Croft Circuit, UK. BARC National Championship.

[John Hudson]

My first time back shooting motorsport for a few months. I've been out of the country, but will be posting regularly again from now.

The BARC Race Meeting at the Croft Circuit. All shots taken on the Saturday which was a morning of qualifying (most of which were prtty good for qualy) and an efternoon of races.

1. D&DMC Saloon Chmpionship, Ginetta.
If I heard the announcer correctly, this car was not part of the championship just here for a run out prior to the BTCC event in June.
http://www.photographers-corner.com/e107_plugins/coppermine_menu/albums/userpics/10048/Croft-BARC-Apr-2010-01.jpg

2. Unidentified Classic Clubmans (there were a few re-numberings at the event, not sure of the driver/vehicle here).
http://www.photographers-corner.com/e107_plugins/coppermine_menu/albums/userpics/10048/Croft-BARC-Apr-2010-02.jpg

3. Trish Wood in a Matlock Mk16.
http://www.photographers-corner.com/e107_plugins/coppermine_menu/albums/userpics/10048/Croft-BARC-Apr-2010-04.jpg

4. Daniel Lewis Caterham Graduate Championship.
http://www.photographers-corner.com/e107_plugins/coppermine_menu/albums/userpics/10048/Croft-BARC-Apr-2010-03.jpg

5. Robert Yarwood in a Ladybird Clubmans MK6B, a very unique looking car.
http://www.photographers-corner.com/e107_plugins/coppermine_menu/albums/userpics/10048/Croft-BARC-Apr-2010-05.jpg

6. Another unlisted in the programme, the stencil on the side of the car names the driver as Lawrence Denne and I think its a Van Diemen car. He ran a very close second for the whole race before presumably touching and knocking off the front wing in the later laps.
http://www.photographers-corner.com/e107_plugins/coppermine_menu/albums/userpics/10048/Croft-BARC-Apr-2010-07.jpg

C&C always appreciated.

I've got a few more to post, but they are not uploaded to my host yet. Will add a couple more later today.

John.

[ALALAL_1]

Hi John

Great set here, I have a staring role in a few off your shots.... I am the one with the red bag..

From the angles are you the better side of the fence ? What lens you using ?

Cheers Alan

[John Hudson]

Hi Alan,

I was using a Sigma 50-500mm for all of the above.
Except for the last one which I think I had the Canon 70-200mm f2.8 IS mounted.

The camera is Canon 20D.

John.

[John Hudson]

Another two images:

http://www.photographers-corner.com/e107_plugins/coppermine_menu/albums/userpics/10048/Croft-BARC-Apr-2010-11.jpg

http://www.photographers-corner.com/e107_plugins/coppermine_menu/albums/userpics/10048/Croft-BARC-Apr-2010-14.jpg

[ALALAL_1]

These are great as well...

[mikey_mac]

Excellent set, looks like you've got that siggy well trained :), fine work indeed

[John Hudson]

Thanks Mike, I do ok with it. But of course I don't post the rubbish ones. :)

John.

[Raizer]

http://www.photographers-corner.com/e107_plugins/coppermine_menu/albums/userpics/10048/Croft-BARC-Apr-2010-11.jpg

:eek::eek: Awesome Fronte!!!

[Kevbuts]

Awesome selection of shots and cars there John. Really great to see some shots taken with the Sigma 50-500mm. I have one myself and get what I feel are "nice" shots with it, but don't think they're as sharp as yours. Do you mind me asking how you shot these? Do you set the ISO and shutter speed to work within a fixed aperture range that you know the lens is sharp at?

I must say, I looked at the shots and thought they must have been taken with a Canon L lens as they're just so pin sharp.

Here are some of my most recent shots taken with my 50-500mm: http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=861472

What am I doing wrong?

[John Hudson]

Hi Kev,

Most of my shots are taken with the camera in shutter priority mode (Tv). The non panning shots taken above will all have been shot at about 1/320 and the panning from 1/160 down to 1/100 if I'm feeling brave. Iso is as low as I can go and still keep a correct exposure. Aperture I leave to the camera generally (with the iso as low as possible, it usually keeps the aperture close to max at around f6.3 to f8.0).

I've started using a monopod for shots where I do not have to move the camera too much, panning shots I tend to do handheld and there is no secret here, it's just taking lots of shots and having a keeper rate in the 20% area.

Having a grip on the camera certainly helps with the balance when hand holding a long lens as heavy as the Bigma.

