You said 'a local circle track' -- is it asphalt or dirt? And, night racing or day racing? Most cars get sideways on the dirt tracks, and the best place to capture this is the inside of the turn with a fast medium telephoto...
Which leads me to a second question, it appears many of you guys are getting fairly close with your equipment. Are these shots typically being done at open races or track sessions. I would imagine most likely you all have track and/or press credentials, is that right?
Well, you won't go far wrong with a 100-400L - it is a versatile lens to work with for sure. I use it pretty well much all the time for my track work.
My advice to you isn't so much about technique - you've had plenty of that already with one exception, as taught to me by Bill Bothwell. Focus on the driver's head when the car has an open cockpit or for a bike or focus on the sun strip on the windscreen for a closed cockpit car.
Anyway, back to non-technique advice. Learn the circuit (s) where you will be shooting - nothing beats knowing your patch. Find out how the light alters at different times of day, look for the corners that are prone to having incidents occur, pay attention to the backgrounds in your shots (look at what would detract from an image) and always, always have an escape route. Never become so wrapped up in what you are doing to ignore where to leg it to or what to duck behind if an out-of-control race car comes in your direction. Turning your back to the action is one of the worst things you can do.
Shooting motorsports is all about timing and observation - if you get things right, you can pick up shots like this:
eeprete wrote:
Which leads me to a second question, it appears many of you guys are getting fairly close with your equipment. Are these shots typically being done at open races or track sessions. I would imagine most likely you all have track and/or press credentials, is that right?
A lot of it depends on the track you are shooting at. I shot these from the public spectator areas at Laguna Seca and the Indy USGP Both were taken with a 70-300 Nikkor G f/4.0-5.6 cheapie zoom the first was on the D-100 at about 200mm focal length and the second on the N-75 at 300mm.
Media access does help (mainly when it comes to restricted access areas i.e. pit lane and fence line) but to be honest, at a lot of circuits you can get good photos from the public areas. For the most part, that seems to be true at the UK circuits I've been to / worked at i.e. Brands Hatch, Snetterton, Rockingham, Donington.
I f I can (but mainly on practice days to avoid crowds) I will shoot from spectator areas and grandstands just to get a different perspective on the action.
It isn't where you shoot from that matters - it are the results that count.
this thread has me pretty fired up. especially liked Jim Sykes words about being aware of your surroundings and having a goal for each image. composition is such an important aspect in motorsports photography. oval track photography is a different animal all together I think... but the same principles/ideas/suggestions apply.
As for media access, it will depend on the track... but most of the smaller circle tracks I've been to are hard to shoot without proper credentials. Between the spectator areas and the track, there is a fence... but if the pits are in the infield, you may get by with just a pit pass.
You will have to check the track out, they are all different. Good luck, it's a lot of fun!
Got here a little late so most everything is covered and I dont have to do much work here. ; I'm glad that some folks found my tutorial on the other board helpful, its by no means complete, but I think gives some good ideas and things to think about for shooting.
One thing that I want to emphasize again here is not to get too concerned about using that center focus point. Another great motorsports photographer, Phil Sedgwick, refers to shots with everything centered in the frame as having "autofocusitus." You have to be very careful of that, having things dead center is not necessarily the best thing for composition.
Its true that most Canon cameras will lose AF sensitivity if you deviate from the center point, I belive Nikon have the same in on their points, but sometimes you either have to try using another point, or go back to what all teh great photogs before us did, use manual focus on a pre-determined point.
This is what I have been doing more and more because I find the outermost AF points on my 1D not to be accurate enough to give me in focus shots with fast moving cars. So I go to manual focus and try to hit the car as it hits my focus point.
This is one of my favorite shots using that technique and getting the car out of the center of the shot.
http://www.johnthawley.com/albums/albuo59/aao.jpg
You need to get the car out of the center of the frame at times and you need to figure out how to do that. When I use my center focus point, I often try to focus on a headlight on one side or the other, or somewhere like that, it helps put even a closeup shot more off center. Even something like this, its not far off center, but just enough to give it something other than another shot with a car right in the middle of the frame.
And remember the rule of thirds when panning as well, use the center point and hit the roof of the car, or again pre focus since you know exactly how far th car will generally be away from you. Car toward the bottom of the frame and not dead center.
But make sure its interesting or it just looks like you used too short a lens.
Also, dont be afraid of blur in the shot, here is another favorite of mine using a fairly slow shutter and a wide angle as the car comes by the inside of the corner only a couple feet away.
http://www.johnthawley.com/albums/albuo59/aan.jpg
Significant blur in the car, but as long as you have some spot of clear focus, it can work really well. Another example.
Be less afraid of blur, than of making everything static. Nothing is worse than a "racing" shot with a car that has frozen wheels and tires, where is the racing in that?
I cant wait till Sebring. All this talk has me itching to get back out there. Have fun this year and everyone be safe out there.
In all seriousness, it's looking like I will have a big debt of gratitude to pay back here. When I first posted my question, I thought I'd get a few responses, but I have to tell you, the FM crowd, seems to come through in spades. You've all taken it to a level I didn't expect, by sharing technique, composition, and more. I promise, no frozen wheels, and I'll share my first stuff when the opportunity comes along. If I can help any of you by answering any web design questions, feel free to ask. It's the least I can do.
sure... go take a look at my site. www.pretedesign.net (although, it's kind of like the shoemakers children philosophy, and hasn't been updated in quite some time).
I am also the lead designer for FDNY (http://www.nyc.gov/fdny)in their web services unit, but also do the billboard design work for the annual EMS Week campaign, among other things. Then, also my freelance company (link above).
There's more on my website (www.post14.f9.co.uk) if you are interested in having a browse.
