How would you shoot this?

Brand spanking new to the world of digital photography and am learning as I go. Plan on taking a few newbie courses at the local college.


Hypothetical photography question -

Let's say for example you are at the local drag strip and you are going to shoot a Funny car in the first 100ft of it's quarter mile run. You are in the front row along side the fence that is approximately 20 feet from the track and only 25 feet from the subject (car).

Obviously your camera will be moving while tracking the movement of the car down the track while you're taking the pictures.

Time of day is 1pm on a sunny clear day.

To me the most important part of the question is "your camera will be moving" as in not stationary in hand or on a tripod.

What settings/lens would you be using?

Assuming you have to shoot through the fence, get as close as possible to it. Handheld, lens at is max aperture which will blur the fence, and give you the fastest shutter speed for conditions.

That's a regular panning shot I usually start at 1/125 f8 ISO 100 and adjust as necessary .

David

With the speeds they hit.. even in the first 60feet(100mph+), i wouldn't drop below 1/250 for panning. I would also experiment with high-speed shots..1/1000-1/4000. Interesting things can be seen with the fast shutter speed( ie. tires buckling).

A lot will depend on where the sun is, also.. hopefully behind you.

dhornick wrote in post #15168535
Brand spanking new to the world of digital photography and am learning as I go. Plan on taking a few newbie courses at the local college.


Hypothetical photography question -

Let's say for example you are at the local drag strip and you are going to shoot a Funny car in the first 100ft of it's quarter mile run. You are in the front row along side the fence that is approximately 20 feet from the track and only 25 feet from the subject (car).

Obviously your camera will be moving while tracking the movement of the car down the track while you're taking the pictures.

Time of day is 1pm on a sunny clear day.

To me the most important part of the question is "your camera will be moving" as in not stationary in hand or on a tripod.

What settings/lens would you be using?

A few of us have actually done this at real race tracks.

Byte size: ZERO | Content warning: NOT AN IMAGE

Byte size: ZERO | Content warning: NOT AN IMAGE

1Tanker wrote in post #15168736
With the speeds they hit.. even in the first 60feet(100mph+), i wouldn't drop below 1/250 for panning. I would also experiment with high-speed shots..1/1000-1/4000. Interesting things can be seen with the fast shutter speed( ie. tires buckling).

A lot will depend on where the sun is, also.. hopefully behind you.

yes, if possible have the sun behind you and try for a mix of high shutter speeds and panning shots with low shutter speeds. Don't be afraid to vary the ISO and aperture

DC Fan wrote in post #15168938
A few of us have actually done this at real race tracks.

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Camera Maker: Canon
Camera Model: Canon EOS DIGITAL REBEL XTi
Image Date: 2010-05-21 14:22:38 (no TZ)
Focal Length: 91.0mm
Aperture: f/7.1
Exposure Time: 0.0063 s (1/160)
ISO equiv: 100
Exposure Bias: +0.67 EV
Metering Mode: Matrix
Exposure: shutter priority (semi-auto)
White Balance: Auto
Flash Fired: No (enforced)
Orientation: Normal
Color Space: sRGB
GPS Coordinate: undefined, undefined

| Byte size: ZERO | Content warning: NOT AN IMAGE

Camera Maker: Canon
Camera Model: Canon EOS DIGITAL REBEL XTi
Image Date: 2010-05-21 14:12:17 (no TZ)
Focal Length: 70.0mm
Aperture: f/7.1
Exposure Time: 0.0063 s (1/160)
ISO equiv: 100
Exposure Bias: +0.67 EV
Metering Mode: Matrix
Exposure: shutter priority (semi-auto)
White Balance: Auto
Flash Fired: No (enforced)
Orientation: Normal
Color Space: sRGB

I just pulled out a 70-200mm f/2.8, the Tamron model in this case, chose what seemed to be a useful shutter speed and held down the shuter button and let the camera take a sequence of images. There was nothing new about the process and nothing unusual.

Nice very nice.