My first go at GP, Donington Park

[ned1]

Hi all,
First go at GP at Donnington park, which I found hard with all the fencing, speeds and distances with my limited gear,
I am open to comments good or bad, any tips, from camera settings like TV or AV, W/B etc and any help that you may give ;)
Thanks
Ned

[Eoseni]

I've never done races, but I think you did quite well. Good shots.

If I were to shoot races, I think I would use a tripod/monopod for panning, the lowest ISO possible, with the highest Tv setting possible - to freeze motion. On the other hand, you could also imply motion with lower shutter speeds.

Were the shots hand-held? They could benefit from some sharpening perhaps, and some cleaning up , esp. in the second one where I find the gray specks sap the strength from the subject.

But excellent for a first go!

[peeps27]

Hi Ned,

I would be pretty happy with those images for a first attempt. The images are certainly big enough they maybe just need a bit of post processing in Photoshop.

Personally, I would also have cropped the first image a bit as there is a lot of dead space at the bottom and left of the image.

I have just experimented and done a quick pp of your second image using auto levels, Unsharp mask, tweaked the saturation a touch with this result.
http://www.bsbsuperbikes.co.uk/images/GPimage.jpg

I agree with Tim about using a monopod to get a clearer image but don't totally agree about the highest possible shutter speed. Maybe you should for head-on shots but if you are panning then it is best to reduce the shutter speeds to get a blurred background. You will see some good examples of this in the Motorsport section, check out for Azza or GSH for good examples of this. Look for KennyG's work for calrity of image and stopping the action....and keep practising and learning.

BTW: The current edition of Digital Camera has a good article about improving technique shooting a round of the BSB. Only £3.99, or free if you read it in WHSmith over a lunchtime!

Hope this helps

Paul

[drdragon666]

well i like your pics ,, and im gutted i was at the moto gp for 3 days ,,,, took 600 pics ,,, and in the middel of the gp race ,, my eos 350d said err cf which i have just got home and learnt that that means i have no pics and i lost everything ,,,,,

totaly gutted ,,,,,,, but we have now learnt i need to buy 2/3 memory cards and wait for next year

ps next to me was a little girl that i said i would send a pic of num 46 valantino rossi ,,, any chance you got a good shot? that you wouldnt mine leting me have to print out to send to her?

[DWimages]

If he does not send you one let me know and I will send you one of my shots from last year at Laguna Seca. I know what it is like to have a body die on you during a shoot.I was at Infineon in May and my body died while I was doing high speed pans.Fortunately several of my fellow photographers loaned me a body to finish out the weekend.

Mike Doran
D&W Images
www.dandwimages.com

[ned1]

Hi Drdragon666,
Have a look at the photos below and if you like any of them I will send you them via email.
all the best
Ned
ps all photo's where taken thro a wire fence !! :confused:

[ned1]

The are better then they look on screen !!

[drdragon666]

well i ty for the replies ,, and i will take you up on your offer? of the last to pics ,,, i shall let you know later tonight if i defonetly need them ,, as i have a chat with the local shop and thay have a program that my be able to recole the pics off the corupt card ,,,

i hope , am off there in a hour also found out the card i was sold is wrong for the camra and really should only be used in a pda so i think so strong words will hapen where i bought the card ,,,,,

thanks again tony

[ned1]

Hi Tony,
As I said I have no idea why the photo's look so bad on the screen, as there is no noise on the originals and they are as good as the first ones in this thread !!
anyway you are welcome to any copies you like ;)
Ned

[IncompletePete]

If I were to shoot races, I think I would use a tripod/monopod for panning, the lowest ISO possible, with the highest Tv setting possible - to freeze motion. On the other hand, you could also imply motion with lower shutter speeds.

