help needed with motorsport pics

[Matt78]

Hi guys,

Been going through my World Series pictures, and I've come away with very few useable pictures. Silverstone isn't an easy place to get a clean shot as there are so many fences. As a newbie, I also have what can be described as "budget" equipment (a 400D with a £100 Sigma 70-300mm zoom), and although I'm not blaming my equipment for my lack of quality pictures, I found the focus speed to be far to slow for motorsport.
The other problem I had was the weather - it was quite bright, but really overcast and grey.


Ive been reading this thread about PP - http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=363030 but i have no idea where to start. Below are a couple of my pictures from the weekend, can any of you give me some ideas for giving some of these a bit more 'impact' as they all look a bit flat to me?

My first attempt at panning:

I have realised that I think I had the camera in the wrong AF setting, should I have used spot focus rather than the more general one (I can't remember what it's called)

I also think my shutter speed was a bit too quick, as you guys seem to be shooting at around 1/200 ?

Can any of these be rescued with a bit of photoshop? How would I go about this?

Any help you can give would be brilliant!

 

[dunganick]

The settings i would normally use for an event like this:

Centre point focus
Evaluative Metering
1/320 - 1/400 (maybe as low as 1/250 for panning, but these cars are fast)
TV (manual if shooting into light, but takes some practice and gives a lower keeper rate)
Ai servo
Burst
AWB
(and a suitable iso which keeps the F number around 9)

Things that stand out to me about your photos:

You are shooting 1/4ering away cars, this is a hard shot to do. They are very easy for the camera to miss focus on, and to be honest unless your using long lenses and fill the frame they tend not to look very good.

I dont know silverstone, so i cant advise a better spot, all i know is when i shot it i hated it, need at least 400mm for frame filling front on shots, or 200mm for pans.

If you go for a pan try and get it when its exactly square sideways onto you, as the AF will stand a better chance of getting it right (car isnt actually moving away or closer for a period of time)

My advice would be to start with a high shutter speed, practice your panning (even head on shots need a slight amount of camera movement), once you have sharp photos (check as you take them) then work at lowering the shutter speeds. When i shoot open wheelers i normally shoot 1/320 or 1/250 depending on the speed of car. Motion blurr is not easy to do well, and to be honest im not that keen on it. Most pro shooters will be shooting fast shutters as if an accident happens and your on 1/100 you wont get anything worth keeping.

The 400d is a very capable camera, I owned one for a few months before moving onto the 40d, the lense you have isnt ideal, but i shoot with a slower lense with some reasonable results.

This was taken with my 400d and 90-300 canon lense

Silverstone is a hard circuit to start with, its one i wont be going back to in a hurry, there are much nicer circuits such as Brands, Thruxton, Snetterton and im sure a load of the others up north.

Try the settings i listed above, these work ok for me and the 40d is basically the same camera as the 400d.

 

[ukaskew]

I wouldn't have too many complaints with those for a newbie to be honest, particularly as you were shooting at Silverstone (along with Rockingham, easily one of the worst circuits in the UK for photography)

People don't like to hear this as they like instant results, but it's all down to practice. I've been to 30 or so events in the past two years and still look back at shots just a few months old and think "what the hell was I doing?"

You want continuous focus (AI-Servo on Canon iirc, AF-C on Nikon) which I tend to set to the Centre point, and I find Centre Weighted Metering more consistent than Matrix (again I'm unsure of Canon terminology, I'm sure somebody can jump in!) As for shutter speeds, that really is down to trial and error, anything from 1/100 - 1/250 (or even 1/320) is workable for the relatively inexperienced and will still give you some blur.

As for your equipment, more than adequate. I was frustrated with mine but you just have to look on Flickr (there are usually groups for specific lens, I know there is for the Sigma 70-300 as I created it), take a look at how good the Motorsport shots can be, that will give you something to aim for. As a rule I wouldn't let myself upgrade until I was getting shots at least as good as the best I could find on Flickr with the same lens (the actual camera body doesn't make a huge difference).

