Riponian Rally

[SMKurt]

Had my Nikon D40x for a few days over a year now. To be honest i still think im learning how to use it. About 1300 pictures in 4 hours i was there and so far about a 100 have made the pick. Im totaly self taught so all the C&C are hugely apreicated! Its the only way il improve So hope the mass of pictures doesnt bore you too much

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23



And the rest of the set.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/kurt_blythman/sets/72...

[Simpo Two]

I'm sure they're great, but I don't have time to look at them.

http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a...

[SMKurt]

Simpo Two said:

I'm sure they're great, but I don't have time to look at them.

http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a...

Yep read them. Can you point out to me what im doing wrong acording the them guidelines?

[LongQ]

They look fine to me. A little PP work to selectively gain half a stop or so of light in the darker parts of the subject (only) would be worth trying. Or maybe consider using a flash to give some added 'lift'. You will be developing a style to your own preferences.

Sometimes a slower shutter speed might be interesting but that's more of a challenge fo when you get bored with the 'same old same old'.

However, be careful where you stand. I know the curent fashion for rally photography seems to be about who can makes their shots form the most suicidal positions - I fully expect someone to stand in the middle of the tracks before long - but when the first fatality hits the headlines things will not go well for the sport.

I'm thinking mainly of your posted Manta shot here - I hope you at least had a stout tree next to you should it have been needed - but the inside of a corner can be just as exposed if someone gets things wrong.

[SMKurt]

LongQ said:

They look fine to me. A little PP work to selectively gain half a stop or so of light in the darker parts of the subject (only) would be worth trying. Or maybe consider using a flash to give some added 'lift'. You will be developing a style to your own preferences.

Sometimes a slower shutter speed might be interesting but that's more of a challenge fo when you get bored with the 'same old same old'.

However, be careful where you stand. I know the curent fashion for rally photography seems to be about who can makes their shots form the most suicidal positions - I fully expect someone to stand in the middle of the tracks before long - but when the first fatality hits the headlines things will not go well for the sport.

I'm thinking mainly of your posted Manta shot here - I hope you at least had a stout tree next to you should it have been needed - but the inside of a corner can be just as exposed if someone gets things wrong.

Hi thanks.

Yeah i know what you mean about positions. A lot of the time i was up on a bank above the car. On the said Manta shot, i was in a large ditch low enough for me to duck under and let a flying rally car go overhead if it so happend.

Yeah some shots where darker in places, a flash gun would be nice but would only grab 1 photo every 10 seconds or so wouldnt it? Not the burst frames i was taking. Il try doing as you say though, lighting up parts of images on photoshop.

Thanks.

[Clambake]

A crop of No. 17 could be promising.

[LongQ]

SMKurt said:

On the said Manta shot, i was in a large ditch low enough for me to duck under and let a flying rally car go overhead if it so happend.

Uh huh! You reckon?

Personally I would not be so sure.

SMKurt said:

Yeah some shots where darker in places, a flash gun would be nice but would only grab 1 photo every 10 seconds or so wouldnt it? Not the burst frames i was taking.

It depends what you get and how you set it up but yes, mostly you would only get one decent power flash although that would not stop you taking the rest of the sequence. If you get the right situation the flash may give you more than one frame - depends on distance an ambient light as well as the capacity of the flash unit.

Then of course comes the question about whether you really need to take so many burst shots to get one you want. Coming from manual everything days and the occasional use of an autowinder at no more than 2fps (couldn't afford a motor winder at 5fps and in any case changing films ever few seconds would have been a pain) I got used to pre-planning the shots and accepting (or rejecting) what came out.

I was watching a couple of Pros shooting on a cold and cloudy day in mid wales a few years ago and noticed they were operating with flash units (not big ones) and could get off 3 or 4 shots with flash. They were not exactly on top of the cars either so I guess it made enough of a difference to make it worth using up the batteries.

It is also possible to get external high capacity, high re-charge rate batteries for some systems but they tend to come with a high cost.

Edited by LongQ on Saturday 28th March 18:41

[beano500]

Nice set of photos.

And...

SMKurt said:

Can you point out to me what im doing wrong acording the them guidelines?

Some of those are over 400kB (guidelines do ask nicely for 100kB limit) - takes a long time to load 23 on my slow BT broadbean - dread to think about anybody on dial up......

[SMKurt]

beano500 said:

Nice set of photos.

And...

SMKurt said:

Can you point out to me what im doing wrong acording the them guidelines?

Some of those are over 400kB (guidelines do ask nicely for 100kB limit) - takes a long time to load 23 on my slow BT broadbean - dread to think about anybody on dial up......

Fair. But i dont know how i can know the size of the picture before posting? Surely thats a tricky job
checking the size of it then re-sizing the photo to fit. I know its a lot of pictures but if your on dial up, why are you looking at picture threads!

Thanks for the advice though chaps, in particular, LongQ. Thanks

[Dogsey]

SMKurt said:

beano500 said:

Nice set of photos.

And...

SMKurt said:

Can you point out to me what im doing wrong acording the them guidelines?

Some of those are over 400kB (guidelines do ask nicely for 100kB limit) - takes a long time to load 23 on my slow BT broadbean - dread to think about anybody on dial up......

Fair. But i dont know how i can know the size of the picture before posting? Surely thats a tricky job
checking the size of it then re-sizing the photo to fit. I know its a lot of pictures but if your on dial up, why are you looking at picture threads!

Thanks for the advice though chaps, in particular, LongQ. Thanks

More importantly (although it will also help with file sizes) is the fact that at anything over 750px wide the PH squish makes the edges in the photos very jagged.

[beano500]

SMKurt said:

... how i can know the size of the picture before posting? Surely thats a tricky job

Easy to solve...


Right click on the image in something like Windoze Explorer.

Most programmes have a "re-size for web" like PS does - I took this one down to 25kB, but you don't need to be so aggressive if it's going to lose detail.

Anyway...

I particularly like your #10. Simple idea well executed, might suggest darkening the background and sky for a touch more drama.

[LongQ]

I'm with beano on number 10 although the more I look at the others the more I like them. There are some well selected shooting positions in the set that offer something different to the normal fare and so add interest.

I could not resist playing with a few of them in LightZone. Hope you don't mind.







Click to de-squash in a new tab/browser window.

Edited by LongQ on Sunday 29th March 00:21

[andy-xr]

SMKurt said:

Fair. But i dont know how i can know the size of the picture before posting? Surely thats a tricky job
checking the size of it then re-sizing the photo to fit.

Just post the medium size from Flickr, it's there or thereabouts