Rallying - Full manual or Shutter Priority ?

I shoot quite a bit of motor rallying but wonder which mode is best and why ? This topic has probably been covered in previous posts but would appreciate views of current forum regulars. All of my shooting up to now has been done using SP but there is an event on this weekend and I would like to try shooting one stage in SP and the following in full manual. I will be using a 40D and prob 70-200 - 2.8. Is there anything i should be doing, watching out for, or general tips when in fully manual mode. Comments/Advice appreciated.
Michael.

I'm probably in the minority here but I mostly use Aperture priority - I like to shoot close to wide open (around f/3.5 - f/4.5) with a long lens to get a nice shallow DOF. I adjust ISO to get a suitable shutter speed. If I'm shooting only panned shots I use Shutter priority, otherwise its Aperture priority.

When the light is constant (rarely happens on our foresty rally stages) or very bad/dark, I use full Manual.

There's no right or wrong way, this is just my way of shooting

I can count on one hand over the last few years the number of times that the light has been consistent enough to shoot in manual. My normal setup is shutter priority, and then adjust ISO to give me enough DoF to get the car sharp from front to back (usually f8 to f11). I will however switch to manual if the cars start running with their headlights on for obvious reasons....

I'm the same as Simon. Tv mode, with ISO adjustments to keep aperture acceptable.

Tessa wrote in post #9766641
I'm probably in the minority here but I mostly use Aperture priority - I like to shoot close to wide open (around f/3.5 - f/4.5) with a long lens to get a nice shallow DOF. I adjust ISO to get a suitable shutter speed. If I'm shooting only panned shots I use Shutter priority, otherwise its Aperture priority.

When the light is constant (rarely happens on our foresty rally stages) or very bad/dark, I use full Manual.

There's no right or wrong way, this is just my way of shooting

Thanks Tessa, never thought of using AV priority for motorsport, always thought of shutter speed as being critical but will definitely try that out over the weekend and see what happens. Can see a lot of benefit in that it may cut cluttered backgrounds by using larger apertures.

Simon Harrison wrote in post #9767342
I can count on one hand over the last few years the number of times that the light has been consistent enough to shoot in manual. My normal setup is shutter priority, and then adjust ISO to give me enough DoF to get the car sharp from front to back (usually f8 to f11). I will however switch to manual if the cars start running with their headlights on for obvious reasons....

Cheers Simon, I guess thats pretty similar to the way I set up as well, but thanks for sharing, I probably try to use F8/9 at max which may explain why a lot of my shots don't always get full sharpness from front to back.

Ingsy wrote in post #9768931
I'm the same as Simon. Tv mode, with ISO adjustments to keep aperture acceptable.

Appreciate your advice Ingsy, always good to know what others think.

What about manual with auto ISO? Time and DOF is under your control, however the camera can change ISO when dark cloud comes or something similar happens. However, if you don´t walk around too much, completely full manual can be even better, because the camera wants the photo to be grey so a white car will be underexposed and a black car will be overexposed (it´s not a big issue when shooting F1 or something similar, but rally cars are pretty big and usually cover most of the photo).

I use whichever form of metering works best under the circumstances.

Sometimes TV works fine and then my life is easy. Sometimes dark forests cause the camera to want to over-expose things and I need to dial in a lot of exposure compensation or go manual. Sometimes snow causes the camera to want to under-expose things and then I need to dial in a lot of exposure compensation or go manual. Sometimes it's dark and I can only see headlights so plus I am using flash so manual is the only thing to do. Sometimes the car is running through areas of shadow and bright light caused by gaps in trees and manual metering is impossible 'cos no-one can adjust that fast but the camera can.

There is no hard and fast "right" answer. That's why the camera is fitted with a histogram display. A couple of shots are enough to tell me if the camera is getting things wrong or not in one of the semi-automatic modes. If it's getting it wrong I change how I am doing things.

I generally use manual. Just the way I like to work, sometimes the camera gets it wrong.

Sometimes I get it wrong as well - but I like the control!

