New to photography, Need advice on taking motorsport shots

[nlldavies]

Hi, as the title says really.

Past exepriences of taking motorsport photos with a standard run of the mill digi cam proved to be quite dissapointing. Popping to Santa Pod on Sunday and to avoid dissapointment again this year I bought a Canon EOS 30d this week and looking for advice on camera settings to give me a good start.

I realise that I'm not going to take anything too decent being a beginner, but a head start would be good? I've had a bit of play with taking static photos so quite familiar with the camera now.

Cheers.

[Gold]

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

[Dogsey]

What lens / lenses do you have with the 30D?

[flat-planedCrank]

nlldavies said:

Hi, as the title says really.

Past exepriences of taking motorsport photos with a standard run of the mill digi cam proved to be quite dissapointing. Popping to Santa Pod on Sunday and to avoid dissapointment again this year I bought a Canon EOS 30d this week and looking for advice on camera settings to give me a good start.

I realise that I'm not going to take anything too decent being a beginner, but a head start would be good? I've had a bit of play with taking static photos so quite familiar with the camera now.

Cheers.

The 30D is indeed a trusty steed

Primary for motorsports is panning technique - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panning_%28camera%29
It can take a bit of practise, but good technique will reward you with good images. Try and keep a smooth motion.

Put it on AF-servo so the autofocus will continue to track the cars moving while you hold the button partially down.

Set the Autofocus to only activate on the centre point. The 30D only has one cross-type af sensor (the one on the middle) the others will give much more of a mixed bag when trying to track moving images.

Set the shutter to high speed to you can 'burst' a few shots at a time.

Set the mode to Tv so you can set the shutter speed via the top dial - start about 1/200th (it'll read 200 on the top lcd screen) and work your way down (make the shutter stay open for longer and longer to get more 'motion' in the image.

I'm sure I'm forgetting something


Once you get home and decide you want even better lenses then post again and I'm sure the PH photography collective will help you spend more money than you intended to


Hope this helps, have fun

(The blatant plug - all shot on a 30D - http://www.motionimages.co.uk/ )


Cheers.

[nlldavies]

55-250mm and 28-90mm

Thanks Gold, did a quick search first but missed that.QUite a bit of info in there.

[nlldavies]

flat-planedCrank said:

nlldavies said:

Hi, as the title says really.

Past exepriences of taking motorsport photos with a standard run of the mill digi cam proved to be quite dissapointing. Popping to Santa Pod on Sunday and to avoid dissapointment again this year I bought a Canon EOS 30d this week and looking for advice on camera settings to give me a good start.

I realise that I'm not going to take anything too decent being a beginner, but a head start would be good? I've had a bit of play with taking static photos so quite familiar with the camera now.

Cheers.

The 30D is indeed a trusty steed

Primary for motorsports is panning technique - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panning_%28camera%29
It can take a bit of practise, but good technique will reward you with good images. Try and keep a smooth motion.

Put it on AF-servo so the autofocus will continue to track the cars moving while you hold the button partially down.

Set the Autofocus to only activate on the centre point. The 30D only has one cross-type af sensor (the one on the middle) the others will give much more of a mixed bag when trying to track moving images.

Set the shutter to high speed to you can 'burst' a few shots at a time.

Set the mode to Tv so you can set the shutter speed via the top dial - start about 1/200th (it'll read 200 on the top lcd screen) and work your way down (make the shutter stay open for longer and longer to get more 'motion' in the image.

I'm sure I'm forgetting something


Once you get home and decide you want even better lenses then post again and I'm sure the PH photography collective will help you spend more money than you intended to


Hope this helps, have fun

(The blatant plug - all shot on a 30D - http://www.motionimages.co.uk/ )


Cheers.

Thanks FPC. I actually understood what you said

I don't have the steadiest of hand so the panning will have to come with time.

Nige

[grumpy bear]

Just to clarify what the reply said I think what was meant was use high continuous burst rate rather than high shutter speed, apologies if he/she didnt mean that.

Dont go for too high a shutter speed for a pan the cars will look like they are parked.

For a standard race meet i use 180th to be certain, 125th once I know I've got something useable and 90th on slower corners. Pan on acceleration not braking as the rate is more constant. For bikes I take it up one notch and for drag cars depending where you are in relation to their speed maybe one or two more but max 500th.

For approaching cars my certain is 350th, normal 250th and the same rules as above would apply.

For the first lap and the last laps of a race where 'off's are more likely I ramp the speed up a bit to be certain.

see www.clickmotorsport.com for some examples. The site displays the settings used. If you look at the F2 gallery as they are small and very fast (as quick as the slower F1 cars) the speeds are set higher and there are a couple on there at 1000 and you will see what I mean. The GT40 on the home page was taken at 45th.

hope it helps

Edited by grumpy bear on Wednesday 26th May 08:35

[flat-planedCrank]

grumpy bear said:

Just to clarify what the reply said I think what was meant was use high continuous burst rate rather than high shutter speed, apologies if he/she didnt mean that.

