Rally GB

[Rednut05]

The 1st, 2nd and the 3rd of December, Wales held host to Rally GB.
It was my first time watching a rally and hadn't been in Wales for ages either, bloody cold.

So having not shot motor sport before and only recently took up photography here are some shots of the rally. I took them through trial and error so not knowing much but yet wanting a good photo or two to remind me of the time. I set out with my camera.



















So as you can see there is room for improvement but they don't make your eyes go that fuzzy to look at them.

As I said, trail and error really, so some shots came out really dark and some light and some viewable as I played about with the settings.

Anyway more practice and I'm sure they'll get better, and a better hit rate.

David.

[doodah]

good effort!

a slightly slower shutter speed would have helped with a bit more movement.

great light on some of them. well done.

[Rednut05]

Okay, I'll keep that in mind for next time. Am I right in thinking, that if you are crap at panning to use a slightly higher shutter speed? But all in all you want to aim for a low one, say 100? to blur the background/ and or wheels?

[badbeachbuggy]

I find 1/125 works well

[Rednut05]

I've seen some of your shots, not to shabby I'll come back to this thread before I next shoot motor sport to swap up on my tips.

Cheers for the comment, keep up the good shots.

[tim-b]

badbeachbuggy said:

I find 1/125 works well

for me, the slower the better! i like 1/10 - 1/30th, you get some awful shots but its worth it when you pull it off!

btw good effort rednut, don't forget to check your exif data to see where you are going wrong and where things are working.

Edited by tim-b on Friday 8th December 00:33

[joesnow]

lovely

[_dobbo_]

Tim those are great, nice first post on the forum!

[Mr Whippy]

Yeah, they are very nice

Would love to get some shots like that!

What do you do about depth of field though? Long or short? In 30th of a second I'd imagine the car can move quite a bit (esp rally cars going for it), so can it move out of focus easily and just get all blurry?

Dave

[_dobbo_]

At those kind of shutter speeds in half decent light, chances are you get plenty of depth of field anyway.

This for instance is 1/15 @ f/22

[Mr Whippy]

Yeah I guess so, 1/30th is pretty slow for outdoors

Time to go have a play outside and see what I come up with!

Dave


edit:





Aye, ~1/50th seems a sweet spot for me. Not the best pics panning into the sun, didn't want to cross that dangerous road, but easier than I thought to get the subject sharp and background blurry. Next test, how low (shutter) can you go (wanting to get down near 1/10t)

Cheers for the tips all, very helpfull!

Dave

Edited by Mr Whippy on Friday 8th December 13:34

Edited by Mr Whippy on Friday 8th December 13:35

[tim-b]

Mr Whippy said:

Aye, ~1/50th seems a sweet spot for me. Not the best pics panning into the sun, didn't want to cross that dangerous road, but easier than I thought to get the subject sharp and background blurry. Next test, how low (shutter) can you go (wanting to get down near 1/10t)

you'll find a different sweet spot in different conditions; of course how fast the car is going, how close to you it is etc. for example, the shot of wilsons focus was a much shorter exposure than the suzuki ignis, but much more blurred as it was very close to me (about 1.5m away, and probably travelling at around a ton! ). also a longer lens will need a quicker shutter to get crisp results, but more of the car will be in focus.

the other thing that affects this is the light, anyhing bright will expose quicker on the film/sensor and will generally be sharper.

@dobbo, yes 1st post for me, about time as i've been dipping in & of the gassing station for months!

[Mr Whippy]

tim-b said:

about 1.5m away, and probably travelling at around a ton! )

Crikey!

Argh, should be working, but the urge to go back outside and try more is too strong, especially in this lovely sunny weather...

Dave

[tim-b]

just one last pic from me on the subject, to show how slow you can feasibly go; this is a 1/15th exposure, @ 40mm/f8. requires steady hands, relaxed stance and some luck!

[Furyous]

Wow. ^^^^^

Fabulous pic.

[havoc]

These two are my favourite shots so-far that I've taken - both 1/100th, f5.6, about 15 yards away going around Hollywood. Not quite as auspicious as subjects, but I like them.

[Biker.ie]

Playing around with shutter speeds last weekend ;

1/50th Sec ;

1/40th Sec ;

1/30th Sec ;

1/25th Sec ;

1/15th Sec ;

1/15th Sec ;

1/10th Sec ;

1/10th Sec ;

1/6th Sec ;

1/6th Sec ;

1/5th Sec ;


1 Sec was a joke

[havoc]

Problem with trying to find a 'right' shutter speed is there isn't one. It'll be affected by whether you're panning or not, the 'crossing speed' of the subject if you're not (and the difference between crossing speed and panning speed if you are), the rate of movement of the subject in the other two planes (vertical and fore/aft) and the amount of camera shake.

Only real advice is practice and develop judgement.

[bulb763]

Nice shots, biker - I like 9 and 11 most. The effect seems to get better the slower the shutter speed. I really like the way only part of the car is sharp