MMX wrote in post #9785278
What about manual with auto ISO? Time and DOF is under your control, however the camera can change ISO when dark cloud comes or something similar happens. However, if you don´t walk around too much, completely full manual can be even better, because the camera wants the photo to be grey so a white car will be underexposed and a black car will be overexposed (it´s not a big issue when shooting F1 or something similar, but rally cars are pretty big and usually cover most of the photo).

Cadwell wrote in post #9786729
I use whichever form of metering works best under the circumstances.

Sometimes TV works fine and then my life is easy. Sometimes dark forests cause the camera to want to over-expose things and I need to dial in a lot of exposure compensation or go manual. Sometimes snow causes the camera to want to under-expose things and then I need to dial in a lot of exposure compensation or go manual. Sometimes it's dark and I can only see headlights so plus I am using flash so manual is the only thing to do. Sometimes the car is running through areas of shadow and bright light caused by gaps in trees and manual metering is impossible 'cos no-one can adjust that fast but the camera can.

There is no hard and fast "right" answer. That's why the camera is fitted with a histogram display. A couple of shots are enough to tell me if the camera is getting things wrong or not in one of the semi-automatic modes. If it's getting it wrong I change how I am doing things.

Mike Hoyer wrote in post #9787088
I generally use manual. Just the way I like to work, sometimes the camera gets it wrong.

Sometimes I get it wrong as well - but I like the control!

Really appreciate all the advice on offer there guys, as i said at the start I generally have been doing all my shooting on TV but have decided to pick an event to go to and just experiment with some of the set ups you have suggested. Will let you know how I get on. Many Thanks.

Forgive me if my experience is a little out of date, but back in the 80's when I was active, the primary concern was to set the shutter speed appropriate for the kind of shot you were after. Sometimes, this would mean a slow setting, to emphasise the speed of the cars, introducing some blurring to the car and/or background, or other times, you wanted to capture a moment when the car was in a dramatic pose, with a wheel in the air, or at a watersplash, or very sideways... In which case a higher shutter speed of a 250-500th would be required, or even relying on a flash.

Whatever the situation, I always used manual settings, from an incident light meter, or by finding a approximate neutral element close to where I wanted to shoot, and taking a spot reading via the view finder. I never relied on automatic metering settings, particularly in the forests as the results were always wrong, although maybe the hardware has improved since then.

You should be thinking about the kind of shot you want first, and then work from there, rather than the other way round

BrendanMcF wrote in post #9861309
Forgive me if my experience is a little out of date, but back in the 80's when I was active, the primary concern was to set the shutter speed appropriate for the kind of shot you were after. Sometimes, this would mean a slow setting, to emphasise the speed of the cars, introducing some blurring to the car and/or background, or other times, you wanted to capture a moment when the car was in a dramatic pose, with a wheel in the air, or at a watersplash, or very sideways... In which case a higher shutter speed of a 250-500th would be required, or even relying on a flash.

Whatever the situation, I always used manual settings, from an incident light meter, or by finding a approximate neutral element close to where I wanted to shoot, and taking a spot reading via the view finder. I never relied on automatic metering settings, particularly in the forests as the results were always wrong, although maybe the hardware has improved since then.

You should be thinking about the kind of shot you want first, and then work from there, rather than the other way round

Thanks for the advice Brendan, always appreciated and good to hear opinions.

I generally wait for the approaching noise first, then as it gets closer, I lift the old 'mera up to my coupon, fidget about with the zoom for the 50th time, half press the shutter, by which time its found a hedge or something else to focus on, and when said rally car flies into view, all sense of procedural control and calm flies out the window, and I just blast it with 6 shots, finger welded to that button, one of thems bound to be ok........... !!!

Hope that helps Mikey........lol
Tom
Mr Canonnned

Chisholm wrote in post #10131488
I generally wait for the approaching noise first, then as it gets closer, I lift the old 'mera up to my coupon, fidget about with the zoom for the 50th time, half press the shutter, by which time its found a hedge or something else to focus on, and when said rally car flies into view, all sense of procedural control and calm flies out the window, and I just blast it with 6 shots, finger welded to that button, one of thems bound to be ok........... !!!

Hope that helps Mikey........lol
Tom
Mr Canonnned

Cracker reply ,sound's very like my set up for approaching rally car!