Shooting Motorcycles?

Zee

I've been looking around at some of the AMA stuff in this forum and the pictures are simply amazing. I do a lot of track riding myself and recently began shooting between sessions.

Since you guys have considerably more experience than myself, I was wondering if someone could give me a few pointers on dealing with the harsh lighting I find almost every time I go to the track.

As you can see in the first picture, lots of detail is lost in the shadows.



If I have a little overcast they turn out better - like this



How do I deal with the harsh lighting so I can bring out more detail in the shadows without over exposing the side facing the sun? I'm limited to certain areas of the track so moving around to different locations isn't always an option. Do you guys have any suggestions on where to stand relative to the sun or maybe a trick or two on bringing out detail in the shadows?

Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks,

Mike

TristanP

Two things to try:

1. Shoot with your back to the sun (I know this isn't always possible)
2. Shadows/Highlights in Photoshop

A third option is to try shooting when the riders lean into the red/white curbing. The white sections make great reflectors.

Zee

TristanP wrote:

Two things to try:

1. Shoot with your back to the sun (I know this isn't always possible)
2. Shadows/Highlights in Photoshop

A third option is to try shooting when the riders lean into the red/white curbing. The white sections make great reflectors.

Using the curbing as a reflector is a great idea. I never thought of that.....probably cuz we don't have any on our lowly track . But still, a very good idea all the same. Thanks for the tip!

xtnomad

I have found that on very sunny days I still have to keep the sun to my back but I can shoot faster parts of the track. On over cast days I try to stick to slower parts of the track, On the one road race track I have shoot at the morning shots are all ways better than the afternoon shots mainly because of the track access I am given.

Zee

xtnomad wrote:

I have found that on very sunny days I still have to keep the sun to my back but I can shoot faster parts of the track. On over cast days I try to stick to slower parts of the track, On the one road race track I have shoot at the morning shots are all ways better than the afternoon shots mainly because of the track access I am given.

Actually, I usually end up with better shots towards the end of the day but that aslo depends upon the direction we're riding that day.

But moving around to slower parts of the track during low light is also a good idea.

Thanks!

z

J.T.

equipment and location on track?
Mike,

I recently shot my first MotoGP race at Laguna Seca and was fairly disappointed with most of my shots. Of course I was shooting from the sidelines and grandstands (where all the public folk are and not press). I shot with a 70-300 and did some cropping afterwards. Are your shots from inside the track, trackside basically? And what lens(s) are you shooting with? Nice shots though!

Zee wrote:

I've been looking around at some of the AMA stuff in this forum and the pictures are simply amazing. I do a lot of track riding myself and recently began shooting between sessions.

Since you guys have considerably more experience than myself, I was wondering if someone could give me a few pointers on dealing with the harsh lighting I find almost every time I go to the track.

As you can see in the first picture, lots of detail is lost in the shadows.



If I have a little overcast they turn out better - like this



How do I deal with the harsh lighting so I can bring out more detail in the shadows without over exposing the side facing the sun? I'm limited to certain areas of the track so moving around to different locations isn't always an option. Do you guys have any suggestions on where to stand relative to the sun or maybe a trick or two on bringing out detail in the shadows?

Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks,

Mike

Zee

J.T. wrote:

Mike,

I recently shot my first MotoGP race at Laguna Seca and was fairly disappointed with most of my shots. Of course I was shooting from the sidelines and grandstands (where all the public folk are and not press). I shot with a 70-300 and did some cropping afterwards. Are your shots from inside the track, trackside basically? And what lens(s) are you shooting with? Nice shots though!

Thanks, J.T

I was shooting from inside the track. I use a Nikon D200 with a Nikkor f2.8 80-200 and sometimes ad a Sigma 2x converter depending upon how far away I am.

I'm sure it was quite a challenge shooting from the stands though. It's hard enough shooting from inside the track if you ask me

F45

Zee wrote:

How do I deal with the harsh lighting so I can bring out more detail in the shadows without over exposing the side facing the sun? I'm limited to certain areas of the track so moving around to different locations isn't always an option. Do you guys have any suggestions on where to stand relative to the sun or maybe a trick or two on bringing out detail in the shadows?
Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks,
Mike

Hey Mike,

Your image taken in the overcast lighting looks good...but just to add a couple more ideas to your responses, consider this:

1) Harsh lighting is most obvious mid-day during the summer while the sun is directly above for longer periods of time. If you can, shoot earlier or later in day. Not always an option but something to keep in mind.

2) If you have no choice then try to position yourself with the sun as far behind you as you can. This may even involve getting yourself lower somewhere on the track or composing the bike going over a crest or some sort of elevation change. The idea being that you usually want to have the bike in between you and the bike's shadows. If you see the shadows first, then you're probably missing some really good light towards the other side of the bike!

3) Shooting RAW and adjusting your settings according to the intensity of the shadows will allow you more room to tweak the details in your post production. JPEG settings will decide almost all of that for you and more often than not, the result will be less than what it could have been.

Harsh light is difficult for everyone. Some use it more creatively than others but it will take a little more work to get the best results.

Zee

Thanks Chris!

I actually did switch to shooting in NEF/RAW after the first few sessions just to see the difference and decided that RAW has a lot more to offer in the way of initial clarity and post processing. I'm used to shooting slide film so I have a lot to learn about post processing digital images as well.

Towards the middle of the day I changed positions to a spot where the bikes were moving towards me and the high positon of the sun actually helped get some good refelctions off the riders visors like this:




I really appreciate all of the great tips

I'm gettin' pretty eager to try them out out at the track!


Thanks again,

Mike

Van Isle

I've been shooting supermoto for a while, and a big boost for me has been using a strong flash unit. In the harsh light in fills in the shadows. Fun!

VI

Zee

Van Isle wrote:

I've been shooting supermoto for a while, and a big boost for me has been using a strong flash unit. In the harsh light in fills in the shadows. Fun!



VI

The riders don't mind?

J.T.

good advice

Zee wrote:

Thanks, J.T

I was shooting from inside the track. I use a Nikon D200 with a Nikkor f2.8 80-200 and sometimes ad a Sigma 2x converter depending upon how far away I am.

I'm sure it was quite a challenge shooting from the stands though. It's hard enough shooting from inside the track if you ask me

Thanks for the advice! I'll work on the press pass and try to get inside next year at Laguna for MotoGP.

Zee

J.T. wrote:

Thanks for the advice! I'll work on the press pass and try to get inside next year at Laguna for MotoGP.

lol! I pretty much shoot in between sessions during local track days and races (no press pass required). Shooting a Moto GP race from the inside would be a dream come true though

ian408

Zee wrote:

The riders don't mind?

I'd be kinda PO'ed but then again, you might not notice it depending on where your focus was (as the rider).

Zee

ian408 wrote:

I'd be kinda PO'ed but then again, you might not notice it depending on where your focus was (as the rider).

I was thinking about it but I know I'd find it rather distracting to get hit in the face with a giant flash while draggin' a knee....then again, I crash just fine without extra distractons