My Take on the 2009 Riponian Stages Rally

[Simon Harrison]

I doubt that I have enjoyed an event as much as this one. Everything about it was, for me, just about perfect. Great weather, some amazing action, very committed driving throughout the field, and some good company across the day. Now, if only every event could be like this.....

#1 The historics were first through, in some wonderful spring light.
http://www.srh-motorsport-photography.co.uk/Galleries/forums/POTN/RSR09_9.jpg

#2 Next came the modern cars. Tim Pearcey was running first on the road, and appeared around the corner carrying way too much spped. He threw the car sideways to try and scrub at least some of it off.
http://www.srh-motorsport-photography.co.uk/Galleries/forums/POTN/RSR09_4.jpg

#3 But he was past the point of no return, and hit the temporary hay bale chicane pretty hard. Amazingly, the only sign of damage on the car was a broken headlight! The incident didn't slow him down much either, as he set joint fastest time on this stage and finished second overall.
http://www.srh-motorsport-photography.co.uk/Galleries/forums/POTN/RSR09_5.jpg

#4 The afternoon brought a fantastic slection of sideways driving.
http://www.srh-motorsport-photography.co.uk/Galleries/forums/POTN/RSR09_8.jpg

#5 The Porsche 911s were at it as well.
http://www.srh-motorsport-photography.co.uk/Galleries/forums/POTN/RSR09_6.jpg

#6 As was the MG S2000 of Peter Stephenson
http://www.srh-motorsport-photography.co.uk/Galleries/forums/POTN/RSR09_11.jpg

#7 Even the BMW's decided to join in
http://www.srh-motorsport-photography.co.uk/Galleries/forums/POTN/RSR09_10.jpg

#8 I'll finish with one of my favourite cars from the day - an imacculate Escort mk I Twincam.
http://www.srh-motorsport-photography.co.uk/Galleries/forums/POTN/RSR09_7.jpg

All of the shots were taken with a 1D mk II and either a Sigma 120-300 or Sigma 500mm prime (and yes Geoff it was worth carrying the 500 all day, even if I am seriously feeling the after effects this morning LOL).

There's a full gallery on my website for those that are interested.

As usual, any comments or feedback are most welcome.

Cheers,

Simon.

[KevB]

Excellent set Simon from an excellent event. There were some cracking cars taking part yesterday, I have to say. :D

Kev

[Simon Harrison]

Excellent set Simon from an excellent event. There were some cracking cars taking part yesterday, I have to say. :D

Kev

Thanks Kev. :D The whole day was superb, and the presentation of some of the cars really was top drawer stuff.

Simon.

[petris]

Perfect set as usual :cool:
#1 and #3,
Porsche shot also nice, but i don't like color of car ( not fit for 911)

Weather look nice and lightning too. Spring is coming.. here not yet;)

In next weekend is last winter rally in level of Jyväskylä and rally season continues on summer :cry:

[Pete Owen]

Nice shots Simon
Love 2,4 & 8 the most,there was some gorgeous mk1's out yesterday! :D
I must have past you at some point as i was at the bales for the 1st few cars in the afternoon then walked down to the hairpin just before Dave Hemingway rolled at your corner :rolleyes: did you get any shots of him going over?
Have to agree it was a great rally (1st time i have been in any of those woods:oops:),so easy to spectate on too,managed Roppa then Wass then back to Roppa & back to Wass,not many rallies where you can see most cars through 4 stages & still be back home for tea :D
Pete

[Ian_H]

All cracking shots Simon, especially the one of Tim hitting the bales, I was going to say that the last shot's colour looked a bit off, sort of a pink tinge but as nobody else has mentioned it it may just be my monitor.

p.s. I tried chasing those passes up but no response as yet:(


Cheers
Ian

[Semmonka]

Excellent shots. All super sharp. If I have to pick one, its #1.
The white escort really stands out from dark and dusty background and the framing is perfectly loose :D

[Simon Harrison]

Perfect set as usual :cool:
#1 and #3,
Porsche shot also nice, but i don't like color of car ( not fit for 911)

Weather look nice and lightning too. Spring is coming.. here not yet;)

In next weekend is last winter rally in level of Jyväskylä and rally season continues on summer :cry:

Thanks Petris!

Simon.

[Simon Harrison]

Nice shots Simon
Love 2,4 & 8 the most,there was some gorgeous mk1's out yesterday! :D
I must have past you at some point as i was at the bales for the 1st few cars in the afternoon then walked down to the hairpin just before Dave Hemingway rolled at your corner :rolleyes: did you get any shots of him going over?
Have to agree it was a great rally (1st time i have been in any of those woods:oops:),so easy to spectate on too,managed Roppa then Wass then back to Roppa & back to Wass,not many rallies where you can see most cars through 4 stages & still be back home for tea :D
Pete

Cheers Pete.

