Rallycross

SeamusSeamus Registered Users Posts: 1,573 Major grins
edited March 11, 2005 in Sports
This is my first attempt at motorsport:

17002662-L.jpg

I had read that you should set the aperature to 250 to give the sensation of speed. This speed should blur the wheels and leave the rest of the car in focus if you pan with the car.
I had to try it:

17002024-L.jpg


Escort going through the dirt part of the track:

17001375-L.jpg


Wheel in the air:

16999286-L.jpg

And the sun was shining:clap . iso 100, f2.8 and I could get aperature speeds up to 2000.

Shay.

Comments

  • mercphotomercphoto Registered Users Posts: 4,550 Major grins
    edited March 8, 2005
    shay wrote:
    This is my first attempt at motorsport:

    17002662-L.jpg

    I had read that you should set the aperature to 250 to give the sensation of speed. This speed should blur the wheels and leave the rest of the car in focus if you pan with the car.

    Cool shots! Getting the wheel in the air is a nice touch. Little things like that make a difference. Front wheels pointed wrong direction, wheel in the air, obvious skids, smoke from braking tires, driver's head tilted, etc.

    From my experience 1/250 is the fastest shutter to use if you want to see motion. With practice you can get under 1/100, but expect to throw a lot away. Another bit of advice, use fast shutters (1/800 and up) when the car is travelling very nearly at or away from you. Use slower shutters when the car is travelling very nearly profile to you. Use 1/500 when you want a high percentage of "keepers", 1/320-1/250 for a high percentage of shots with some motion blur, and 1/150-1/80 for dramatic motion blurs. Choose your ISO to keep the aperture around f/8-13 to give plenty depth of field --- cars are big.
    Bill Jurasz - Mercury Photography - Cedar Park, TX
    A former sports shooter
    Follow me at: https://www.flickr.com/photos/bjurasz/
    My Etsy store: https://www.etsy.com/shop/mercphoto?ref=hdr_shop_menu
  • SeamusSeamus Registered Users Posts: 1,573 Major grins
    edited March 8, 2005
    mercphoto wrote:
    Cool shots! Getting the wheel in the air is a nice touch. Little things like that make a difference. Front wheels pointed wrong direction, wheel in the air, obvious skids, smoke from braking tires, driver's head tilted, etc.

    From my experience 1/250 is the fastest shutter to use if you want to see motion. With practice you can get under 1/100, but expect to throw a lot away. Another bit of advice, use fast shutters (1/800 and up) when the car is travelling very nearly at or away from you. Use slower shutters when the car is travelling very nearly profile to you. Use 1/500 when you want a high percentage of "keepers", 1/320-1/250 for a high percentage of shots with some motion blur, and 1/150-1/80 for dramatic motion blurs. Choose your ISO to keep the aperture around f/8-13 to give plenty depth of field --- cars are big.
    Thanks Bill, I took a lot of photos at 1/1000 to make sure I got some keepers. I then experimented with 1/500 - 1/200. I'm going to print your reply as a reference when I go back.thumb.gif
  • wxwaxwxwax Registered Users Posts: 15,471 Major grins
    edited March 8, 2005
    If you want a really good tutorial on how to shoot motorsports, read this. It's excellent.
    Sid.
    Catapultam habeo. Nisi pecuniam omnem mihi dabis, ad caput tuum saxum immane mittam
    http://www.mcneel.com/users/jb/foghorn/ill_shut_up.au
  • wxwaxwxwax Registered Users Posts: 15,471 Major grins
    edited March 8, 2005
    And here's the thread I was searching for on FM. More excellent tips.
    Sid.
    Catapultam habeo. Nisi pecuniam omnem mihi dabis, ad caput tuum saxum immane mittam
    http://www.mcneel.com/users/jb/foghorn/ill_shut_up.au
  • SeamusSeamus Registered Users Posts: 1,573 Major grins
    edited March 8, 2005
    wxwax wrote:
    And here's the thread I was searching for on FM. More excellent tips.
    Thanks Sid
  • mercphotomercphoto Registered Users Posts: 4,550 Major grins
    edited March 8, 2005
    wxwax wrote:
    And here's the thread I was searching for on FM. More excellent tips.

