calcium]

bella thank you very much. I was wondering whether to post the pictures as original?I have cropped them but not hugely.

I've never used a SLR camera before ( and I know nothing about them,apart from all the info you kind people have supplied )

I have been to three race meetings using the SLR and these are my first results. I know the exact images I want to get but it's getting close enough with the lens I have to get a good enough picture.

I envy all the press people at the other side of the fence while I'm battling with the crowd who decide to wave their programmes in front of my shot just at the crusial moment!!!

brickkicker, I'm ashamed to admit it but at the moment I'm just using the programmes on the camera ( well I did tell you I know nothing about them) I hope to learn more and then hopefully start to set up the camera myself!!!

[woodyracing]

Thats your first attempt! im impressed, i cant wait to get my first SLR.

[ginettag27]

Calcium

Excellent shots. Cropping's not a bad thing, although if you want to enlarge the images then you'll want as big an original image as possible... Using the program settings is also not a bad thing, but as mentioned they will "let you down" from time to time.. As mentioned by someone else Tv and Av (sometimes Tp and Ap) are well worth exploring as a start - depending on which part you wish to control and which part you want the camera to work out for you..

As also mentioned it's a good idea to note down the settings that you've used for a shot - it gives you a reference point when things go right and when things go wrong!!

For panning, I can recommend going to Santa Pod - easy way to practice!! You can get quite close, plus you pretty much know where the cars/bikes are going to go!! I'll try and dig out some shots and post later on (maybe tomorrow)...

As people have mentioned - take quite a few shots (you may just capture that 'something') and try out different things, film, shutter speed, aperture settings, manual focus, panning.. It's not an easy 'art' to get right, but when 1/2 photos go right (really right!) then it makes the whole effort worth it, plus you just want to get back out there again. Plus it's not cheap either!! Try different developers and don't be afraid to question problems with photos - sometimes the photo produced isn't the best result from the neg - compare the two and you'll see that a bit of cropping goes on in the developers....

As an aside if someone wanted to either get a Press Pass or get photos published what are the best/recommended routes that people know of / can give advice on?

EPS

[brickkicker]

calcium dont always try using neg film you could also try using positive (slide film) this is cheaper (all you need is a light box to look at your results and you havent got to worry about any croping when it goes to the lab (what you see is what you took.
I dont know if you do this so ill say it anyway. When your panning it can be better to take 2 or even 3 shots that way you should get at least 1 that is spot on if you are trying to fill the frame up with that bike rather than loads of grass and track.
Which tracks do you go to??

[kdr]

ok calcium/ginetta - here we go.

a little creative cropping will be inevitable if your subject is small in the frame and you want it to be big in the frame. if you do - use a slower film or even better some velvia...then it'll take the pull-up better. your pics look a little grainy thats all.

as in most things in life - you get what you pay for. a 500mm nikon f.4 will get you razor sharp images if you get the picture sharp. a sigma 500mm f.8 may not be as sharp - so don't get p****d off, it may not be your fault. the difference is in the quality and the £6,000 price tag!

don't run before you can walk. you're correct - your best picture is the first one....because you've framed the bike quite well(although could be better - look for lines, kerbs, nice grass/gravel)...and as keen amateur you'll have to learn to make good use of pre-focusing and "negative space" - and believe me theres nothing wrong with that...i love it!

panning takes practice...and look for a good spot where they're moving at a good speed to go with the ffflllloooowwww...and try for a while with no film in - just to get your eye in...no sense in chucking money at mr.fuji.

programme schmogramme...you'll just get even more confused. buy a cheap light meter and learn from there - why do you think the pros are always holding them up to the light and not just switch to auto? and why do you think all the dps in f1 racing mag have the aperture and speed quoted? because its usually been shot manually.

backgrounds. think of the background as a backdrop...look for plain, or if there is colour thens the time to go panning for gold.

sadly accreditation is one of the hardest things in the world to get hold of. the issue of insurance for you and for anyone you come into contact with being just one sticking point. think of all the great jobs in the world...then imagine if you fancied it, you could just turn up and give it a go...mmmm...today i fancy being a brain surgeon. a little hard maybe but just a thought.

usage is massively difficult...most mags are sending all the way down to club level. question is ginetta...do you want to be a motorsport photographer? if you do then you need to approach things from an entirely different perspective. you want qualifications in photography, darkroom techniques, wire tranmission, etc....then you go knocking on peoples doors.

sorry for the rant, its meant to help and i do know what i'm vaguely talking about...honest!