Discussion
I've been taking motorsport shots now for a couple of years now as a hobby and whilst I think my shots are getting better, I'm still throwing an awful lot away either because they're not focused, blurred or just plain old dull.
Just wondered if there were any professional motorsport photographers here, or anyone else what sort of hit rate you get, ie the photos that good enough that you want to keep. I guess pros on a shoot have to get the photos they're being paid to get so every one counts? Or at the end of the day do you guys go home and ditch 70% of them?
I think if it wasn't for digital I probably wouldn't be able to keep going the way I am, it would be just too expensive in film.
Cheers
Just wondered if there were any professional motorsport photographers here, or anyone else what sort of hit rate you get, ie the photos that good enough that you want to keep. I guess pros on a shoot have to get the photos they're being paid to get so every one counts? Or at the end of the day do you guys go home and ditch 70% of them?
I think if it wasn't for digital I probably wouldn't be able to keep going the way I am, it would be just too expensive in film.
Cheers
It's Jochen.
His profile is here: www.pistonheads.com/gassing/profile.asp?h=0&memberId=41072&t=369929
K
His profile is here: www.pistonheads.com/gassing/profile.asp?h=0&memberId=41072&t=369929
K
I am merely an enthusiastic and committed amateur. I would say that I ditch roughly the same percentage of shots as you do. For example, I went to Silverstone today for the FIA GT's, I took nearly 600 shots and have kept only 158.
To be honest it makes me feel better to hear that I am not the only one ditching so many shots (sorry I realise that doesn't help you). The thing is, most of the time I am really happy with the shots I do keep, thats more important to me than my hit rate. I would rather get just 158 good shots from an event, 10 of which make me go wow when I get them on my computer, than 500 average ones.
Hope that all make sense.
To be honest it makes me feel better to hear that I am not the only one ditching so many shots (sorry I realise that doesn't help you). The thing is, most of the time I am really happy with the shots I do keep, thats more important to me than my hit rate. I would rather get just 158 good shots from an event, 10 of which make me go wow when I get them on my computer, than 500 average ones.
Hope that all make sense.
Edited by Britcarfan on Monday 7th May 15:32
Carpet Bomb Butler, that's me.
Probably about 15% are acceptable, 5% I'm really chuffed with.
On the Beltane shoot last Monday night, I shot 1000 or so, ended up with 120 on my Flickr Stream and 20 on the official Society gallery. Oh, and one on the BBC
Probably about 15% are acceptable, 5% I'm really chuffed with.
On the Beltane shoot last Monday night, I shot 1000 or so, ended up with 120 on my Flickr Stream and 20 on the official Society gallery. Oh, and one on the BBC
Edited by Famous Graham on Monday 7th May 12:04
Especially when panning...if I take a stream of 6 frames (my raw buffer) only about one is right....often none of them are quite right...so you try again on the next lap. I chuck loads away, and finally starting to become more picky with what I keep.
5-10% sounds about my level...not that the rest are totally crap, but there are some that are almost duplicated, and so no point in keeping both.
LB
5-10% sounds about my level...not that the rest are totally crap, but there are some that are almost duplicated, and so no point in keeping both.
LB
luca brazzi said:
Especially when panning...if I take a stream of 6 frames (my raw buffer) only about one is right....often none of them are quite right...so you try again on the next lap. I chuck loads away, and finally starting to become more picky with what I keep.
5-10% sounds about my level...not that the rest are totally crap, but there are some that are almost duplicated, and so no point in keeping both.
LB
5-10% sounds about my level...not that the rest are totally crap, but there are some that are almost duplicated, and so no point in keeping both.
LB
Do yourself a favour and don't rely on burst mode. Track the car and release the shutter when the car is in the position you want. It saves a load of time when checking through hundreds of shots later
monkeyhanger said:
luca brazzi said:
Especially when panning...if I take a stream of 6 frames (my raw buffer) only about one is right....often none of them are quite right...so you try again on the next lap. I chuck loads away, and finally starting to become more picky with what I keep.
5-10% sounds about my level...not that the rest are totally crap, but there are some that are almost duplicated, and so no point in keeping both.
LB
5-10% sounds about my level...not that the rest are totally crap, but there are some that are almost duplicated, and so no point in keeping both.
