First try at motorsports - Motul 6-Hour Endurance | Auckland, NZ (motorcycle)

I'm primarily a landscape shooter -- no birds or wildlife, nothing fast moving at all. But my friend's brother had a team entered at a 6-hour endurance race here in Auckland, so I got the chance to try my hand at motorsports. Tried a combination of high and low shutter speeds. This was my first attempt at panning shots as well. Took a while to get the hang of it. Even though I think I got some keepers, when I was shooting, I couldn't tell if I'd nailed a shot or not. Anyway, here are the pictures.

Any critiques welcome. Any ways to improve, any things to avoid, etc, etc.

1. Started off what I thought would be easy -- wide angle (16mm). But unfortunately, this was the start/finish line, with the fastest straight on the track and the bikes hitting 200+ km/h. VERY hard to get anything in focus while panning.

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all very nice....

All good shots, except wide angle on #1 doesn't really work for me, would be better if there were more riders in it perhaps.

#3 is a real killer of a shot.

Location is great for #2, as they come over the hill and into the turn, you would need to shoot with longer glass to fill the frame more, but still looks good though. Maybe next time stand little to the left, that way you'll be a bit closer & won't see the advertising that you don't like.

Thanks for sharing your learning curve with each pic, it's good you tried different positions.

Hampton Downs.... certainly need some long glass for the best images and to be on the inside of the public fences. I've spoken to some pro's that regularly use 800mm there & it's still not long enough.

The longer the lens, the easier it is to shoot through the fences though.

joeseph wrote in post #17779585
all very nice....

Thanks.

Jakaph1 wrote in post #17779608
All good shots, except wide angle on #1 doesn't really work for me, would be better if there were more riders in it perhaps.

#3 is a real killer of a shot.

Location is great for #2, as they come over the hill and into the turn, you would need to shoot with longer glass to fill the frame more, but still looks good though. Maybe next time stand little to the left, that way you'll be a bit closer & won't see the advertising that you don't like.

Thanks for sharing your learning curve with each pic, it's good you tried different positions.

Yes, #1 is a bit empty -- maybe more riders would have made it better. This was only during qualifying, hence only one rider. It was so hard to track them so close/fast, I didn't even try during the actual race. For #2, yes, with a longer lens I could have gotten tighter. I tried moving to the left more to cut out the advertising board, but that meant the knee-drop got blocked (too much) by the bike. But good idea nonetheless for another time.

Mark Vuleta wrote in post #17780382
Hampton Downs.... certainly need some long glass for the best images and to be on the inside of the public fences. I've spoken to some pro's that regularly use 800mm there & it's still not long enough.

The longer the lens, the easier it is to shoot through the fences though.

Yes, I did see some long lenses on the pros shooting trackside. My longest is the 70-200, so that's what I shot. I was on the inside part of the track (as part of one of the teams), so didn't have to worry about the fence for the most part. Personally though, when I was looking through racing images before, I noticed that I liked the slightly wider images more than super-tight crops, because the wider ones give a bit more context/story. Not to mention that shooting longer would have been even harder to pan for me! Will have to get much better at shooting such fast action first.

Longer lenses not so much for panning but more for head-on stuff while still remaining safe...

This was shot through the fence outside the apartments 600mm F5.6

I think the OP should post these over in the camera forums where people say the 6D is not a good camera for anything fast moving. I always thought that was baloney - and these excellent photos kind of prove that it is a fine camera for action.

The last one is a standout for me. The longest most shooter's use for panning would be 300mm, and the 70-200mm is fine at most club level circuits. As mentioned you only need 600mm+ for more head-on shots at bigger circuits.

Regarding the whole set, the processing is a bit all over the place, especially with regards to the track surface. In some shots its very light grey (about normal), others its almost blue, and in one it's virtually black. Try to keep the tarmac a mid-grey (ish) colour as it will show the movement better and also the tyres won't blend into it so well.

For shots 3, 4, 5, 7 & 8 try working at a shutter speed of ~1/125 for the best balance between background blur and still getting lots of 'keepers'.

For more head-on shots you shouldn't need to go much higher than 1/500 so long as you still follow the bike as you shoot and this will keep movement in the tyres. Certainly no need to go up to 1/2000!!

Really cool shots! What AF were you using, single shot or servo?

Mark Vuleta wrote in post #17782865
Longer lenses not so much for panning but more for head-on stuff while still remaining safe...

Got it. Nice shots btw. I'm hoping to return to Hampton Downs again for another go.

medd63 wrote in post #17782883
I think the OP should post these over in the camera forums where people say the 6D is not a good camera for anything fast moving. I always thought that was baloney - and these excellent photos kind of prove that it is a fine camera for action.

Note that most of these were with manual focus. So the 6D's AF didn't come into play. However, given that I came from a 5D2, the 6D isn't any worse in the AF department.

98kellrs wrote in post #17782958
Regarding the whole set, the processing is a bit all over the place, especially with regards to the track surface. In some shots its very light grey (about normal), others its almost blue, and in one it's virtually black. Try to keep the tarmac a mid-grey (ish) colour as it will show the movement better and also the tyres won't blend into it so well.

Thanks for the advice. And noted about the processing -- to be honest, I am/was still trying to figure out the look I want. Hence the different edits.

snerd wrote in post #17782995
Really cool shots! What AF were you using, single shot or servo?

Thanks. Most of the shots were in manual focus -- pre-focused on a chosen spot and followed the riders to that spot. Pretty small apertures, so enough depth of field even if I didn't nail the position it exactly. I did use AF for some of these shots though (unfortunately cannot remember which ones!).

Nice photos

Photos look good! For me they are a little loose but if you're limited to 200mm(like me) you either need to try to get closer which isn't always allowed or in some cases, safe...or use that four letter word. Crop.
Fantastic results for your first go, love the post work btw