    Those are good tips. I want to add, though, that the selection of AF modes is camera dependant. For example, with a 20D, using AI-Servo, you are better off having all focus points on. The camera will aquire initial focus lock on the center point, and then follow the subject to any other active focus point. His points on lighting and position are great. Just like a portrait, don't shoot a car in the shadows of the sun!
    Bill Jurasz - Mercury Photography - Cedar Park, TX
    A former sports shooter
    Follow me at: https://www.flickr.com/photos/bjurasz/
    My Etsy store: https://www.etsy.com/shop/mercphoto?ref=hdr_shop_menu
  • SeamusSeamus Registered Users Posts: 1,573 Major grins
    edited March 9, 2005
    There's a supermoto meeting on this weekend so I will try again. What settings, roughly, for motorbikes?


    Thanks, Shay.
  • SeamusSeamus Registered Users Posts: 1,573 Major grins
    edited March 9, 2005
    This is my favourite from last Sunday. What do you think?


    17000616-L.jpg

    Shay.
  • cletuscletus Registered Users Posts: 1,930 Major grins
    edited March 9, 2005
    shay wrote:
    This is my favourite from last Sunday. What do you think?


    17000616-S.jpg

    Shay.
    clap.gifclap.gifclap.gif

    And for your supermoto shots, I can't think of any reason why you couldn't use the same settings that you would use for the cars.
    ab0wa.smugmug.com
  • SeamusSeamus Registered Users Posts: 1,573 Major grins
    edited March 9, 2005
    cletus wrote:
    clap.gifclap.gifclap.gif

    And for your supermoto shots, I can't think of any reason why you couldn't use the same settings that you would use for the cars.
    Thanks Eric, I think I will take the first lot between 1/500 and 1/800 to make sure I get a few keepers. After that I can experiment. I would hate to take a days worth of photos and have to delete the loteek7.gif .

    Shay
  • wxwaxwxwax Registered Users Posts: 15,471 Major grins
    edited March 9, 2005
    shay wrote:
    There's a supermoto meeting on this weekend so I will try again. What settings, roughly, for motorbikes?


    Thanks, Shay.
    The thing is, Shay, if you dive into the links.... you'll see they say your ideal shutter speed depends entirely on the size of yer lens, yer distance from the bike and how fast the bike is going at your spot. So from my limited experience, and from what the posters have written, you really have to go out there, pick your spot and then experiment. I'm not crazy about this, because I find it very difficult to tell what I have when I review in camera. But there's no constant setting you can apply.
    Sid.
    Catapultam habeo. Nisi pecuniam omnem mihi dabis, ad caput tuum saxum immane mittam
    http://www.mcneel.com/users/jb/foghorn/ill_shut_up.au
  • SeamusSeamus Registered Users Posts: 1,573 Major grins
    edited March 9, 2005
    wxwax wrote:
    The thing is, Shay, if you dive into the links.... you'll see they say your ideal shutter speed depends entirely on the size of yer lens, yer distance from the bike and how fast the bike is going at your spot. So from my limited experience, and from what the posters have written, you really have to go out there, pick your spot and then experiment. I'm not crazy about this, because I find it very difficult to tell what I have when I review in camera. But there's no constant setting you can apply.
    Thanks Sid, I will post after Sunday to let you know how I got on.

