Beginner looking for C&C - IRL:

[udunnome]

Following is my beginner's attempt at photography of an IRL event here in Kansas yesterday. Armed soley with my 20D and EF 75-300mm f/4-5.6 lens, I took the following photos. Aside from limitations of vantage point as well as spectator heads and track fence, I'm looking for the flaws or suggestions in my work.

Overall, I'm not happy with these shots compared to others that I've viewed within Motorsports. The other photos that I've seen seem to pop and have much more vivid color.


I've read the 20D owners manual and browsed this and other sites quite a bit, but overall my plan is to continue to take lots of pictures to see what works and what doesn't. I'm looking for any suggestions at all...

For some reason EXIF data reports as "Unknown" while I believe I had it set to 100 most of the day.

1) f/7.1 190mm ISO "Unknown" 1/2000

http://home.lauerspace.com/gallery2/main.php?g2_view=core.DownloadItem&g2_itemId=28597&g2_serialNumber=2

2) f/7.1 230mm ISO "Unknown" 1/2500



http://home.lauerspace.com/gallery2/main.php?g2_view=core.DownloadItem&g2_itemId=28662&g2_serialNumber=2

3) f/25 300mm ISO "Unknown" 1/250

http://home.lauerspace.com/gallery2/main.php?g2_view=core.DownloadItem&g2_itemId=28822&g2_serialNumber=2

4) f/8 300mm ISO "Unknown" 1/2500

http://home.lauerspace.com/gallery2/main.php?g2_view=core.DownloadItem&g2_itemId=29237&g2_serialNumber=2

5) f/5.6 240mm ISO "Unknown" 1/4999

http://home.lauerspace.com/gallery2/main.php?g2_view=core.DownloadItem&g2_itemId=29617&g2_serialNumber=2

6) f/20 300mm ISO "Unknown" 1/250

http://home.lauerspace.com/gallery2/main.php?g2_view=core.DownloadItem&g2_itemId=29882&g2_serialNumber=2

7) f/16 230mm ISO "Unknown" 1/250

http://home.lauerspace.com/gallery2/main.php?g2_view=core.DownloadItem&g2_itemId=30032&g2_serialNumber=2

8) f/20 300mm ISO "Unknown" 1/250

http://home.lauerspace.com/gallery2/main.php?g2_view=core.DownloadItem&g2_itemId=30397&g2_serialNumber=2

Thanks!

[darkvibe]

Your ISO speeds are mostly 400 with a couple 800 thrown in. I used the Opanda firefox plugin to view the exif data. Looks like you were shooting in the afternoon sun which is tough. I like your shots. I personally prefer panning shots which require longer shutter speeds than most of your shots. (1 over car's speed in MPH is a good starting point). I think it captures the motion of the car really well.

I'm no expert but i think your white balance is a little off. Most of the photos look a little cool/blue to me. Did you shoot in raw? That would make an easy edjustment. You can still adjust them in photoshop. And about your comment regarding vivid colors, try increasing the saturation a little bit. If you change the setting in your user control panel on here to allow others to edit your images, i'm sure some people would help you out and tell you how they did it.

I'm also new to motorsprots photography. My only advice is keep shooting and see what works and what doesn't, like you already said.

[TCorzett]

Vivid colors are hard to achieve in mid-day sun... you get lots of glare and hot-spots on the white parts of car, forcing you to underexpose and mute things. Bumping-up the saturation can help, but don't get carried away and make things fake (remember, you're still working with a car that has a real color... Penske orange - no matter how much I hate it because it blows-out all the time - is still an absolute color).

The biggest “flaw” with your shots is the lack of motion... many of the cars look parked on the track. Shooting at 1/2500th or 1/5000th will do that... you have a few shots at 1/250th, which if you look at the wheels/tires you can see some motion, but even at those speeds there isn’t much motion visible. One thing you will notice in the 1/250th shots compared to the 1/2500th shots is how the fence (at least the grid/link part) disappears. (compare #1 with #7). Slow is good!

Oh, and you mention the fan’s heads in the foreground... use them! Fans are a GREAT way to show motion, as well as pull the “spectators” element into the event. If you use a wider composition and include the spectators you can get some really great motion in the shots – despite the fences. And, with fences, time your shots such that the car is not behind the posts... and with slower shutter speeds you don’t really notice them (much).

The biggest thing when it comes to motorsports is practice, practice, practice!

-Todd...

[Swaffs]

AS Above, shutter speed is going to be the biggest thing you will play with.
REad some of the ,any articles on this forum.

Shoot in Tv mode, starting at about 1/250 panning with the car, squezing the shutter at your prefered point and continuing to pan afterwards.

Gradually reduce the speed, trying to keep the vehicle sharp.

practise !

[pumaknight]

Thank you for sharing these shots. You have some nice images there, certainly ones you should be ahppy with given your lack of experience.

The advice of the others above is spot on (I could add no more:-)) good luck and show us your next batch when you get the chance.

Michael H

[RedWingNut]

I'd say the biggest thing at first glance, and it was mentioned before, is the white balance. There is a strong "cool" (blue) color cast to some of these. If you use PS or LightZone, and reset what should be white, to white, then you'd like them a lot more.

[darkvibe]

I edited this one in photoshop. I only used auto color correction which fixed the white balance and bumped the saturation. I also ran neatimage to reduce noise (there wasn't much noise to begin with but i run it on almost everything) I think I used +10 on the saturation.

Edit: now that I look at the car color I oversaturated it. But you get the idea.