16th Annual ALMS Petit LeMans at Road Atlanta

I had fun shooting Petit LeMans this year, I had not been to the race in a few years. ITs always fun to shoot big events with crowds...it makes for much more interesting backgrounds and foregrounds. These are just 8 of the 115 that I liked from the day...

#1

IMAGE LINK: http://www.flickr.com …travisrhoads/10​391690693/

IMAGE LINK: http://www.flickr.com …travisrhoads/10​394674195/

IMAGE LINK: http://www.flickr.com …travisrhoads/10​428173545/

IMAGE LINK: http://www.flickr.com …travisrhoads/10​428173215/

IMAGE LINK: http://www.flickr.com …travisrhoads/10​428459085/

IMAGE LINK: http://www.flickr.com …travisrhoads/10​428162726/

IMAGE LINK: http://www.flickr.com …travisrhoads/10​428168955/

IMAGE LINK: http://www.flickr.com …travisrhoads/10​414841143/

#7 looks like the foreground is what is in focus. of course, if that was your intent, then good on ya.

NeherPhoto wrote in post #16391231
#7 looks like the foreground is what is in focus. of course, if that was your intent, then good on ya.

Point taken i guess...I thought the light in the shot was the subject less than the car.

#8 looks out of focus as well.

I do like #1.

Bicknell55 wrote in post #16391682
#8 looks out of focus as well.

I do like #1.

I probably got to heavy handed with nose reduction on #8. It was shot at ISO 2000 which is one step to high on the 7d in my experience.

Glad you like at least one. ..

Good Job!! 3,4,7 are my favorites!!
Looking forward to seeing more!

Oh and #1 too!!!

great shots, unusual angles and a good sense of speed

EightEleven wrote in post #16392963
Good Job!! 3,4,7 are my favorites!!
Looking forward to seeing more!

Thanks Ron. There are more on the Flickr page...this weekend I hope to get the rest up on my smugmug site.

Aspock wrote in post #16393804
great shots, unusual angles and a good sense of speed

Thanks. I was looking for different angles this time out...I have shot at RA so many times that I get a little bored with it...so I was working on my slow pans from different places.

TRhoads wrote in post #16392210
I probably got to heavy handed with nose reduction on #8. It was shot at ISO 2000 which is one step to high on the 7d in my experience.

Glad you like at least one. ..

7D will shoot comfortably at 2500 ISO. The secret is to shoot with your EV set to over expose. This image is set at -1EV.

Just as you would set your exposure slightly under in bright daylight, set your esposure slightly over in low light. It's just a rule of thumb... but in low light, you want to set your exposure for the shadows. This will result in a lot less noise... especially if you're doing any post process work.

Thanks for the tips John, I really appreciate you taking the time. I have never tried motorsport in the dark...so I felt like a complete n00b when trying the night shots. I got so frustrated by it. I know the ETTR trick, but thought that would be counter productive to what I wanted to do, which was get the car illuminated by the headlights behind it, and not really get much of the track. Oh well, learning experience....hopefull​y there will be a Petit of some kind next year too...only time will tell.

October 4 2014, Travis!

TRhoads wrote in post #16395073
Thanks for the tips John, I really appreciate you taking the time. I have never tried motorsport in the dark...so I felt like a complete n00b when trying the night shots. I got so frustrated by it. I know the ETTR trick, but thought that would be counter productive to what I wanted to do, which was get the car illuminated by the headlights behind it, and not really get much of the track. Oh well, learning experience....hopefull​y there will be a Petit of some kind next year too...only time will tell.

Oh, there will still be a Petit Le Mans, but it will now be hosted and promoted by the merged entity of Tudor United SportsCar Championships.

The exposure guide is not a "trick." It's a fact and normal practice. It's a simple rule of thumb... in bright light, expose for the highlights (control them). In low light, expose for the shadows.

If you think about it, exposing for the shadows makes a lot of sense... that's were the detail is, right? You mentioned capturing the headlights shining on the back of the car... now, think about that. They would be BRIGHTER than normal. So you don't want to expose for the bright lights... they need to be brighter than average. If you expose for the shadows, they will have a normal correct exposure and highlights will be bright... as it should be.

With your own eyes, YOU can see the car, right? The camera can't because lenses are always losing light. Even though an f/1.4 lens is fast... it is still losing light compared to the naked eye. So, we have to over come that. If I'm in an outdoor cafe at night, I want to photograph the person across from me EXACTLY like I see them. Hence, I need to lie to the camera and overexpose.

You don't need to wait for next year's race... get out and do some night shooting. Start in black and white so you can focus on the light and on the exposure. You'll be amazed when you begin to see noise going away.

JT

Great set of images! Love the sense of speed in your shots, with the crowds in foreground.