Newbie Motorsport Advice

[maff]

Hi all,

These are my first attempts at some Motorsports pictures, taken at the OPT D1 Drift day at Snetterton.

First off all these photos are taken with my camera just in automatic mode, im new to all this and just getting the moving car in the middle of the shot took a few attempts : see here for some pictures of car boots http://www.kardiak.co.uk/gal/drift/drift.html

Right heres some of the shots:

http://www.kardiak.co.uk/gal/drift/photo/yeager.jpg
http://www.kardiak.co.uk/gal/drift/photo/phatty1.jpg
http://www.kardiak.co.uk/gal/drift/photo/r32.jpg
http://www.kardiak.co.uk/gal/drift/photo/r32_driftworks.jpg
http://www.kardiak.co.uk/gal/drift/photo/r32_rear.jpg

What i noticed looking at most of the shots is there is adistinct lack of movement, looks like most of the cars are parked, now i realize dropping the shutter speed will add more movement, but is that all there is to it? Any advice would be greatly apreciated.

Be gentle im new to this ;o)

Cheers all

Maff

[Joe T]

Some good pictures there. I like the first one especially.

I see you are using a Fuji S5500.

The key to showing movement in a motorsport picture is to get a 'panning shot'.

Essentially, this means that you have to prefocus the camera on the spot where you want to take the picture. Then when the car comes into view, track it as it passes, and press the shutter when it reaches the desired spot. To start off with use shutter priority mode, with shutter speeds of around 1/320th or 1/250th. The key is to ensure that you follow through with the movement after you have pressed the shutter.

It takes a bit of practice, but within a few sessions, you will be producing some fantastic shots. For example, I only started taking motorsport pictures a few months ago, and Im now getting results like in this thread: http://www.thephotographyforums.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=998.

Hope this helps :)

[Steve]

Welcome to the forums maff

Like Joe T I like the first one from this set of pictures. It does seem ever so slightly soft in focus but nothing that a little sharpening in a photo editing package wouldn’t be able to correct.

Generally all of these shots have the “straight from camera” look and could do with a small amount of adjustments to the saturation and brightness to add in a little punch and bring them to life. By spending a little time on them they could really be brought to life.

Again I would have to agree with Joe T and say lower your shutter speed next time (if your camera allows it) and pan with the cars to get the feeling of speed and movement. This will make the pictures more exciting and interesting.

[maff]

Nice shots Joe, whats the yellow car?

Thanks for the advice guys, ive fired up "the gimp" and had a bit of a play with the photos as sugested.

http://www.kardiak.co.uk/gal/drift/photo/yeager2.jpg
http://www.kardiak.co.uk/gal/drift/photo/r32_rear2.jpg

its certainly brought the pictures to life more, now as soon as it stops raining i can go practice the panning shot,.

[CT]

Big improvement there. Check out the car pics in mags taken by pros, adverts particularly. The thing they always get is good colour saturation, which you rarely get straight out of the camera. Slight under-exposure helps colour saturation enormously, although most things can be corrected now in post processing.

[IanC_UK]

Not bad shots Maff, what camera etc are you using ?

[Steve]

The processed images are far far better now. A great improvement. [smilie=t:

[Joe T]

Not bad shots Maff, what camera etc are you using ?

Its in the EXIF, and also stated in my post.... :)

Massive improvement there maff. :D

[maff]

Cheers all, yup its Fuji Finexpix S5500 all the exif info is in the pics.

[matty]

good shots, the S5000 is a class camera for the money, i was very impressed with mine..

[Steep]

Sneaky begger coming in here and not saying hello maff! :D

[maff]

;) That was some time ago eh? New camera, new enthusiasm.

Oh and hi steepy!

[Steep]

That's because you were posting about boring cars like :p