Champ Car racing at the 2006 Toronto Molson Grand Prix

I drove up to Toronto this passed weekend to shoot the Champ Car race at the Toronto Molson Grand Prix. Here are a few I've processed out of the many shots that I took.

A view of Turn 5 with the CN Tower in the background. This particular picture was shot during practice on Saturday.

Love that first one, great shot! the others are good but far too average, no offence but they arent remarkable.

Super shots Leo, your first shot great with the CN Tower in the BG. I keep threating to attend Toronto and Ohio. But in reality Indy will have to come first.

sando wrote:
Love that first one, great shot! the others are good but far too average, no offence but they arent remarkable.

I'd have to agree, but that one with the CN tower in the back; really great! Something special

Good work, Leo. The 1st and 4th shots are my favourite of this group. It's good to see multiple cars in shot and cars on corners always look better. I can't see what shutter speed you used, but to my eyes the last one would have been helped by a slower shutter to introduce a little more motion blur in the background. An excellent series.

Great images Leo. These guys move a lot faster than Ospreys, huh?

Ok series, image one is ok but would have been great with the pack in the frame instead of the 2 well space cars. I know that not always possible at practice.
I really like image 4 but agree that a slower shutter speed would not only have helped with a motion blurred background but would have put motion in the wheels. Motorsort is fast and exciting to me images should reflect that. I shoot all my motorsport with the camera set on TV and adjust my aperture by altering the ISO.

Thanks all for the comments. Obviously, this race was a good learning experience for me. And one of the most important things I learned is that I need a set of ND filters so that I can get my aperture and shutter speed combo just right. As it was, I had to contend with either too high a shutter speed or too small an apeture, even with ISO set to 50.

I guess all the bright sun wasn't all that helpful for my photography after all, was it?

I wouldn't rush down the ND filter route. Focus speed and accuracy is paramount when shooting motorsport and the last thing you want to do is lessen the amount of light hitting your AF sensors...

I like them quite a bit. #2 is my favourite as the car fills the frame well, you still see the people working around the track and the heat waves are nicely visible adding the 'almost there' quality.

I just ordered some ND gel filters for my 300 f/2.8. I'm going to do some tests with them to see how much they affect AF speed. But based on what I know about how the AF system works, I doubt they'll slow down AF speed any at all. AF is supposed to work even with light down to EV 0, and in bright sun, EV is about 15 at ISO 100.

The shutter speeds I was working with were 1/200 to 1/400 and the aperture was already down to between f/11 and f/8 (at ISO 100). With the smaller apertures, I was getting too much distracting background which weren't being blurred out. So I'd have to use an ND filter to go slower in shutter speed and open up the aperture a little more, wouldn't I? Or is there another way to achieve the same results without the filters? Any little tip you guys can provide will be greatly appreciated.

Yes, AF is supposed to work down to EV 0, but it's much slower at EV 0 than it is in higher light levels.

To quote from Chuck Westfall's famous document

By sticking ND filters on your lens you are reducing the light hitting the AF sensors and in effect making it "darker". From personal experience of trying to do the same thing, this does not help focus accuracy.

I rarely use depth of field to blur backgrounds in motorsport. It's nearly always done with shutter speed and motion blur.

With motorsports you can use high apertures, just watch-out for sensor dust. The biggest tip is to pan with the subject. The better your panning motion, the slower the shutter speed, and the more motion will be visible in the background. DOF and aperture only really come into play when shooting head-on (ie not moving the camera much with the subject). A ND filter can help getting towards wide-open, but with head-on shots you don't need to worry (as much) about shooting at higher shutter speeds. When I want low DOF I'll crank things up to 1/2500-4000th, but anything that should look like it's moving (wheels, treaded tires, etc.) will look static - hence I only do it on head-on shots when those things aren't as visible.

-Todd...

OK, thanks, Glenn. I'll try the lower shutter speed approach. So I'm thinking 1/60 to 1/80 should be slow enough to get that bg and motion blur in the corners, right?

Thanks, Todd. I don't have problems with panning cars on the straight-way. It's trying to pan them when they're turning a corner that seems to be a challenge for me because that's when they're doing their slowest speed not to mention changing directions as far as the panning is concerned. But, I suppose I'll just have to practice, practice, practive.