Over the last two years I've been working abroad and I only get to see an event once every three months or so. I felt very rusty doing the shooting, but have to admit I was very surprised with the shots I ended up with. They are as sharp and colourful as anything I've ever taken, but it being croft I don't feel they are anywhere near my most interesting shots (Bad weather or a loose surface always makes for a more interesting shot).

I took a look at your shots, all of them look fine to me except for shot number 1 which I think is suffering from a little bit of motion blur as much as mis focussing. Perhaps we have a different workflow. Are you shooting RAW or JPEG? Are you sharpening the files?

I shoot RAW all of the time and my processing generally involves Crop, Levels tweaks, luminosity curve, saturation, resize, sharpen. Sometimes there's a little bit of cloning, but 99% of the time it's just the standard tweaks.

Cheers
John.

[Kevbuts]

Hi John,

Thanks for the quick reply. Sounds like your setting your camera up in the exact same way as I do, in Tv mode with the lowest ISO possible to achieve the correct exposure.

I also shoot in RAW and use the latest Canon DPP RAW conversion software to do all my processing adjustments. I tend to do the following:

Adjust white balance if necessary (I usually shoot in Auto WB on the camera);
Small saturation boost;
Small sharpening increase;
Small contrast increase (via adjusting slider position to coincide with start of histogram data);
Adjust levels;
Crop (if necessary);
Then convert.

I do not tend to do any adjustments once I have converted the files to JPEG. So what you see in my threads are straight as they appear when converted by DPP. Should I be doing any further editing post RAW conversion do you think to get the best out of my photo's?

I would welcome your comments.

Sorry to post this in your thread - it would probably have been better to PM you on this!

[John Hudson]

If that is your order of workflow then I would strongly suggest that the last thing you do should be your sharpening. The sharpening should always be done with the output in mind, this naturally puts it close to the back of the processing. The only steps I take after sharpening are to add a border, set the colourspace to sRGB, set the mode to 8 bits and save as JPEG.

I'm making an assumption here but presuming you are working on the full size files, sharpening and then resizing for web display. This is incorrect, you should resize to your final size and then sharpen as the effect of the sharpening can either be reduced of increased by the resizing.

Apart from that I would say that you are pretty much doing what I do. If it's not the sharpening, then I would suggest you look at the stability of your support (handholding vs shutter speed, and then possibly do some focus testing with the lens).

In all honesty your shots look pretty good to me, they are not absolutely tack sharp but they are a fair distance from what I would judge to be soft. I think a reordering of your steps and maybe slightly heavier hand with the unsharp mask will give you better results.

Cheers

John.

[Kevbuts]

I have recently had the lens re-calibrated John by Sigma to make sure it is working to the best of its ability - so fingers crossed it shouldn't be the lens. I also use a Manfrotto monopod the majority of the time with this my Bigma so support shouldn't be an issue.

You're correct in your assumption that my sharpening is carried out on the full size files. All the adjustments / editing that I mentioned I do is carried out on the RAW files prior to conversion to JPEG. I then normally convert the images to JPEG at a size to suit that which can be posted on the Forum (for images I post on POTN that is). I do not then do any further editing before posting them on here.

Perhaps I should be doing a further edit in Photoshop to sharpen using the Unsharp Mask function?

I would welcome your comments regarding the above :D

[John Hudson]

Kev,

I don't go straight from RAW to JPEG I save an intermediary step as a .PSD (or .TIFF if you prefer).

My workflow:
Open RAW in Photoshop.
I usually slide the blacks down to zero.
Normally a small use of the recovery tool (up to about 20 max usually)
The usual RAW adjustments if necessary (WB etc)
Open the file (16 bit Prophoto colourspace)

Work the file in the manner mentioned above (crop, layer based: levels, luminosity curve, hue/sat, no sharpening)

At this point I have the file looking as I wish with the exception of sharpening and at the full file size.
Save the file as a .PSD with the layers intact. This is my master file.

Now I consider the output (which for me usually web based, 1000px longest side)
Flatten the image
Image resize to 1000px
Duplicate the image on a layer
Filter>Sharpen>USM: Amount 500%, Radius 0.4, Threshold 0 (these numbers for 1000px file, if the file is bigger then the radius is incresed up to 1.5 for the full 8MP image).
I use the layer opacity slider to back off the oversharpening to a level where I'm happy with it (again for the 1000px example this usually falls in the 15% to 35% range).
Flatten the image.
Edit>Convert to Profile: sRGB
Image>Mode: 8 Bits
Save as JPEG (Max Quality).