Nope, never ever use the highest shutter speed as possible for motorsport, you'll freeze the action and as a result make it look like everything's sitting still. Max shutter speed of 1/320th is all you need, even when shooting handheld with a 600mm! lol

[GSH]

Get yourselves to somewhere that's not fence-infested if you want to practice. Donington was a pain before and it'll be even worse if they've planted more steelwork. However for a first attempt you've done quite nicely thankyou madam ;)

I really havent done a lot of bike stuff but the usual car settings apply. 1/400th or 1/320th for head-ons + 3/4 shots. Start at 1/200th for pans and work down if that's what you like but remember the big Sports bikes accellerate a hell of a lot faster than most cars so you can get away with slightly higher shutter speeds for pans.

A couple of quick examples if no-one objects...

Senor Lavilla on a very gloomy BSB race day at Brands. 20D + 100-400L. Exif is there if you have the Opanda EXIF viewer plug-in ;)

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/geoff.hubbert/Pics/Brands%20BSB/_MG_8178C.jpg

A bit more light up at Croft and some wheel liftage (made up word ;) ) as they power out of Sunny and over the little "hump" on the straight...

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/geoff.hubbert/Pics/_MG_8070.jpg

Snetterton BSB test day gallery-Click!! (http://www.pbase.com/geoff_hubbert/bsbtestday&page=all)

Hope all that guff helps :)

[ned1]

Hi GSH,
What's a "Opanda EXIF viewer plug-in" is it a program or trade name, where can I get a copy and is it a plug-in for photoshop .!!! :o
Thanks for the comment, I will take note for what you set your camera to and have a go next time.
all the best
Ned

[GSH]

What's a "Opanda EXIF viewer plug-in" is it a program or trade name, where can I get a copy and is it a plug-in for photoshop .!!! :o


It's a plug-in for your web browser. There are seperate versions for IE & Firefox depending on what you use.

A lot of us here leave the EXIF intact in our images so others can see the settings, with Opanda installed, you just right click on the image, select the option to view EXIF and up she pops, if the EXIF hasn't been stripped out, that is :)

http://www.opanda.com/en/iexif/

[rbush83]

Just want to say opanda iexif is awesome, everyone should have it. :)

[ned1]

It's a plug-in for your web browser. There are seperate versions for IE & Firefox depending on what you use.

A lot of us here leave the EXIF intact in our images so others can see the settings, with Opanda installed, you just right click on the image, select the option to view EXIF and up she pops, if the EXIF hasn't been stripped out, that is :)

http://www.opanda.com/en/iexif/


Hi GSH,
Downloaded Exif from your link and wow :lol: this is great,
There is no need to ask people what they set there cameras to for a given shot as I can now just right click and have a look at the setting of the photos posted and I should be able to lean a lot from the information.

Thanks for the link,
it's open up another information highway for me ;) ;)

Ned

[ned1]

Hi all,
Found this one, that I was going to delete, then had a closer look, croped and worked it as best I can (with my very limited knowledge) in photoshop. !!
could I please have your comments, good or bad !!
Thanks for looking
Ned :confused:

[peeps27]

Mike
As we have said in other posts there IS no part of the track without fencing. It is erected to stop people invading the circuit after the races. If he wants to shoot MotoGP in UK he has no alternative other than a high viewpoint at one corner.

Ned1
Yes looks much better. BTW, what size and quality are the originals from the camera? How are you post processing in photoshop?

[ned1]

Hi Peeps27
The size was set as always to the highest quality, large fine JPEG (8mp) from the camera, also sometimes Raw as well, but not this one.
As for the post processing in photoshop, First I crop this one then I tried a bit of Levels,contrast,Hue saturation, etc until it looks about right !!! (hopefully).

Ned ;)

PS. Got a copy of Digital Camera with the artcle about improving technique shooting a round of the BSB. and very good it is too,

thanks for that Peeps27

[ned1]

HI All
Found another one to bring back from the trash can,
comments please
Thanks for looking
Ned :cool:

[ned1]

Hi all,
Here are two more of the UK Donington park GP photos, as always comment please, good or bad.
Thanks for looking
Ned ;)