C&C my Le Mans photos
Discussion
The night shots aren't too bad however what does strike me is these look like they are all straight out of the camera so quite a few would benefit from a bit of cropping and a basic tweek of the contrast and brightness levels. I'd ditch the picture of the blokes knee aswell, I can see what you were trying to do but essentially it's a picture of a blokes knee.
jurbie said:
The night shots aren't too bad however what does strike me is these look like they are all straight out of the camera so quite a few would benefit from a bit of cropping and a basic tweek of the contrast and brightness levels. I'd ditch the picture of the blokes knee aswell, I can see what you were trying to do but essentially it's a picture of a blokes knee.
Thanks for that.You're right, they are straight out of the camera and completely unedited. I'm not very good at it mind but I'll have a play.
If you don't have it already, download a 30 day trial of Adobe Lightroom and experiment with that for your processing.
If you shoot raw rather than Jpeg you'll find it can do some great work in recovering shadow detail, which for that last night time Aston photo could do some real magic.
Ignoring the fence problem in the daytime shot, your shutter speed looks too fast as the wheels and tyres are not blurred so the cars don't have that fast motion feel. If you drop the shutter speed to around 1/160 for your panning shots you'll get nicely blurred wheels but the rest of the car will be crisp and sharp if you get the panning right. My guess is that those first shots were taken at about 1/500th or higher.
The longer shutter may also lessen the effect of the fence, although it won't remove it completely. For that you need to either get higher up, or right up to fence and try to focus through a gap. It's clumsy at the time but it works.
The focus also looks off in the first few shots. What lens/camera are you using and do you remember what focus mode you had it in? ie One-Shot or Ai-Servo?
If you shoot raw rather than Jpeg you'll find it can do some great work in recovering shadow detail, which for that last night time Aston photo could do some real magic.
Ignoring the fence problem in the daytime shot, your shutter speed looks too fast as the wheels and tyres are not blurred so the cars don't have that fast motion feel. If you drop the shutter speed to around 1/160 for your panning shots you'll get nicely blurred wheels but the rest of the car will be crisp and sharp if you get the panning right. My guess is that those first shots were taken at about 1/500th or higher.
The longer shutter may also lessen the effect of the fence, although it won't remove it completely. For that you need to either get higher up, or right up to fence and try to focus through a gap. It's clumsy at the time but it works.
The focus also looks off in the first few shots. What lens/camera are you using and do you remember what focus mode you had it in? ie One-Shot or Ai-Servo?
DavidCane said:
If you don't have it already, download a 30 day trial of Adobe Lightroom and experiment with that for your processing.
If you shoot raw rather than Jpeg you'll find it can do some great work in recovering shadow detail, which for that last night time Aston photo could do some real magic.
Ignoring the fence problem in the daytime shot, your shutter speed looks too fast as the wheels and tyres are not blurred so the cars don't have that fast motion feel. If you drop the shutter speed to around 1/160 for your panning shots you'll get nicely blurred wheels but the rest of the car will be crisp and sharp if you get the panning right. My guess is that those first shots were taken at about 1/500th or higher.
The longer shutter may also lessen the effect of the fence, although it won't remove it completely. For that you need to either get higher up, or right up to fence and try to focus through a gap. It's clumsy at the time but it works.
The focus also looks off in the first few shots. What lens/camera are you using and do you remember what focus mode you had it in? ie One-Shot or Ai-Servo?
Thanks for that.If you shoot raw rather than Jpeg you'll find it can do some great work in recovering shadow detail, which for that last night time Aston photo could do some real magic.
Ignoring the fence problem in the daytime shot, your shutter speed looks too fast as the wheels and tyres are not blurred so the cars don't have that fast motion feel. If you drop the shutter speed to around 1/160 for your panning shots you'll get nicely blurred wheels but the rest of the car will be crisp and sharp if you get the panning right. My guess is that those first shots were taken at about 1/500th or higher.
The longer shutter may also lessen the effect of the fence, although it won't remove it completely. For that you need to either get higher up, or right up to fence and try to focus through a gap. It's clumsy at the time but it works.
The focus also looks off in the first few shots. What lens/camera are you using and do you remember what focus mode you had it in? ie One-Shot or Ai-Servo?
I was/am using a Canon 550d with the Canon EF 70-300mm 4-5.6 IS USM lens.
I had it on One-Shot mode, what is the difference?
I'll have a play with a few of the night shots and see if I can get at least one photo out of the 1200 I took that I'm proud of and can maybe even print!
One shot will focus as you half press the shutter, then when you fully press it'll take the shot. The problem is the car has moved between the focus being set and the shot being taken. That could be why the cars in the daytime shots are a bit out of focus.
AI Servo continuously monitors and adjusts the focus while you have the shutter half pressed, so if the subject (ie the car) moves closer the focus will be adjusted to match .
The other focus tool to use is selecting which of the focus points the camera should us. The 500 has 9 selectable points if I remember correctly. That way you keep spot you've selected over the car as you pan, with AI Servo focus mode and it'll focus on the car as you pan. Otherwise it could pick up something else in full auto mode (like the fence) and ruin the shots.
I usually shoot in shutter priority mode, set my shutter speed at around 1/160th and the ISO as low as I can get away with depending on the available light. Then the camera can work out the aperture itself UNLESS I'm particularly trying for a shallow or wide depth of field, in which case go full manual mode.
AI Servo continuously monitors and adjusts the focus while you have the shutter half pressed, so if the subject (ie the car) moves closer the focus will be adjusted to match .
The other focus tool to use is selecting which of the focus points the camera should us. The 500 has 9 selectable points if I remember correctly. That way you keep spot you've selected over the car as you pan, with AI Servo focus mode and it'll focus on the car as you pan. Otherwise it could pick up something else in full auto mode (like the fence) and ruin the shots.
