1st attempt at motorsports

this is my 1st attempt at cars. they were at a local track.
they were not being driven by pros, but by members of the public. you buy gift vouchers and get about 6 laps
not sure what they are ?

HOSTED PHOTO
please log in to view hosted photos in full size.

HOSTED PHOTO
please log in to view hosted photos in full size.

they look like formula fords, these are nice sharp shots with a little wheel blur.
you have been looking round here and reading havent you ?

well done

Looks very good.

both shots are nice and sharp

nice work, those are Formula Fords as Echo63 says. Wigan - that'll be Three Sisters then.

thanks guys.
yes it was the 3 sisters.
ive had a go at the bikes on a sunday morning so id had a bit of practice with panning. this is not my normal area of photography but realy enjoyed it.
one question though.
i was trying not to use a fast shutter speed a thing thats not normaly hard with the 100-400, however this day was bright and sunny and even at min app ie;5.6 i was getting fast shutter speeds.
i was trying to blur the background and not frreze the action.
using slow shutter meant overexposure and increasing app meant no out of focus background.
what is the best shutter app combination to use for sports

f5.6 isn't the minimum aperture for the 100-400, it'll be something like f30, f5.6 is the largest aperture at 400mm.

99% of the people who shoot motorsport will use Tv mode (rather than Av) and a few different shutter speeds depending on the effect wanted. for head on shots I usually use 1/320s, for pans I usually use 1/160s (but go down to silly slow, like 1/20s for a laugh) and 3/4 shots 1/160s - 1/320s.

sorry i meant maximum apature
the shutter speeds you mentioned are roughly what i was using and some silly slow speeds. but that was giving apps that stopped the background blurring out , but by shooting raw i am able to get the highlights back

markyb wrote in post #2983289
one question though.
i was trying not to use a fast shutter speed a thing thats not normaly hard with the 100-400, however this day was bright and sunny and even at min app ie;5.6 i was getting fast shutter speeds.
i was trying to blur the background and not frreze the action.
using slow shutter meant overexposure and increasing app meant no out of focus background.
what is the best shutter app combination to use for sports

Using a smaller aperture would have slowed your shutter speeds nicely, shooting wide open at 5.6 gives you the fastest possible shutter speed. Although stopping down wouldn't have put the background OOF as much, the motion blur would mean that isn't a problem.

Also, had you dropped your ISO to the lowest possible?

Just use shutter priority! If it's a bright day start on ISO100, if you are getting the right effect of motion blur and you want to stop down to get more DoF use ISO200.

DoF doesn't really come into it if your background is blurred out by panning/slower shutter speed.

Dave_G wrote in post #2985897
Just use shutter priority! If it's a bright day start on ISO100, if you are getting the right effect of motion blur and you want to stop down to get more DoF use ISO200.

DoF doesn't really come into it if your background is blurred out by panning/slower shutter speed.

sorry not quite sure what you maen when you say increase iso to 200
wouldnt that just give me faster shuter speeds that i dont realy need

markyb wrote in post #2989327
sorry not quite sure what you maen when you say increase iso to 200
wouldnt that just give me faster shuter speeds that i dont realy need

No, what he is saying is that if you want to stop down to increase DOF then bump the ISO up a bit, the shutter speed would stay the same.

You don't need to limit DOF to blur the background as the panning will do that for you, increasing it can make it easier to get the whole car in focus. It all depends on exactly how you want the final image to look as to just how you balance the different factors. I would set Tv to choose a shutter speed that gives the right amount of background blur without the car suffering from excessive camera shake (experience and good technique will define what that speed is for you), then decide on the aperture for the DOF you want and set the ISO to give that aperture at your chosen shutter speed. If the light levels vary slightly (passing clouds etc) the aperture will vary slightly of course but the shutter speed will be fixed.

markyb wrote in post #2989327
sorry not quite sure what you maen when you say increase iso to 200
wouldnt that just give me faster shuter speeds that i dont realy need

Not if you are using Tv mode - as you are selecting the shutter speed.

By increasing the ISO the camera will choose a smaller aperture to get more depth of field. If you've chosen say 1/160s and pan a car on a circuit, the background will be blurred out because you've swung the camera to follow the subject and effectively stopped the subject and moved the background.

At those speeds a shallow depth of field won't matter.