Dont go for too high a shutter speed for a pan the cars will look like they are parked.

For a standard race meet i use 180th to be certain, 125th once I know I've got something useable and 90th on slower corners. Pan on acceleration not braking as the rate is more constant. For bikes I take it up one notch and for drag cars depending where you are in relation to their speed maybe one or two more but max 500th.

For approaching cars my certain is 350th, normal 250th and the same rules as above would apply.

For the first lap and the last laps of a race where 'off's are more likely I ramp the speed up a bit to be certain.

see www.clickmotorsport.com for some examples. The site displays the settings used. If you look at the F2 gallery as they are small and very fast (as quick as the slower F1 cars) the speeds are set higher and there are a couple on there at 1000 and you will see what I mean. The GT40 on the home page was taken at 45th.

hope it helps

Indeed yes, I meant a fast shutter in terms of the fps it'll take - not the actual shutter speed


It'll all depend on how fast the cars are approaching of course, best to start with a fast shutter speed and then work your way down.

Personally I'm not a fan of stationary wheels in motor-sports shots unless the car is doing something inherently dynamic like bouncing over a curb or spraying gravel out the back.


Like everything, its all about practice, the more you do it the more you will know what sort of shots you want and what works best for you



Cheers.

[RobDickinson]

If your using AI Servo I strongly recomend splitting the focus frmo the shutter button.

Should be in the custom functions shutter release AF/meeter change to just meeter.

Means you can track focus (with the * button on the 30D I think) and shoot when you want and have them work seperatly. Takes some getting used to but much better.

[flat-planedCrank]

RobDickinson said:

Means you can track focus (with the * button on the 30D I think) and shoot when you want and have them work seperatly. Takes some getting used to but much better.

It is indeed transferred to the rear * button (the inner top 'thumb' button) on the 30D



Cheers.

[Furyous]

You may find 250mm a bit short at the Pod, unless youre down by the fence, and then you dont really have enough height to clear the safety wall.

Panning a top fuel dragster is very tricky, mainly down to incredibly high acceleration.

Have a look at some of mine from last years Main Event

Fingers crossed, if the weathers any good, I will be there Sunday too.

[covboy]

Don’t forget the “atmosphere” shots in the paddock. You can normally get quite a bit closer to the machinery and teams – Standard lenses come into their own then.

[nlldavies]

Thanks to everyone for advice. Had a good day at Pod on Sunday taking approx. 400 pictures. Posted links below to a few for anyone who is interested and of course any comments/advice are welcome.

Morning was blurred stuff as I got to grips with camera and ended up keeping a lot of the static/slow pictures. Afternoon got a bit adventerous with ISO and panning and the first picturs is probably the best one of the day.

Felt like I needed more zoom for the start line stuff as we were about a third way down the drag strip.


ISO 250 F20 250mm
http://www.flickr.com/photos/29111454@N08/46609759...

As above third burst shot
http://www.flickr.com/photos/29111454@N08/46609773...

After burnout
http://www.flickr.com/photos/29111454@N08/46677056...

After burnout
http://www.flickr.com/photos/29111454@N08/46677070...

Shame about Christmas Tree, Zoom and Press guy
http://www.flickr.com/photos/29111454@N08/46677040...

Edited by nlldavies on Friday 4th June 00:13

[14-7]

^^

Rather than post hyperlinks put a [IMG] (hyperlink details) [/IMG] to insert the image on to the page.

Much easier for people to look at them .

[Dave^]

14-7 said:

^^

Rather than post hyperlinks put a [IMG] (hyperlink details) [/IMG] to insert the image on to the page.

Much easier for people to look at them .

You're not meant to do that with Flickr hosted pics... You're meant to link back to the image page... and with PH custom software, makes it a pita...

[nlldavies]

Tried to embed the pictures using , but they showed as red crosses.

Need to find somewhere else to host pics I think.

[4hero]

Flickr is perfect for hosting, just use the [ img ] tag in ph, then in flickr click on all sizes of the photo you want to show. Once you find the size you need, right click on the photo and copy image location. Paste the http://flickr.com/you/yourpic.jpg in between the img tag.

I would do it, but on the iPhone.

[nlldavies]

Ok. Here goes for a test.

Edited by nlldavies on Friday 4th June 09:39

[nlldavies]

brill. Thanks 4hero

[Dave^]

nlldavies said:

Tried to embed the pictures using , but they showed as red crosses.

Need to find somewhere else to host pics I think.

See here...