Drag Racing exposure settings/recommendations/panning...

RandallPMcMurphy

...disclaimer. New to photography, been reading as many books/interwebs as I can the past month or so, and will be shooting with a D300 and with the kit 18-200.

I have been playing with the camera the past week, but i'll be attending as a spectator (so no media pass) a drag racing event comming up and it will be "my" first real day shooting with the camera.

I'm looking for some exposure recommendations, understanding that they may be different for the pits, burnouts, launches, half-track. The event will be unfortunately morning-afternoon so I am probably looking at too much sun.

My thoughts were, ISO 200, with a high shutter speed for launches, in burst mode, or for my first time out, use shutter priority.

As far as focus is concerned....best bet to use single point of focus on continous autofocus? or will that slow up bursting (to a level that it would not be worth it)

as for panning and getting some feeling of speed in the shots, I'm a little lost on technique....do I want to pan with a high shutter speed? (also, I don't have a worthy tri-pod yet).

thanks, in advance.

Also, the racing is nostolgia drags, not necessarly top fuel....It will be at Englishtown NJ's raceway park if any experienced photographers wanna meet up and show this young chap around his SLR.

gus

Totally forget trying to get settings in your head before you have the camera to your eye at the event. Can you accurately predict cloud cover ? Hell even when you are happily photographing along ...a cloud will move over the sun & totally change the light or faster car will come out needing more speed from the camera (and then that cloud arrives again)

Everyones different but with sport photography i always like to try & get the eyes...hard i know with stuff a good distance away.

For me its about that afternoon light. God knows why they built our local drag strip here facing into the afternoon sun but i do thank them. The sun is your best friend...use it.

For panning i would try at 1/125 & for a top fuller comming at me at full bore i would def not go under 1/1500 but would rather 1/2000. I lost a lot of photos as they were taking off & it took me a bit to realise that the cars were vibrating (which i couldnt see) but it made the car somewhat 'fuzzy' in a lot of photos so when i thought 1/1000 was fast enough...when i looked closely at the photo on the computer...it wasnt.





Also i like to put some drama into a photo...try & get into the pits to show just how fast these guys rebuild between runs.



Maybe look for danger that isnt entirely obvious to everyone.



Also....dont forget the crowd. They can be the best at events like this...always a great mullet about or someone doing something different.

Toyse

RandallPMcMurphy wrote:

...disclaimer. New to photography, been reading as many books/interwebs as I can the past month or so, and will be shooting with a D300 and with the kit 18-200.

In the Daytime:
Use shutter Priorty, Set Shudder speed to 800, 21 Focal points
Relax take your time and most of all enjoy..

RandallPMcMurphy

thanks for the tips. I'll have all day to mess around, bound to get one good shot.