MotoGP

maczippy

Well, I was shooting MotoGP at Laguna Seca this past weekend. I'll share a few during the week. A big humbling moment for me was being only 1 of 10 accredited photogs from the US allowed to shoot the grid and podium. It was all rather overwhelming...

In no particular order will they appear this week....

mercphoto

maczippy wrote:

Pit babes, Andrew. More pit babes.

ian408

Nice work there Andrew!

Almost went down Sunday. But then the traffic reports (from those waiting to get
in) were horrific. So I stayed home and watched Speed Channel

Ian

gsgary

Fantastic photos nearly as good as mine from Darley Moor just wait till i go to the Britsh GP:D

rahmonster

mercphoto wrote:

Pit babes, Andrew. More pit babes.

No, more Valentino

maczippy

Andrew

rahmonster

Very nice shots indeed. I'd love your job....I love motorsports. Especially F1 and Moto GP.

That last shot of them coming around the corner is great!

maczippy

Thank you!

Here's a few more......


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gus

Superb as always andrew. Mate this panning has me stumped....do you use a tripod/monopod or is there any particular shutter speed that you happily hand hold at ?

I will be using my 400 prime f/5.6

I have a very rare opportunity next week to shoot these guys with a media pass (awaiting confirmation but im told the media pass looks good atm) & i dont want to blow it. They are our premier race cars here ... similar to your nascar series

Rgds
Gus

4labs

Great work as always..

maczippy

Humungus wrote:

Superb as always andrew. Mate this panning has me stumped....do you use a tripod/monopod or is there any particular shutter speed that you happily hand hold at ?

I will be using my 400 prime f/5.6

Welll I guess it depends on the subject/light and where you're standing.

For the Nicky Hayden shot and a few others that I haven't uploaded, I was shootin/panning at 1/160 and between f11 and f14 depending on where I was.

I rarely bother with a monopod only becuase I find them restrictive, although I think my shoulder might thank me sometimes if I did use one. But for panning I think they're more of a hinderence.

Andrew

photocat

I am not interested really in rally shots like this, but hey, those are great.
You managed to get my attention firmly and I kept looking at them.
I love the one with the yellow lad and the crowd behind him.
Your photographs are stunningly sharp. (envy, envy...)

ian408

maczippy wrote:

Welll I guess it depends on the subject/light and where you're standing.

For the Nicky Hayden shot and a few others that I haven't uploaded, I was shootin/panning at 1/160 and between f11 and f14 depending on where I was.

I rarely bother with a monopod only becuase I find them restrictive, although I think my shoulder might thank me sometimes if I did use one. But for panning I think they're more of a hinderence.

Andrew

You shoot with the 300/f2.8, if I recall correctly. Yeah, that one is nice and light.
I could see hand holding that one.

ian

mercphoto

Humungus wrote:

Superb as always andrew. Mate this panning has me stumped....do you use a tripod/monopod or is there any particular shutter speed that you happily hand hold at ?

Gus, I would shoot in Tv mode and start at a shutter speed of 1/640. This is slow enough to get a hint of tire blur, but fast enough to be relatively easy to shoot at. You will get a lot of keepers this way. I would pick an ISO that gives me an aperture of 8-13.

Now, after you have your easy keepers, drop to 1/400. As you know, you will need to follow and pan as you click the shutter. Every 50-100 shots I would drop the shutter down again. 1/320, 1/250, 1/160. If you had an IS lens, I'd also use IS mode 2.

gus

Thanks andrew & merc.Great info. I was going to buy a mono but will give it a go without. Also i didnt think about setting the shutter at a set speed.

I would expect its hard without experience to quickly tell if the sight in front req high or low f stop for effect with a race car.

gus

gus

mercphoto wrote:

Gus, I would shoot in Tv mode and start at a shutter speed of 1/640. This is slow enough to get a hint of tire blur, but fast enough to be relatively easy to shoot at. You will get a lot of keepers this way. I would pick an ISO that gives me an aperture of 8-13.

Now, after you have your easy keepers, drop to 1/400. As you know, you will need to follow and pan as you click the shutter. Every 50-100 shots I would drop the shutter down again. 1/320, 1/250, 1/160. If you had an IS lens, I'd also use IS mode 2.

Merc 2 questions if you dont mind...why would you pick an aperture of 8-13 ? I would have thought a more blurred (bokah blur i mean) background would be better with me using the 400 prime at its max of f/5.6 ?