    Shay.
  • BBonesBBones Registered Users Posts: 580 Major grins
    edited March 9, 2005
    My race season starts on April 1st. 3 day shoot here in Seattle, I'll be getting buff pretty quick using the 20D with the 70-200 IS L 2.8 with the 1.4x TC on it. Thanks for getting me more pumped!
  • Steve CaviglianoSteve Cavigliano Super Moderators Posts: 3,599 moderator
    edited March 9, 2005
    Shay,

    These are really nice for a first attempt thumb.gifthumb.gif

    You got to try lots of things out and see what worked and what needs more work :-)

    Not only that, but this thread is now loaded with lots of great motosports shooting tips clap.gifclap.gif

    BTW, did ya happen to get any Subaru WRX (sedan) shots? rolleyes1.gif


    Thanks for sharing,
    Steve
    SmugMug Support Hero
  • SeamusSeamus Registered Users Posts: 1,573 Major grins
    edited March 9, 2005
    Steve Cavigliano wrote:
    Shay,

    These are really nice for a first attempt thumb.gifthumb.gif

    You got to try lots of things out and see what worked and what needs more work :-)

    Not only that, but this thread is now loaded with lots of great motosports shooting tips clap.gifclap.gif

    BTW, did ya happen to get any Subaru WRX (sedan) shots? rolleyes1.gif


    Thanks for sharing,
    Steve
    It wouldn't be fun if you could get good stuff on the first attemptrolleyes1.gif . There weren't any really high powered cars in the rallycross event. Rallying is popular here but I don't think I will make any of the races this year. I am really more interested in bikes and will try to make as many races as I can, hopefully making a lot of the road races.

    Shay.
  • graflexTomgraflexTom Registered Users Posts: 55 Big grins
    edited March 11, 2005
    Last shot in the Group is so Crisp and shot so fast that the Movement Element is missing. The Other Photos show great movement. I think the First one shows it best on the Turn. Good job.
  • SeamusSeamus Registered Users Posts: 1,573 Major grins
    edited March 11, 2005
    graflexTom wrote:
    Last shot in the Group is so Crisp and shot so fast that the Movement Element is missing. The Other Photos show great movement. I think the First one shows it best on the Turn. Good job.
    Thanks Tom, the best part was shooting in bright sunshine, the first time since I got the camera.
  • SeamusSeamus Registered Users Posts: 1,573 Major grins
    edited March 11, 2005
    I got a chance to go through the rest of the photos I took last sunday. This one was taken at 1/250, f9, iso 100.


    17001706-L.jpg
  • mercphotomercphoto Registered Users Posts: 4,550 Major grins
    edited March 11, 2005
    shay wrote:
    I got a chance to go through the rest of the photos I took last sunday. This one was taken at 1/250, f9, iso 100.


    17001706-L.jpg

    Cool shot! For the heck of it, I tried the extreme sharpening on it. Ick! I think I found my first image that the trick doesn't work well on. Or, its because I was working off a small version of the image, rather than the full-rez version.
    Bill Jurasz - Mercury Photography - Cedar Park, TX
    A former sports shooter
    Follow me at: https://www.flickr.com/photos/bjurasz/
    My Etsy store: https://www.etsy.com/shop/mercphoto?ref=hdr_shop_menu
  • SeamusSeamus Registered Users Posts: 1,573 Major grins
    edited March 11, 2005
    mercphoto wrote:
    Cool shot! For the heck of it, I tried the extreme sharpening on it. Ick! I think I found my first image that the trick doesn't work well on. Or, its because I was working off a small version of the image, rather than the full-rez version.
    The original is on smugmug if you want?
  • mercphotomercphoto Registered Users Posts: 4,550 Major grins
    edited March 11, 2005
    shay wrote:
    The original is on smugmug if you want?

    Approximately 3 megapixels, correct? This is the result, before and after:

    17306810-M.jpg

    17306749-M.jpg

    It looks better using the bigger image.
    Bill Jurasz - Mercury Photography - Cedar Park, TX
    A former sports shooter
    Follow me at: https://www.flickr.com/photos/bjurasz/
    My Etsy store: https://www.etsy.com/shop/mercphoto?ref=hdr_shop_menu
  • SeamusSeamus Registered Users Posts: 1,573 Major grins
    edited March 11, 2005
    mercphoto wrote:
    Approximately 3 megapixels, correct? This is the result, before and after:

    17306810-M.jpg

    17306749-M.jpg

    It looks better using the bigger image.
    I read the thread on extreme sharpening but I don't know if I can do it with elements 3. It does look better though thumb.gif .
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