I admit focus speed isn't wonderful, but it's much much better than many lenses or bridge cameras, track the car for as long possible with the shutter half-pressed and it should lock-on quite nicely. You should be able to Again though, at other circuits this will much easier anyway. You should be able to make it work pretty well with a bit of practice. Other than that, try the -pre-focus technique (which uses manual focus), sounds daunting but actually works very well. I will explain that in detail if you like...

 

[Clart]

I've got the sigma 70-300mm and although i haven't had much experience shooting motorsport, i did find it relatively easy to get some decent shots when i used it to shoot moving cars at a driving experience day. The cars i was shooting were moving slower, so it was harder to get decent blur, i think i even went down to 1/30 for a few, which set the aperture to about f32 LOLz! I did find it pretty sharp though, even at 300mm. Those pics above look like they have some focusing issues to me.

I'd love a better zoom, but i just can't justify spending £500+ on a lens that i'd use occasionally. If i spent more time at motorsport events, i'd probably invest though.

 

[Matt78]

Thanks guys, all helpful stuff.

Access at Silverstone was such a nightmare. The spot that I shot those from was the closest I could get to the track without having to shoot through fences etc, and I was hoping to get some good "crash" shots!

I'd also forgotten how fast the open wheelers are - those things are quick!
I'm going to Goodwood next week, so I'll try again there as access is a bit easier and I should be able to shoot stuff coming towards me.

In terms of post processing, I know a lot of photographers keep their "magic" a secret, but can anyone give me an idea of a typical workflow?

The images above are loaded in to Picassa, where I tend to adjust the contrast, then sharpen a little.
I don't have access to Photoshop, but have started using paint.net a lot recently, and this seems to have a lot of adjustments, I'm just not sure where to start!!!

 

[Clart]

I'd look at curves. they can make a lot of difference

 

[ukaskew]

I'd also forgotten how fast the open wheelers are - those things are quick!
I'm going to Goodwood next week, so I'll try again there as access is a bit easier and I should be able to shoot stuff coming towards me.
!!!

Goodwood is pretty easy as it's got great photographic options, for 'coming towards you' shots try 1/320 whilst still remembering to pan the camera, for completely side-on panning shots try 1/200. Both of those should get you some safe shots with a bit of movement in them.

Can't help with Photoshop sadly, I'm clueless myself.

 

[dunganick]

Your could see about trying to get some dubious copies of photoshop of somewhere like pirate bay.

I currently dont have photoshop on this machine, but use a post production program called Light Room, which gives you the basic features, sharpening, curves etc....

Just keep at it, practice does make perfect, that image i posted was back in december/jan, and i look at it now and for a range of reasons that image would probably get binned.

Just keep practising and enjoy it.

 

[mikey_172]

i struggled at rws with pics was haven a right nightmare with it

 

[Gaz]

These are my 1st shots with a nikon D40 with a 55-200 lens and id only had it a week before i took these photos for a beginer im quite chuffed with them with practice will get better

I used the guide of here to set it up auto continuous focus, 1/320 shutter speed tried with lower but wasnt as successfull but will get there

 

[ukaskew]

i struggled at rws with pics was haven a right nightmare with it

The shot above proves exactly why Silverstone is pretty useless for photography. I shot this almost identical moment from the public areas of Thruxton with just 195mm...

At a 'normal' circuit you can usually get away with much shorter focal lengths, that means it's easier to pan, there is less risk of camera shake and you have far more choice in terms of angle. I wouldn't be too disheartened if your main experiences of motorsport have been Silverstone (RWS) and Rockingham (FCS) as they are both shockingly bad for photography from public positions. Get yourself to Castle Combe, Brands Hatch or wherever and you're laughing.

 

[mikey_172]

i took that using a 50-500 nearly on full zooom ive done brands found it much better there im after a cannon now though alot more simpler than nikon

 

[Gaz]

Just keep practicing just took these now outside my house not as fast as motorsport speeds but still helps