You must have walked past both me and GSH in the afternoon. I was the one standing a little was down from the hay bales with the 500mm prime that I'd lugged into the forest with me. As a result, I didn't get anything of Dave Hemingway going over, as he was too close to me by the time he started to roll.

It was my first time in Roppa as well. I will definately be back next year.

Simon.

[GSH]

(and yes Geoff it was worth carrying the 500 all day, even if I am seriously feeling the after effects this morning LOL).



Just so everyone knows, he texted me earlier describing himself as being "sore". http://homepage.ntlworld.com/geoff.hubbert/smilies/laugh.gif


That's a cracking set of shots Simon. I've yet to hear anyone complain about yesterday. It looks like Ripon MSC have the magic touch. :D

Ian's got a point about that last shot though. I'm posting on the lapdog but i'll double check when i fire up the PC.

[Simon Harrison]

Ian's got a point about that last shot though. I'm posting on the lapdog but i'll double check when i fire up the PC.

Now that's interesting, as I was shooting on a custom WB, and the colour temperature on that shot is the same as shots #4, #5 and #6. I wonder whether he came around with a bit of dust hanging up in the air. The car's reg plate and rear wheel are also nicely 'white'. Strange that.

Simon.

[chrispons]

Very sharp indeed Simon.As usual.

The haybale collision is a great action shot,and love no 1.

Pons

[Bosscat]

Great Set Simon.

[andrewc]

Fantastic set of images. Very crisp...

[Rhodri.Lew10]

Superb set of shots as usual Simon, extremely sharp and perfectly exposed. The only criticism really is that one or two are a bit tight for me, but that's more personal preference than anything.

#1 is probably my pick of the bunch.

All the best,

Rhodri

[GSH]

Now that's interesting, as I was shooting on a custom WB, and the colour temperature on that shot is the same as shots #4, #5 and #6. I wonder whether he came around with a bit of dust hanging up in the air. The car's reg plate and rear wheel are also nicely 'white'. Strange that.


Here's my shot - same car, pretty much the same time but on the 50D. Converted in C1 4 Pro with all settings Neutral other than sharpening in Photoshop as this muppet hasn't got to grips with C1's sharpening settings yet :D

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/geoff.hubbert/Pics/Images%202009/Riponian/Riponian-0311.jpg

Did you do any shadow / highlight adjustments to remove the glare on the bonnet ?

[Simon Harrison]

Superb set of shots as usual Simon, extremely sharp and perfectly exposed. The only criticism really is that one or two are a bit tight for me, but that's more personal preference than anything.

#1 is probably my pick of the bunch.

All the best,

Rhodri

Thanks Rhodri.

The tightness of some of the shots was necessary I'm afraid, to avoid either a couple of hay bales draped in red and white tape, or a transit van belonging to a marshall with more of the dreaded red and white tape.

Simon.

[Simon Harrison]

Thanks for posting this Geoff. To my eye, the only real difference between the two pictures is one of exposure. My version was taken at ISO640, 1/320s and f11 (I had no EV dialled when I took the shot). This gave a histogram whose tail started just after complete black at one end, and finished pretty much a white on the other i.e. bell shaped but skewed a little to the dark end.

Once in C1 V4 (not the pro version) I applied the following settings: -

Exposure 0
Contrast +6
Brightness 0
Saturation +6
Shadow 0
Highlight 29

I also pulled the end of of the histogram in slightly from the LHS until it met the point at which the histogram ended.

The only reason I pulled the Highlight slider up a little bit was due to the lettering above the reg plate on the car being a little blown. I didn't have any other glare problems with the bonnet or other parts of the car.

This is pretty much all I did on all of my shots from Sunday.

How does this compare with what you did?

Simon

Here's my shot - same car, pretty much the same time but on the 50D. Converted in C1 4 Pro with all settings Neutral other than sharpening in Photoshop as this muppet hasn't got to grips with C1's sharpening settings yet :D

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/geoff.hubbert/Pics/Images%202009/Riponian/Riponian-0311.jpg

Did you do any shadow / highlight adjustments to remove the glare on the bonnet ?

[GSH]

How does this compare with what you did?


Straight from the camera with no...oh wait a minute ;)

The shot i posted in this thread was left deliberately "neutral" with the exception of sharpening in CS2. I'll have a go with your settings and see what happens.

[GSH]

Comparison time...

