Motorsport tips

[illmonkey]

I was at Silverstone classic (Saturday) and trying to get some good shots with a very high frame rate, to avoid blur. Alot were half a car, as I'm not quick enough. But Once the sun went down even just a bit, they were all rubbish.

I get it, high frame rate needs good light. But I see so many good clear dark pictures that arnt blurry. I must be missing something.

Using 1/1000th at F4, 450D with 70-210mm.

[SamHH]

If you can't get a fast enough shutter speed (frame rate refers to the rate at which shots are taken) to get a sharp photo, you've either got to change one of the other two exposure setting, sensitivity and aperture, or you've got to change to a composition that doesn't require as fast a shutter speed.

Obviously if you're already at f4 with an f4 lens, you can't do anything about aperture, but bear in mind that some of the other photos you see may be taken with f2.8 or even f2 lenses that allow a shutter speed two or four times as fast.

Turning up the sensitivity of the sensor (ISO rating) results in more noise, but it's probably better to have a noisy photo than a blurry one. Even professionals with fast lenses have to do it sometimes. See this photo from the finish of last year's Brazilian Grand Prix when it was getting dark:



The other options is to take a photo of something else that doesn't need such a fast shutter speed. For example, take a photo of the car in a slow corner instead of a fast one or switch to taking panning shots where you're intentionally using a slow shutter speed to get a blurred background.

[DIW35]

I know the Classic cars probably weren't travelling as fast, but it's worth remembering that an F1 car travelling at 180mph will cover 3 inches in 1/1000th of a second, which would result in a less than pin sharp image even if you were quick enough pressing the shutter to capture the car.

Usually the best results in such a situation is to follow the car with the camera (panning) and pressing the shutter when the car is framed to your liking.

[Mini1275]

I have a 450D and for panning i use 1/200th, heres a few i took at that speed:



















Taken with Tamron 70-300mm
A few tips (though im no professional)
Experiment with different shutter speeds and settings, a good way to practice is next to a motorway.
Dont zoom in to far as you can always crop in later.
I usually do a rapid burst and pick the best one and delete the rest.

Hope this helps

[V8S]

Mini1275 said:

This is the kind of pic I've never been able to achieve, where part of the image is sharp focus but either end of the car has motion blur.

Is there a trick to this?

I can (could) only ever get the whole car sharp and the background blurred.

[Robert C]

illmonkey said:

I was at Silverstone classic (Saturday) and trying to get some good shots with a very high frame rate, to avoid blur. Alot were half a car, as I'm not quick enough. But Once the sun went down even just a bit, they were all rubbish.

I get it, high frame rate needs good light. But I see so many good clear dark pictures that arnt blurry. I must be missing something.

Using 1/1000th at F4, 450D with 70-210mm.

I agree with the other comments posted on this, to enable further help it might be worth seeing a couple of your attempts and it would be useful to know the ISO setting you used and the servo mode.

I was at Silverstone over the weekend and probably the only time I used anything like 1/1000th was for the air display. The majority of my pictures where taken at around 1/200th 1/250th or 1/320th. Most of the pictures I took where at Luffield as it is one of the places at Silverstone where you're not having to fight with the fencing. I did play around with much slower shutter speeds in the evening.

A couple of examples:



Taken at 1/200th at F10 ISO 1000



Taken at 1/250th at f11 ISO 400



Taken at 1/320 at f11 ISO 400

These were all taken with a Canon 50D using a Sigma 50-500 lens which obviously helps bringing the car in closer, these images by the way are uncropped. The lens you have should produce very acceptable results but with the cars slighty further away. The use of the slower shutter speed enables a greater sense of movement. These days I usually only take 3 images at any one time. The last picture was the first of two.

I have a lot more loaded on my flickr account - if you view the pictures look down on the right where it says which camera it was taken with then have a look at 'More Properties' it will give you a further idea as to the settings I have used.

Robert

Edited by Robert C on Monday 3rd August 15:21

Edited by Robert C on Monday 3rd August 15:23

Edited by Robert C on Monday 3rd August 15:24

[nre]

illmonkey said:

I was at Silverstone classic (Saturday) and trying to get some good shots with a very high frame rate, to avoid blur. Alot were half a car, as I'm not quick enough. But Once the sun went down even just a bit, they were all rubbish.