Also when you mention following in the pan...would you recommend shooting rapid fire or just one shot at a time ?

I think its just hard for me to get my head around shooting a fast moving sport & keeping a slowish shutter for effect.

Thanks
Gus

wxwax

Gus, you don't need bokeh (background blur produced by a wide open lens aperature.) You make your background blur by panning the camera.

I imagine these guys use a small aperature for a couple of reasons. One, it was bright and sunny at Laguna Seca and you need some help getting a slow shutter speed in that bright light. And two, with a deeper depth of field you have a better chance of getting your subject in focus as you pan.

gus

wxwax wrote:

Gus, you don't need bokeh (background blur produced by a wide open lens aperature.) You make your background blur by panning the camera.

I imagine these guys use a small aperature for a couple of reasons. One, it was bright and sunny at Laguna Seca and you need some help getting a slow shutter speed in that bright light. And two, with a deeper depth of field you have a better chance of getting your subject in focus as you pan.

Tks sid...that has actually explained a bit to me. Hoping this week-end will get me out of the low spot im in at the moment photo wise.

Ive been searching the net for good moto shots & checking their shutters speeds/apertures etc so im off on the right foot.

Just found out that i cant sell any shots if i happen to score a good one...the teams/ruling body wont allow it. You have to be a fully credited photog with them, which is fair enough by me..they have a lot of potential money in this & im a guest photog for the day.

Gus

gsgary

Don't look at mine then:D

Humungus wrote:

Tks sid...that has actually explained a bit to me. Hoping this week-end will get me out of the low spot im in at the moment photo wise.

Ive been searching the net for good moto shots & checking their shutters speeds/apertures etc so im off on the right foot.

Just found out that i cant sell any shots if i happen to score a good one...the teams/ruling body wont allow it. You have to be a fully credited photog with them, which is fair enough by me..they have a lot of potential money in this & im a guest photog for the day.

Gus

mercphoto

Humungus wrote:

Merc 2 questions if you dont mind...why would you pick an aperture of 8-13 ? I would have thought a more blurred (bokah blur i mean) background would be better with me using the 400 prime at its max of f/5.6 ?

Also when you mention following in the pan...would you recommend shooting rapid fire or just one shot at a time?

Sorry for the late reply. I didn't get an email notification of your post. As per the aperture, you need to remember that with telephotos your depth of field gets rather small rather fast. You don't want a DOF so shallow that the entire car is not all in focus. Plus I'm usually shooting at a shutter speed slow enough that it requires I pan with the car. Thus, even if the background were in focus, it will be blurred in a horizontal direction. And lastly, bokeh is a blur in two directions, whereas panning is a blur in only one direction, and you can tell the difference.

So, the smaller aperture makes sure that all the car is in focus, and can actually help if the auto-focus is a touch off. Plus the panning blurs that background anyway.

As per panning, I almost always take only one shot. Sometimes two, but that is usually by accident. I always have the motor drive turned on in case of a spin. But I shoot one shot at a time. Wait until the shot you want develops, then hit the shutter. If you machine-gun a race you actually stand a very good chance of missing the shot you want.

gus

Thanks for your time here bill...all taken on board. Cant wait to see what i get.


Gus

maczippy

Hey Hu..

Just as an example, this shot is at 1/250:f13 and shot with a 70-200 f2.8 with the IS switch set to "2"...

Notice the foreground and the background are both blurred horizontally..



Andrew

gus

Thats a good pan andrew Im starting to get this all worked out even if it is just a little....been doing a lot of seaching /googling on it.

I had never really stopped to think of the work behind a shot like that & how many shots you bloke must blow.

Im stoked up over this race coming up. I just got informed that i get a full media pass (with my name on it !!) Annnnd a 'Photographers Bib' with access to areas the public cant. I hope i get some keepers.

Found some more shots of the track & cars.

mercphoto

maczippy wrote:

Notice how crisp the horizontal edges are (such as the lettering, or the rails in the grandstands), and how blurry the vertical edges are. This is why a blur induced by panning looks much different than a blur induced by large apertures. And it is what gives the feel of motion in a particular direction.

maczippy

I have finally added a "small" sampling of the MotoGP weekend to my site.....

Next up - Mid Ohio!

Stop by and find me and say HI if you're out there...(i don't bite)

Andrew

maczippy

Andrew

rahmonster

Love that Troy Bayliss shot! Very well done. Love the Sete shot too!