BSB Brands Hatch

Hi all,

Well, I went out on Saturday and got myself a nice new 70-200 f/4 L USM (Non IS), what a great lens!

Also, what better excuse to get out of the house and go to my local race circuit to watch some superbikes in action.

The weather, unfortunately was overcast and raining for the most part, but when it didnt rain I got the camera out and took some snaps! Also all shots were taken through wire fencing.

I've never done this before so please go easy, however I am looking for some C&C as I want to do this kind of photography over everything else.

Sadly the lens is a little out of reach on most parts of the track but I think I got some good ones... I have a long way to go before I can be really happy and get some 'Magazine quality' shots but for a first time I think I did ok!

Things I know I need to sort out are they are perhaps slightly under exposed? And also I'd like to try some longer shutter speeds and blur the background, although not totally sure on the technique just yet...

Good start..For racing i normally use 70-200 F4L aswell..For panning my settings would normally be as follows..TV mode, AI Servo and a speed of around 1/100 to 1/200ish

Number three is an absolute cracker, i have the lens as well and its an absolute briliant lens, a litle bit of editing to improve the colours, i can show what i mean if you like?

For panning shots at Brands youll best of standing in the middle of the hairpin, i know it was probabley packed solid today but settings wise it wuld be al servo and a shutter speed of 1/200th then when you start getting sharp shots just keep going lower, the lower the shutter the more blur you create

Not bad for a first attempt. I quite like #3 and #5.

Main thing is to practice often and try to analyse what it is about shots you like that makes you like them. Should also be critical of your own work. I went to an evening with a very well known nature photographer a couple of weeks ago and he said that he considers no picture he has taken to be perfect.

It is difficult to get punchy images in flat light and it's also not easy to get results that are comparible with the pros. They have more practice, better gear and access to more interesting angles/locations. They also know what works and what doesn't because that's what they get paid for.

For panning, practice on anything that moves. Hold the lens with your left hand and the body with you right. Keep your elbows tucked in and swivel your upper body from the hips. I like to stand at 45 degrees to the track and follow the car/bike for as long as possible and get into a rythmn of taking shots. 1/250th is probably the fastest shutter for panning, 1/125, 1/60 or even a 1/30 often gives better results but is obviously more demanding and you'll get less keepers.

When shooting through the fence, use as wide an aperture as possible. If the camera keeps focusing on the fence instead of the bike, then focus on the track where you want to take the image. Also useful to get a meter reading from the track, it's grey and will be pretty close to a decent average reading.

Don't rely on burst mode to get the best shot. Of course use burst mode, but try to time your shutter press to get the best image. If you saw the action in the viewfinder, you missed the shot. Try to keep both eyes open all the time.

You can also do quite a lot in post processing to enhance the images. I've assumed your shots are straight from the camera. I've taken the liberty of doing a little bit of PP on #5 (levels, exposure +0.5 and Unsharp Mask)...

I've probably gone on too much, so I'll stop now. BTW, If you'd like me to take down the PP'd image, I'm very happy to do so.

Good luck keep shooting.

Thanks for your quick replies chaps! Being that i'm new to photoshop and have no idea what i'm doing, I just found how to adjust the exposure of my photo's and I did the ones I posted above and cannot believe how much happier I am with them, so to answer the question above, please feel free to edit them

Geejay, thank you for your advise, it is so valuable to people like myself and I shall be looking back at this thread before I go again, thanks also D-Pearce for your advice.

The second picture is a proper panning shot.
I've used the 70-200mm f/4 non is lens for motorcycle racing and found it difficult to go slower than 1/250 or 1/320 on the long end (often with a 1.4x tc).
It's nice to see Haga back on a Yamaha. I hope that the next weekend's races will be dry.