Please help

Hey guys and gals, Next weekend i'm hiring a canon 70-200 f2.8 IS and i'm am going to a motorsport event ( V8 Supercars) and tips would be greatly helpful. I have a Canon 50d, this will be the first time i've used this lens. Thanks for any tips and help for optimum shooting!!!

Hey mate,

First off, it's a great lens. I've got the same one and absolutely love it.
I see you have some similar focal length lenses in your kit, so I'm assuming you're used to taking photos around 200mm. If not, probably a bit of practice beforehand would be a good idea.

I haven't been to the Sydney event, but from what I can see on TV it looks like there are fences everywhere (same as Gold Coast, F1 Melbourne etc). Do some walking around the track. You either want to find a spot where the fence isn't in your way (almost impossible where i've been)
OR
a spot where you are as close to the fence as possible, and the cars are far enough away that you can shoot at around that 200mm.

You're then going to be shooting through the fence. To do this, you want your aperture fairly wide ( 2.8 ) to blur the fence out. You also want a slower shutter speed to show some movement, at least in the wheels. Somewhere around 1/200 is a good starting point. If it's a nice sunny day, you're not going to be able to shoot at 200 & 2.8... so, it's a bit of a balancing act between slower speeds, and blurring out the fence. Check your shots as you go.

If you can find a spot where the fence is in the shade, and the cars are in the sunlight, that will also help get rid of the fence from your shots.

As for specific lens settings, you'll see a bunch of switches on the side. The top one is minimum focus distance of the lens. I would typically set this at 2.5m at the track, to minimise the camera focusing on the fence itself.
AF/MF - set to AF. (for me anyway)
Stabilizer - ON (this will help if you are using slower shutter speeds)
Stabilizer Mode - 2 (this only corrects for up and down movements, but not side to side, so you can get nice panning shots)

Hope this is all of some use to you. Apologies if there are things here you already know. I'm by no means an expert, these are just things that work for me.
Feel free to ask any other questions if you have any though.

Also, here is an example of what can be achieved through the fence. I took this one at the Gold Coast, the fence was about a metre at least away from me, but in the shade.

Well, how do I follow on from that.
Brett has pretty much said it all.
The bit about using the fence in the shade and the cars in sunlight is especially true.
Quite often, those with creds will actually spray paint a patch of the fence black to be able to shooy through it.
The fences can be a pain in the arts for punters but they can be used to your advantage.
Don't be afraid to step outside your comfort zone to try different things.
The only thing I differ with Brett on is with IS.
I don't use it at all on my 100-400 (the switch is actually taped in the off position) and my 70-200/2.8 and 300/2.8 are both non IS versions.

Wow guys thanks for the help. This will be my first time shooting at the V8's with my new camera and the lens. I hope I get a few descent shots and i'll show you how I go after the event.
Hope my camera 50D will be up for the challenge. I'm going to be there for the Fri, Sat, Sun and staying at the formula 1 (rip off) hotel, So I think i'll get some half descent shots. My wife and I have grandstand tickets on the last corner before the straight, should get some there as we are up higher. But will be walking around trying different angles
Phil your photos are awesome. I went to Indy back in 05 and some of the pro photog's were great, I only had a point and shoot but I asked one if i could use his small hole (in the fence) for a couple of shots, he was great and said no probs, hopefully I can find another willing person, especially if they see the hardware i'll have this time.

BrettM82 wrote in post #11336028
Hey mate,

First off, it's a great lens. I've got the same one and absolutely love it.
I see you have some similar focal length lenses in your kit, so I'm assuming you're used to taking photos around 200mm. If not, probably a bit of practice beforehand would be a good idea.

I haven't been to the Sydney event, but from what I can see on TV it looks like there are fences everywhere (same as Gold Coast, F1 Melbourne etc). Do some walking around the track. You either want to find a spot where the fence isn't in your way (almost impossible where i've been)
OR
a spot where you are as close to the fence as possible, and the cars are far enough away that you can shoot at around that 200mm.

You're then going to be shooting through the fence. To do this, you want your aperture fairly wide ( 2.8 ) to blur the fence out. You also want a slower shutter speed to show some movement, at least in the wheels. Somewhere around 1/200 is a good starting point. If it's a nice sunny day, you're not going to be able to shoot at 200 & 2.8... so, it's a bit of a balancing act between slower speeds, and blurring out the fence. Check your shots as you go.

If you can find a spot where the fence is in the shade, and the cars are in the sunlight, that will also help get rid of the fence from your shots.

As for specific lens settings, you'll see a bunch of switches on the side. The top one is minimum focus distance of the lens. I would typically set this at 2.5m at the track, to minimise the camera focusing on the fence itself.
AF/MF - set to AF. (for me anyway)
Stabilizer - ON (this will help if you are using slower shutter speeds)
Stabilizer Mode - 2 (this only corrects for up and down movements, but not side to side, so you can get nice panning shots)

Hope this is all of some use to you. Apologies if there are things here you already know. I'm by no means an expert, these are just things that work for me.
Feel free to ask any other questions if you have any though.

Also, here is an example of what can be achieved through the fence. I took this one at the Gold Coast, the fence was about a metre at least away from me, but in the shade.

Brett, Thats pretty cool how you can blur the fence out like that, hopefully I can acheive the same results, thanks for your help.!!! Bloody Lowndsy in a holden, aarrrggghh

Mitch, your 50D will be fine.
My second camera/back-up is a 40D and I've also used a 400d as a third camera at times and it is more than serviceable.
There might be times when the 70-200 is a little bit short but you should be OK for the bulk of it.

You know Phil, it's just dawned on me that I've actually never tried shooting without IS. (motorsport wise anyway)
Next time at the track, that will be the first thing I try.

Whats your reasoning for not using IS? Do you find you get better results without?

A lot sports 'togs turn off IS simply because the shutter speeds are too fast to have any effect.
The other thing is that IS won't stabilise the subject - it's not designed to. It's designed to prevent movement (camera shake) in the camera and not the subject.

Any tips for shooting in the rain.....? What settings do you most likely use?

Mitch, rain doesn't actually affect the settings you use - it still comes down to the light available.
Until you actually get on location and assess the surroundings and conditions, then it's too hard to tell .
There are no such thing as default settings (well, not in my world anyway) that can be used.

I'm not liking the forecast that I'm seeing for Homebush over the weekend - as if Symmons wasn't wet enough.

Oh, well...we'll just wait and see.
Could be interesting

IS off. Doesn't help, drains battery and makes jittery viewfinder when it engages.

Shoot faster shutter speeds, say 1/400th, and get used to what you are doing. Then slow them down to get motion blur etc. You dont want to go, shoot slow cause thats what experienced guys do and get no results.

Dont shoot everything tight - leave some room to crop. Also try to convey where you are. If you shoot a fender/door/window that could be in a garage not on a race track. Make sense?

Hey Guys, what a great weekend of racing!!!, Slowly going through the 3500 shots, getting rid of lots of blurry shots, half cars and cars behinds fences, Hopefully have a couple worthy to put on here.
Do you guys do any post production editing, like sharpening or anything at all? I have CS5. I'm not sure what you would edit other than a crop.

Of course post process... if you have shot RAW in particular you will need to post proc.

mitch.mccabe wrote in post #11408032
Hey Guys, what a great weekend of racing!!!, Slowly going through the 3500 shots, getting rid of lots of blurry shots, half cars and cars behinds fences,

In a way I'm glad you've got a load like that, as it means I'm not the only one who deletes a batch as soon as I get home. Thanks very much!