Monster Jam!

Here is a "Super" action shot from the January 20th Monster Jam event at Rogers Center Toronto Canada.

A question for those of you who photograph events like this... What is your success rate of the shots you take at these events?

What I mean is... I took 400 pictures: about 1/3 I deleted as soon as I saw them... you'd think I'd never touched a camera before in my life . About 2/3s of those remaining were "ok"... I'd not want to show them off. They're motion-blurred, or slightly out of focus, etc. And finally, the remaining 75 or so pictures were good: in focus, crisp, etc... I had the camera set at iso800 most of the night, and always attempted to pre-focus before the truck came into view, and follow the trucks movement side to side... but it still only yielded 1 out of 4 shots.

Is it just a matter of "Practice makes perfect". Or does equipment play a larger role? I have an XT with a Sigma lens. No stabilization yet... Someday when I can afford it.

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For 1/60s exposure that's good! A bit of editing, adding contrast to remove the haze in the air would be my suggestion... The shutter speed used here brings motion to the image so that it's not entirely frozen.

Moved? Monster truck racing is not a "motorsports" but rather "transportation"??? Hmmm, I don't think that's right. Never seen one but at a stadium Oh well, whatever the admins think is best.

Thanks for the contrast tip KM... I rarely adjust my photos if I can avoid it. However, in this case, sliding the contrast to +30 makes a HUGE difference. Looks clear as a bright day. The haze, as you can guess is the dust and exhaust from the closed in space.

Hi Dragon

Great shot, I know they have some events like this in the UK but I have never found one nearby and thought to get off my backside and go.

If you 'turn on' image editing OK I have done IMHO a little gentle PPing that I would like to offer?

an IS lens would not have saved you. it stabilizes the camera (you) not the subject. if anything it would have made it worse.

the image you provided is pretty good! as someone mentioned. a little contrast should clean it right up

I've changed my allow editing setting. I didn't realize I had it set to no.

Here is another shot from that night... The "World Famous gggGGGRRRRAAAAAaaaavvv​e Diiiiigerrrrrr". (as the announcer would say) I'v boosted the contrast a bit to try to help it out.

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Second one is nice too! I tried quick PS on the first one, and it really does make a difference...

One tip would also be, that if you can't get shutter speed high enough, it may be worth trying to have clearly 'too slow' shutter speed and smoothly panning the subject during exposure. With a bit of luck it can give very good results with blurred background and sharp subject - in case that the movement is smooth. Just a thought...

Hi Dragon

What I have done is rather than a simple contrast adjustment is - using the levels adjustment I have 'pulled in the ends' to the boost the contrast without blocking the shadows or blowing the highlights - then I applied Unsharp Mask using the LCE (low contrast edges/enhancement) setting of 20% & 50 pixels (I read about this technique a while ago and it is really good for boosting the contrast and overall brightness on a lot of flat images - lastly I ran Smart Sharpen (this is in PSCS2) settings 49% & 0.9 pixels.

Bearing in mind I was not working from the full size original YMMV but I hope I have shown what is possible.

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Box Brownie wrote in post #2586865
Hi Dragon

What I have done is rather than a simple contrast adjustment is - using the levels adjustment I have 'pulled in the ends' to the boost the contrast without blocking the shadows or blowing the highlights - then I applied Unsharp Mask using the LCE (low contrast edges/enhancement) setting of 20% & 50 pixels (I read about this technique a while ago and it is really good for boosting the contrast and overall brightness on a lot of flat images - lastly I ran Smart Sharpen (this is in PSCS2) settings 49% & 0.9 pixels.

Funny, I tried the same thing and surprisingly got the same results
I didn't bother to post them so good that you did...

Funny how you mention your trash rate. I was at the event too and got alot of duds. I blame it on the dust and haze in the stadium. I have yet to start looking at mine in PS but i am somewhat dissapointed in my performance. I will post a couple later.

Cool shots.

here is one of mine,

edit: attachment didnt work

Did you happen to be the one with floor level access during the show? I'd like to see some of those pictures, with a floor level perspective.

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Hi Dragon!

I didn't want to hijack your thread, but I took pictures of Grave Digger as well on Jan. 20th.... but it was in Memphis, TN. I didn't realize Monster Jam did multiple locations at the same time... but they were at the FedEx Forum (home of the dreaded Memphis Grizzlies NBA team) on Jan. 19th and 20th.

Regarding your question, I would say I must've gotten lucky at the event I attended, as most of mine turned out fairly decent. This was the first time I shot the 'ol monster trucks indoors, so I planned accordingly and brought some fast glass. I really didn't have much choice in the glass I could use anyway, as the FedEx Forum has restrictions on what kind of photography equipment can be brought inside (no pro bodies, no lenses over 3 inches). So I brought the 20D and 85 f/1.8 along (the 85 is 2 13/16 inches... whew!). Also used the peleng 8mm fisheye for a few shots.

Anyway, I would agree with you - just keep shooting and practicing and you will certainly improve your keeper percentage.

If you are interested, here are my shots from the 20th in Memphis:

http://www.stpics.com/​mj/index.html

Regards,
William

Hi William... I don't mind at all. Those are some good pics you got there. And you really had the suite? That would be nice.

One thing that likely made the some difference, was distance. All your shots are at 85mm. The Superman shot was at 144mm and Digger at 162mm. Likely a litle more "junk" in the air. There were numerous in-between shows as well. The tough trucks, and the motocross stunts, which all raised even more dust and exhaust fumes in the air.

I'm not sure how many Grave Diggers there are. The original driver and owner of them all, Dennis Anderson was not in Toronto. I thought I heard them say something about a "big show" in Florida or someplace where he was.