First time taking shots at the drag strip..help me out here.

[throwtheanchor]

This was the first time i brought my camera to the drag strip, most of my pictures didnt turn out very good, so i figured id come here for some help. I shot using Al Servo and M. Here they are...


http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3049/2581449821_e5633c5acc_b.jpg
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3096/2582013676_1a6c3066af_b.jpg
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3062/2581170153_181737a5c2_b.jpg

[jimken61]

Not sure why your shooting in M? I shoot M on my night shots but during the day I use either TV or AV depending on what I'm trying to do. When I'm shooting from the starting line I like to shoot in AV so I can get a shallow dept of field to blur the background, usually F2.8. I adjust my ISO up enough to get a good shutter speed, at least 1/320 and on up to 1/2000 or better(depending on lighting conditions) to freeze the action. Another route is to shoot in TV mode and set your shutter to about 1/160 and pan with the cars as they go by to get motion blurr, this takes some practice and you will have a lot of crappy shots, but the good ones make it worth it. You may want to try a little faster shutter at first like 1/320 and work your way down. Good luck and have fun.
Jim

[throwtheanchor]

Not sure why your shooting in M? I shoot M on my night shots but during the day I use either TV or AV depending on what I'm trying to do. When I'm shooting from the starting line I like to shoot in AV so I can get a shallow dept of field to blur the background, usually F2.8. I adjust my ISO up enough to get a good shutter speed, at least 1/320 and on up to 1/2000 or better(depending on lighting conditions) to freeze the action. Another route is to shoot in TV mode and set your shutter to about 1/160 and pan with the cars as they go by to get motion blurr, this takes some practice and you will have a lot of crappy shots, but the good ones make it worth it. You may want to try a little faster shutter at first like 1/320 and work your way down. Good luck and have fun.
Jim

thank you, i will try that out.

[saturnin]

NOt sure why JIM would say "not sure why you are shooting M?"

Unless you are learning, its encouraged to shoot in TV or Av modes to get a better understanding of settings etc.
I dont know Throwtheanchor's history or skills.... but if he knows how to properly expose and understands his camera and lighting, why not shoot M?

I havent shot in AV, TV, KGB, CIA in a long time, everything is M

[jimken61]

NOt sure why JIM would say "not sure why you are shooting M?"

Unless you are learning, its encouraged to shoot in TV or Av modes to get a better understanding of settings etc.
I dont know Throwtheanchor's history or skills.... but if he knows how to properly expose and understands his camera and lighting, why not shoot M?

I havent shot in AV, TV, KGB, CIA in a long time, everything is M

Well I'm not an expert so I was giving him advice on what works for me. I kind of guessed that based on his comments that he might not be an expert. I was trying to give him some somewhat simple advice on taking pics. Sure I shoot manual sometime to but I let the camera do a lot of the work to by taking advantage of the av and tv settings. Is there sort of hidden message in here....KGB and CIA modes??? LOL

Heres one of mine from this past weekend. I think it came out ok.
http://i196.photobucket.com/albums/aa205/jimken61/Drags070_1.jpg

[saturnin]

lol.. i was just trying to be funny(TV,AV, KGB..yada yada yada)

but back to topic..yah i know what you were saying... definaly if someone is learning ..u get a much better keep ratio when shooting with assists.

And some ppl just shoot in that and thats great. I dont want to get into a convo about credibility of someone shooting Assist or M...but shoot whatever gets u teh shoots :D

Eitehr way, pics from the both of u'se are good.

[Richtherookie]

1 and 2 I think are great. I am a rookie but if it was my car in the picture i'd pay for them. 3rd one seams like it is OOF or maybe soft. Can't tell ya which. I get that quite often in boat races. (which is the only motorsport i shoot).

The only other thing i can see that the pro's will slap your hand on is that the cars need more open area in front of them. they all loook like the cars are about to drive out of the picture.

Practise makes perfect. Keep shooting.

[hank3152]

Your shots look fine. I generally shoot in Av to vary the DoF or just set it to the widest aperture to get the fastest shutter speed allowed for proper exposure. Here's a few shots I took at a Divisional at Indy just using the A610 P/S compact.

http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1010&message=24109795

Other samples with and without using DSLRs.
This was while testing last year at Valdosta, GA before the Gatornationals and the other is at the Gatornationals.

[cryton]

You can feel the heat on that shot hank3152.Good shot and sure that came after lots of practice.Practise ,practice, practise I say.

[hank3152]

Yep, I like the way the heat disturbs the air around the car which is a nice effect. Here are two more examples our car at the finish line with a little PS2 on the last one................