The end product is an original RAW file, a full size, edited but unsharpened PSD file to which I can return and create other output options, a JPEG for web posting.

Cheers

John.

[Kevbuts]

Thanks for this fantastic advice John - I really appreciate you taking the time to get back to me in this level of detail. It has helped me no end to see where I am going wrong, and why my photo's don't have that wow factor like yours. I have created some new edits using this new workflow method and have posted a couple below (I hope you don't mind me posting them here - but they are the result of your helpful advice above so will hopefully be of interest to others). Your comments would be appreciated:

#1 Previous edit
http://i69.photobucket.com/albums/i42/Kevbuts/THM_558-1.jpg

#2 Revised workflow edit
http://i69.photobucket.com/albums/i42/Kevbuts/THM_558PSE.jpg

#3 Previous edit
http://i69.photobucket.com/albums/i42/Kevbuts/THM_556.jpg

#4 Revised workflow edit
http://i69.photobucket.com/albums/i42/Kevbuts/THM_556PSE.jpg

#5 Previous edit
http://i69.photobucket.com/albums/i42/Kevbuts/THM_551.jpg

#6 Revised workflow edit
http://i69.photobucket.com/albums/i42/Kevbuts/THM_551PSE.jpg

Cheers

[Raizer]

Awesome old Brit cars
MORE!! please! :D

[Kevbuts]

MORE!! please! :D

LOL - You could call them that, or "Brit Cars of Yesteryear!" Have a look here for some more of my shots from the event if you like the oldies: http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=861472

[John Hudson]

Hi Kev,

I've been away for a couple of days at the Pirelli Int Rally in Carlisle (shots will be up here over the coming days).

Your edits definately look a lot better moving the sharpening to the back end of the workflow.
Just watch out for sharpening halos, it's always tempting to push it a little too far with motorsports shots as the artifacts can be hidden easier than for instance in lansdcape shots. Look out for halos around the wheels, the beginnings of the are visible in your re-edits,and I would back off just slightly to correct.

John.

[ajmphotography]

Nice shots mate

[Kevbuts]

Hi Kev,

I've been away for a couple of days at the Pirelli Int Rally in Carlisle (shots will be up here over the coming days).

Your edits definately look a lot better moving the sharpening to the back end of the workflow.
Just watch out for sharpening halos, it's always tempting to push it a little too far with motorsports shots as the artifacts can be hidden easier than for instance in lansdcape shots. Look out for halos around the wheels, the beginnings of the are visible in your re-edits,and I would back off just slightly to correct.

John.

Hi John,

Hope you had a good time in at the Pirelli rally in Carlisle. Rallying is one type of racing I have never photographed. From the photographs that I have seen on this Forum I really would love to get along to one in the near future though. I look forward to seeing your photographs from Carlisle too.

I have taken your comments on board regarding the over-sharpening, and have posted below a few re-edited shots for your comment. When sharpening these I reduced the USM amount from 500% to 250% and then set the opacity in the sharpening layer to around 20% (on average). I would be interested to hear your comments on how they look. When you say in your post above that reducing the amount of sharpening, I assume you meant the percentage amount (i.e. reduce the 500% you originally mentioned down to a lesse figure)? Or would you simply keep the USM at 500% and then reduce the opacity of the USM layer?

Here are the re-edit for C&C:

#1
http://i69.photobucket.com/albums/i42/Kevbuts/POTN_157PSE.jpg

#2
http://i69.photobucket.com/albums/i42/Kevbuts/POTN_151PSE.jpg

#3
http://i69.photobucket.com/albums/i42/Kevbuts/POTN_158PSE.jpg

I have also posted a few more shots in this thread: http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=862467 Please scroll to the photo's at the bottom of the first page though, as the first set I posted where edited on my laptop and were over saturated as a result.

All the best

[John Hudson]

They look ok to me Kev.

I would have kept the percentage at 500% and backed off the opacity a bit. But that is just the way I do things, I don't know if there would be a noticeable difference between the two methods.

John.

[Kevbuts]

Thanks John - I recently had my Bigma serviced and calibrated by Sigma, so to find out that the softness in my previously posted photo's is the result of my workflow technique rather than the lens is a real bonus.

Thanks again for all your helpful advice with regards to Workflow. I really appreciate it. I have been amazed at the quality of images posted by several users on POTN (yourself included), so to be able to get my photo's in a simialr ball-park in terms of their quality and sharpness is just great. I am always trying new things to try and get the best from my gear, and your help has made a significant difference :D