BTCC @ Oulton park

[Rob Clark]

Went to Oulton Park yesterday (May 31st) for the BTCC on the spur of the moment as I got drowned a little at Donnington and didnt take the camera there. Needless to say weather was substantially better
1st thing I was aware of was how much closer you are at Oulton, however the layout means you dont get to see as much of the track as you would at Donnington. All images were shot with my 350D with standard kit lens 18-55 (non IS)
1st some pics of the single seater Renaults

my favourite by a mile is this

Had a wander down the pit lane and found some drivers

this makes a great caption competition methinks

and then when the wife wasnt looking some eye candy altho not too sure about the team dynamics representatives...

 

[Laura]

YUMMY!!

Was good day

 

[Rob Clark]

tbh pit lane was good and a fair few drivers could be collared for autographs and pics. Got some good pics of of my lad with Collard, Jelly, Jones, Thompson but a big thankyou needs to go to Team Aon & Tom Chilton. Lad was dissapointed that he couldnt find anyone and not only did one of the women in their vip area give him a freebie cap, but also we got invited into the area a little later to meet him and have a picture which made my lads day and certainly wasnt going to happen with plato + giovanardi

 

[Naith]

great save by young jordan at cascades!

some corkers there sir

 

[Track'd]

Is he trying a cheeky slap?

 

[Gem]

WTF is with those blue leggings?


Awesome pics mate! Wish I'd headed over for a nosy now

 

[.Gem.]

Is he trying a cheeky slap?

Its the 'Waaait come baaack!' move

She has amazing legs! I want!

 

[jim cook]

Great pics thanx for posting

Watched it on Itv 4 a great days racing

 

[maynard]

nice pics, watched it on tele but wish i'd have gone spesh cos of weather!

 

[Riad]

Nice pictures mate!

I couldn't be bothered taking many pictures yesterday, Was to hot!

 

[jesus]

Nice hoes! I'd love to go and watch BTCC some time.

 

[dunganick]

Not a bad effort at all, your pretty much there.

I suspect the softness in alot of the pans lies with your settings.

My exif viewer wont tell me what focus mode you were using or what autofocus point setting.

Generally speaking i would recommend using/doing the following.

Use AV (shutter priority)

Use a AI Servo mode.

Use the central AF point

Use Highspeed multishot mode

Use what ever ISO keeps your F-number around 5.6 - 7.1 (you can check
my either looking at the F number in the viewfinder before taking the shot, or setting the image preview to show the image data/histogram)

For a head-on/quartering shot, use 1/400 to 1/200th

For a pan use 160 to as low as you can pull off.

The trick to panning is to cheat. Basically a sharp image is one, where you panning and the car were going the same speed as the shot was taken.

This is pretty hard to simply do 1 shot at a time.

So if as the car comes up to you, you take up focus (first stage of shutter release button), at the same time find a spot on the car that will make it nice and central in the frame (door mirrors, numbers, door handles work well) as this car is coming towards you start to take photos just before it is where you want it. Try not to take too much notice to what the camera is doing, just keep your finger held down and concentrate on keeping that focus point stuck to what ever you are using on the car, continue doing this untill the car has gone past where you want it too.

Now you probably took between 3 and 6 photos depending on the FPS your camera did. Look back through, you will find the first maybe second image are garbage (as you get settled) the third and fourth are spot on, then they start to get worse again.

Well this is how ive been doing it for the last year or so and it seems to work. However panning technique is nothing without the right settings.

I think i may check a sticky together for this as its a common question.

Hope that helps.

Nick

 

[Andy1.2]

Yeah i was there too. Cracking day and the weather helped although i got very sunburnt! I would put my pictures up but i cant be bothered to upload them. Anyone also spot "Eleanor" parked up near paddocks as welll behind a wire fence?

 

[Rob Clark]

Thanks for the feedback Nick I appreciate it.
Was using AV, AI Servo and not sure about AF but probably centre as was unchanged. Is interesting reading the details about adjusting iso to keep in the F/(5.6-7.1) range as looking at most of mine ia was 9+.
I have digested a few of the guides but its difficult remembering it all on the day and particularly with the 350D, the screen is small and you have little idea if the pictures were any good.
I was using the panning technique to take ~3 shots as the car passed which resulted in the best images on the day for me. Interestingly, I found it very difficult to get a good picture of the Vectra's when I was shooting at they came slightly towards me but most of the other cars were ok, the sun was directly behind me at the time and the darker cars had a lot of fuzz to them and did look soft.
Definitely looking for a 300mm lens and was very envious of the media chaps who got a good advance to some of the track, especially at the chicane at knickerbrook.