I usually shoot in shutter priority mode, set my shutter speed at around 1/160th and the ISO as low as I can get away with depending on the available light. Then the camera can work out the aperture itself UNLESS I'm particularly trying for a shallow or wide depth of field, in which case go full manual mode.
DavidCane said:
One shot will focus as you half press the shutter, then when you fully press it'll take the shot. The problem is the car has moved between the focus being set and the shot being taken. That could be why the cars in the daytime shots are a bit out of focus.
AI Servo continuously monitors and adjusts the focus while you have the shutter half pressed, so if the subject (ie the car) moves closer the focus will be adjusted to match .
The other focus tool to use is selecting which of the focus points the camera should us. The 500 has 9 selectable points if I remember correctly. That way you keep spot you've selected over the car as you pan, with AI Servo focus mode and it'll focus on the car as you pan. Otherwise it could pick up something else in full auto mode (like the fence) and ruin the shots.
I usually shoot in shutter priority mode, set my shutter speed at around 1/160th and the ISO as low as I can get away with depending on the available light. Then the camera can work out the aperture itself UNLESS I'm particularly trying for a shallow or wide depth of field, in which case go full manual mode.
That's really helpful, thank you!AI Servo continuously monitors and adjusts the focus while you have the shutter half pressed, so if the subject (ie the car) moves closer the focus will be adjusted to match .
The other focus tool to use is selecting which of the focus points the camera should us. The 500 has 9 selectable points if I remember correctly. That way you keep spot you've selected over the car as you pan, with AI Servo focus mode and it'll focus on the car as you pan. Otherwise it could pick up something else in full auto mode (like the fence) and ruin the shots.
I usually shoot in shutter priority mode, set my shutter speed at around 1/160th and the ISO as low as I can get away with depending on the available light. Then the camera can work out the aperture itself UNLESS I'm particularly trying for a shallow or wide depth of field, in which case go full manual mode.
I had the camera on full manual and maybe I'm trying to run before I can walk?
Better luck next year!
Catch fencing annoys me, but it is there for good reason so we can't complain. I would say you need to use a lower shutter speed on some of these and practice panning to give a better representation of the speed. Also the photos look a little dim, under exposed. It is a bit tricky when the weathers like that. I hate shooting when its over cast, everything looks flat and dull.
rehab71 said:
DavidCane said:
One shot will focus as you half press the shutter, then when you fully press it'll take the shot. The problem is the car has moved between the focus being set and the shot being taken. That could be why the cars in the daytime shots are a bit out of focus.
AI Servo continuously monitors and adjusts the focus while you have the shutter half pressed, so if the subject (ie the car) moves closer the focus will be adjusted to match .
The other focus tool to use is selecting which of the focus points the camera should us. The 500 has 9 selectable points if I remember correctly. That way you keep spot you've selected over the car as you pan, with AI Servo focus mode and it'll focus on the car as you pan. Otherwise it could pick up something else in full auto mode (like the fence) and ruin the shots.
I usually shoot in shutter priority mode, set my shutter speed at around 1/160th and the ISO as low as I can get away with depending on the available light. Then the camera can work out the aperture itself UNLESS I'm particularly trying for a shallow or wide depth of field, in which case go full manual mode.
That's really helpful, thank you!AI Servo continuously monitors and adjusts the focus while you have the shutter half pressed, so if the subject (ie the car) moves closer the focus will be adjusted to match .
The other focus tool to use is selecting which of the focus points the camera should us. The 500 has 9 selectable points if I remember correctly. That way you keep spot you've selected over the car as you pan, with AI Servo focus mode and it'll focus on the car as you pan. Otherwise it could pick up something else in full auto mode (like the fence) and ruin the shots.
I usually shoot in shutter priority mode, set my shutter speed at around 1/160th and the ISO as low as I can get away with depending on the available light. Then the camera can work out the aperture itself UNLESS I'm particularly trying for a shallow or wide depth of field, in which case go full manual mode.
I had the camera on full manual and maybe I'm trying to run before I can walk?
Better luck next year!
However, I have tried all sorts of ways to help focus with panning and in the end the best method is to pre-focus at a point. Switch to manual mode and simply follow the car in the view finder until it comes into that point, then fire away. AiServo got me a perfectly sharp backgrounds or foregrounds numerous times. Part of it is me not being able to keep the cross-hairs on the car 100% of the time, but I do find it more miss rather than hit.
If you're based around the South East, I'd recommend getting to Brands Hatch for a small event to practice on. Tickets are usually cheap and if an event is on the GP circuit you'll be amazed at just how low the barriers are. Lots of clear views and good backgrounds.
A 75-300mm range is plenty for Brands too, so you'll be just fine on the equipment front.
A 75-300mm range is plenty for Brands too, so you'll be just fine on the equipment front.
DavidCane said:
If you're based around the South East, I'd recommend getting to Brands Hatch for a small event to practice on. Tickets are usually cheap and if an event is on the GP circuit you'll be amazed at just how low the barriers are. Lots of clear views and good backgrounds.
A 75-300mm range is plenty for Brands too, so you'll be just fine on the equipment front.
...or drop in to Goodwood almost any day and practise for free (with your camera that is).A 75-300mm range is plenty for Brands too, so you'll be just fine on the equipment front.
Craikeybaby said:
Most of the technical points have been covered above, but for more meaningful C&C it is better to post a few pictures, so you can get detail on each one.
My pick of the set is actually the Audi reflection one, it's something a bit different from the usual Le Mans shots.
Thanks. I'm pretty keen in that one too.My pick of the set is actually the Audi reflection one, it's something a bit different from the usual Le Mans shots.
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