My "original" from this thread...
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/geoff.hubbert/Pics/Images%202009/Riponian/Riponian-0311.jpg

Same shot processed with your settings (as posted)
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/geoff.hubbert/Pics/Images%202009/Riponian/Riponian-0311-2.jpg

Yours..

http://www.srh-motorsport-photography.co.uk/Galleries/forums/POTN/RSR09_7.jpg




I can hardly see a difference in mine other than the 2nd version having slightly "warmer" colours.

It could well be a difference between cameras / lenses or a combination of the 2. To be honest i wouldn't worry about it as it's a cracking shot and looks just fine as it is :)

[darren h]

Very high quality shots as always Simon. as quoted in Geoff's post, gutted i could not make this. The two Tim Pearcy shots look the best to me, looks like a perfect day for shooting rally cars and some very nice motors too.

[Simon Harrison]

I'd imagine that any differences are more down to the base exposure than anything else - yours looks significantly brighter than mine. The only other info I maybe should have included above is that the colour temperature was 5027K with a tint of 3 (as set by CBL filter) and these were used for all of stage 8. My settings have certainly pulled down some of the highlights on your comparison shot.

I'm quite happy with the shot, and don't intend changing it. At 100%, the bits of the car that should be white are. Anything else can only be down to the base exposure and dust hanging in the air. I'm comfortable with the base exposure from the histogram I have - pushing up the exposure would lead to blowing out highlights which I don't want to do.

Cheers,

Simon.

[Simon Harrison]

Very high quality shots as always Simon. as quoted in Geoff's post, gutted i could not make this. The two Tim Pearcy shots look the best to me, looks like a perfect day for shooting rally cars and some very nice motors too.

Shame you couldn't make it Darren, because it really was close to a perfect day for shooting a rally.

Simon.

[kipper]

Nice work Simon, usual high image quality. I've downloaded the trial C1 to have a play with. It certainly is a different class of RAW converter, hope I can do it some justice. Don't think you're the only one suffering today - having decided to walk across to farthest point in Roppa we did the same in College Moor.:shock: A good days racing and no rain!

[Simon Harrison]

Nice work Simon, usual high image quality. I've downloaded the trial C1 to have a play with. It certainly is a different class of RAW converter, hope I can do it some justice. Don't think you're the only one suffering today - having decided to walk across to farthest point in Roppa we did the same in College Moor.:shock: A good days racing and no rain!

Thanks Craster. It definately was a day that will take some beating this season.

C1 is the raw convertor as far as I am concerned. It produces some fantastic results. Don't be put off by all of the sliders - to be honest, I hardly use any of them anyway.

Simon.

[Ian_H]

I'd imagine that any differences are more down to the base exposure than anything else - yours looks significantly brighter than mine. The only other info I maybe should have included above is that the colour temperature was 5027K with a tint of 3 (as set by CBL filter) and these were used for all of stage 8. My settings have certainly pulled down some of the highlights on your comparison shot.

I'm quite happy with the shot, and don't intend changing it. At 100%, the bits of the car that should be white are. Anything else can only be down to the base exposure and dust hanging in the air. I'm comfortable with the base exposure from the histogram I have - pushing up the exposure would lead to blowing out highlights which I don't want to do.

Cheers,

Simon.


Sorry about that:o, it was just an observation, didn't think it would lead to all this checking settings and comparing different shots

[AzzA]

Great stuff as ever Simon. Always seem to find some nice lighting don't ya ;)

#3 stands out, looks a bit hectic !!

[elvisrally]

Great capture on number 3

Elvis

[jim9449]

Top set Simon, some every tasty cars on show, Evo and 911 for me.
Jim

[Pete Owen]

Cheers Pete.

You must have walked past both me and GSH in the afternoon. I was the one standing a little was down from the hay bales with the 500mm prime that I'd lugged into the forest with me. As a result, I didn't get anything of Dave Hemingway going over, as he was too close to me by the time he started to roll.

It was my first time in Roppa as well. I will definately be back next year.

Simon.
That must have been you with the monopod stood a good way back from the bales then?
Shame you didn't get any of mr hemingway's little excurtion :(
Pete

[Simon Harrison]

That must have been you with the monopod stood a good way back from the bales then?
Shame you didn't get any of mr hemingway's little excurtion :(
Pete


Aye that was probably me. The 500 is a bit heavy to hand hold :lol:

Simon.

[Simon Harrison]

Great stuff as ever Simon. Always seem to find some nice lighting don't ya ;)

#3 stands out, looks a bit hectic !!

Cheers Az. Me and Geoff did a reccie through the stage in February and picked out a few locations (this one included) that had nice clean backgrounds and the sun in the right place at the right time.

Simon.

[Big Ant]

Superb Simon, as always. Looks like I missed a good event:(

All of them are crystal clear

Like the catch of Tim Pearcey getting carried away