LB
Do yourself a favour and don't rely on burst mode. Track the car and release the shutter when the car is in the position you want. It saves a load of time when checking through hundreds of shots later
nothing wrong wiht carpet bombing to be fair. somepeople likehaving 1500 shots to go through on a saturday evening
Burst mode or not, there are several tips to help you improve your keeper rate. Pick a spot and even now I sometimes set the camera to manual on that spot and shoot as I pan knowing the focus is exactly precise since I have preset it. Use a post, a tree or whatever as your mark. Sadly the keeper rate in autofocus mode will depend on the lenses you have. I use a D2X with the 70/200 f2.8 or the 300 f2.8 both with a TC14 or TC17 converter at times depending on the distance and light. With the camera set in RAW mode and full definition it is easy to crop afterwards with 12mp. Going back to lenses, the "consumer" lenses, be it Nikon or Canon, are considerably slower to focus than the pro series which are the EF series lenses I believe in Canon terms. I've tried for example the 80/400 Nikon lens and it is utterly useless for motorsport being way too slow, yet I see other press photographers using the Canon 35/350 with amazing results. Improving your keeper rate is much easier with a better lens so start planning for it if you are serious about photography. Even the Sigmas produce quality results too.
Another fault I quite often see is people trying to use a wide aperture but the depth of field gets shallow so you are better off using 400 ISO and F11 in many instances than 100ISO and a wide aperture (resulting in the same shutter speed).
Here is a crop taken at Goodwood of the Lumsden/Sargent lowdrag (now owned by Michael Cowdray) using the 70/200 plus TC14E and then quite severely cropped. Also another taken at the chicane of a friend's car, the Tojeiro. Incidentally, these happen to be photos I am writing an article about at the moment so they were immediately to hand. I haven't searched the archives. Finally, I really don't know my keeper rate but it isn't very high. We all are firing away like mad trying for that legendary shot! Oh how it was different in film days when every shot cost money!
Another fault I quite often see is people trying to use a wide aperture but the depth of field gets shallow so you are better off using 400 ISO and F11 in many instances than 100ISO and a wide aperture (resulting in the same shutter speed).
Here is a crop taken at Goodwood of the Lumsden/Sargent lowdrag (now owned by Michael Cowdray) using the 70/200 plus TC14E and then quite severely cropped. Also another taken at the chicane of a friend's car, the Tojeiro. Incidentally, these happen to be photos I am writing an article about at the moment so they were immediately to hand. I haven't searched the archives. Finally, I really don't know my keeper rate but it isn't very high. We all are firing away like mad trying for that legendary shot! Oh how it was different in film days when every shot cost money!
Britcarfan said:
I am merely an enthusiastic and committed amateur. I would say that I ditch roughly the same percentage of shots as you do. For example, I went to Silverstone today for the FIA GT's, I took nearly 600 shots and have kept only 158.
Pah - 600 shots, is that all?!?
I'm currently struggling to sort (and delete) over 1,200 shots...excluding the ones deleted yesterday! Got a little carried away during the GT's at Club and Abbey, so battery ran short for the GT3's and 90's revival... 
(Note to self: Buy spare battery...and external portable hard-drive...and another 5 hours in the day!!!)
Edit: As for hit-rate - maybe 1/4 aren't quite in focus, of the rest maybe 1/3 (at best) are decent enough to keep, of which less than half are really good...so that's little better than 1-in-10 good pics...still, should be 100-150 out of yesterday's crop.
Edited by havoc on Monday 7th May 21:47
havoc said:
Britcarfan said:
I am merely an enthusiastic and committed amateur. I would say that I ditch roughly the same percentage of shots as you do. For example, I went to Silverstone today for the FIA GT's, I took nearly 600 shots and have kept only 158.
Pah - 600 shots, is that all?!?
I'm currently struggling to sort (and delete) over 1,200 shots...excluding the ones deleted yesterday!2500 shots here
And I do not use burst mode all that much, really
Edit: and to keep on topic, I'd say I keep one in every 10 or something
Keep not throw away. Sorry for the confusion
Edited by Typhon on Tuesday 8th May 12:58
Depending on the event, rallies for example, I usually take anywhere between 400-800 shots (depending on whether ICBA). The stuff which went in the 'bin' was quite a high percentage when I first started experimenting. I now find that I have to junk far fewer pictures and I have more in the 'wow' category. I'd say that about a dozen, 2 dozen max, from one event now go in the 'bin'.
Typhon said:
2500 shots here
And I do not use burst mode all that much, really
Edit: and to keep on topic, I'd say I throw away one in every 10 or something
And I do not use burst mode all that much, really
Edit: and to keep on topic, I'd say I throw away one in every 10 or something
You throw away 1 in every 10, jeeze I've got a long way to go, FIA GT this weekend I kept about 10% again, hopefully by the end of the season I may be half way there. Anyway it's encouraging that I'm not the only carpet bomber out there
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