I get it, high frame rate needs good light. But I see so many good clear dark pictures that arnt blurry. I must be missing something.

Using 1/1000th at F4, 450D with 70-210mm.

Agree with all the previous comments but also intrigued with the statement that 'alot were half car' were you panning as the car went by or holding the camera staionary and releasing the shutter as cars came through the shot?

[Zad]

Something that has kinda got hidden in the above advice is focus mode. If you haven't changed it, chances are your camera will be set up in single-shot mode, where it acquires focus, beeps, and you take the shot. Clearly for moving subjects there will be a time delay between focus lock and taking the shot. For moving subjects, check you are in Servo focus mode, where the camera continually tracks the subject.

[D4VE 3LL]

Keep it in continuous shooting mode, and stick to one focal length, focus it as it approaches and then move in time with the car/subject (pan). I agree with what has been said about cropping later. If you try to frame it so it fills the frame your in high risk of cutting part of the subject out. The more your zoomed in maybe up the shutter speed a step?



Exposure: 0.005 sec (1/200)
Aperture: f/9.0
Focal Length: 140 mm
ISO Speed: 125




Exposure: 0.003 sec (1/320)
Aperture: f/7.1
Focal Length: 165 mm
ISO Speed: 125

Best of luck and show us how you get on,

Dave

[tim-b]

nre said:

illmonkey said:

...Alot were half a car, as I'm not quick enough....

Agree with all the previous comments but also intrigued with the statement that 'alot were half car' were you panning as the car went by or holding the camera staionary and releasing the shutter as cars came through the shot?

illmonkey, you're not using live-view (the screen) to take the picture rather than the viewfinder? if so, don't do it again!

if you're using the view-finder and there is a delay between you pressing the button, and the shutter clicking, another issue might be the autofocus as some cameras won't take the pic until it has found a focus point (can take a long time with a budget lens esp in low light and moving subject). try manual focus - pre-focus on a point where you want the car, then pan with it and press the button as it becomes sharp in the viewfinder.

[V8S]

tim-b said:

nre said:

illmonkey said:

...Alot were half a car, as I'm not quick enough....

Agree with all the previous comments but also intrigued with the statement that 'alot were half car' were you panning as the car went by or holding the camera staionary and releasing the shutter as cars came through the shot?

illmonkey, you're not using live-view (the screen) to take the picture rather than the viewfinder? if so, don't do it again!

if you're using the view-finder and there is a delay between you pressing the button, and the shutter clicking, another issue might be the autofocus as some cameras won't take the pic until it has found a focus point (can take a long time with a budget lens esp in low light and moving subject). try manual focus - pre-focus on a point where you want the car, then pan with it and press the button as it becomes sharp in the viewfinder.

One tip (and it probably seems obvious) is when you go to press the shutter button, DON'T STOP PANNING. It's easy to do though. It's best to keep flowing through your arc rather than hesitating as you are expecting to press the shutter.

[illmonkey]

Thanks for all the tips guys. To clear a few things up:

No live view being used! One of the first things I read to avoid.
I wasnt panning, I was in the grandstand, setup with a monopod, focused (half hold) on the area I wanted (with selective AF's) and click when in frame. I also done a few with MF, but none were that crisp.

The plane pic's I've got I'm happy with (bar a few, but I took around 40). I just don't seem to get the same results as I see with other people using DSLR's.

Edited by illmonkey on Monday 3rd August 18:55

[Mini1275]

I like your plane pics! ^
The plane photographers are a whole different class, but heres a few plane pics i took:
Going a bit of topic but hey









My Flickr account:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/26816751@N03/

[Mini1275]

illmonkey said:

Thanks for all the tips guys. To clear a few things up:

No live view being used! One of the first things I read to avoid.
I wasnt panning, I was in the grandstand, setup with a monopod, focused (half hold) on the area I wanted (with selective AF's) and click when in frame. I also done a few with MF, but none were that crisp.

The plane pic's I've got I'm happy with (bar a few, but I took around 40). I just don't seem to get the same results as I see with other people using DSLR's.

Edited by illmonkey on Monday 3rd August 18:55

I dont see anything wrong with that E-type pic, its goooooooooood!