The good, the bad and the down right marmitey [Archive]

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surrealillusions

06-09-2010, 10:30

Went to Donington for the Masters Series, some awesome cars, they look and sound just fantastic.

Anyway, first time out with a DSLR and a real lens for me, so the title refers to the photos themselves, not the cars.

Looking for some criticism and improvements on any settings or tips. Most of these were shot through the fence, and the shots from the racing on Sunday were helped along by Matt Sayle's advice for some settings on the 40D. Friday's were mostly hit and miss as I was spending most of the time changing settings on the camera.

Will post some good ones, some ones I would like some advice on and some down right stupid ones that are probably worth alot less than their weight in dust.

1. Taken on the Friday. Cant remember what settings, but you can see the colours look kinda wrong. I have tried to adjust the levels, contrast and colours in photoshop, but it still looks odd.
http://www.surrealillusions.co.uk/gallery/MastersSeries2010-Testing/images/SI_MastersSeries2010-Testing_7590.jpg

2. Taken on the Friday, through the fence and similiar to the above in terms of comments. I think the high contrast between the sky and car/grass makes it tricky. Any suggestions to avoid this in the future?
http://www.surrealillusions.co.uk/gallery/MastersSeries2010-Testing/images/SI_MastersSeries2010-Testing_8125.jpg

Rest of the photos taken from Sunday.

3. Ooops. Got the whole race start sequence and the crash, till the blue car in the air spun off out of sight behind a fence.
http://www.surrealillusions.co.uk/gallery/MastersSeries2010-Raceday/images/SI_MastersSeries2010-Raceday_0150.jpg

4. Later on in the sequence as the car spins across the pit lane exit. I realise its slightly out of focus, as I was mainly focused on the front of the pack, and just kept my finger pressed on the shutter and shifted to view the incident. Is there a way to alter the focus in those situations?
http://www.surrealillusions.co.uk/gallery/MastersSeries2010-Raceday/images/SI_MastersSeries2010-Raceday_0157.jpg

5. One of my favourite shots of the weekend.
http://www.surrealillusions.co.uk/gallery/MastersSeries2010-Raceday/images/SI_MastersSeries2010-Raceday_0337.jpg

6. Cos everyone loves flamey flamey shots.
http://www.surrealillusions.co.uk/gallery/MastersSeries2010-Raceday/images/SI_MastersSeries2010-Raceday_8982.jpg

Part 2...

surrealillusions

06-09-2010, 10:30

7. This doesn't look. It was shot through the fence, and looks over saturated. Any tips for shooting through the fence?
http://www.surrealillusions.co.uk/gallery/MastersSeries2010-Raceday/images/SI_MastersSeries2010-Raceday_9214.jpg

8. A bright orange Porsche with a very shiny windscreen.
http://www.surrealillusions.co.uk/gallery/MastersSeries2010-Raceday/images/SI_MastersSeries2010-Raceday_9890.jpg

9. A Lotus F1 car.
http://www.surrealillusions.co.uk/gallery/MastersSeries2010-Raceday/images/SI_MastersSeries2010-Raceday_0173.jpg

10. A snake.
http://www.surrealillusions.co.uk/gallery/MastersSeries2010-Raceday/images/SI_MastersSeries2010-Raceday_9439.jpg

11. A spinning Ferrari on the demo laps. I caught the whole spin in a sequence, bit pointless posting them all on here though, so here's one where he's getting very much sideways.
http://www.surrealillusions.co.uk/gallery/MastersSeries2010-Raceday/images/SI_MastersSeries2010-Raceday_9862.jpg

Thats all folks! Be harsh if you want ;)

motorsportphotos

06-09-2010, 10:47

number 10 is a stunner, love the angle!! Also really good to see some of the anlges back on TP :D

dunganick

06-09-2010, 12:49

3 and 10 are really nice. Some of the others seem a little soft for some reason?

The angle you have added to 3 suits the image really well too.

surrealillusions

06-09-2010, 13:42

Thanks for the comments.

Could you go into further detail in the 'looking soft' part?? I am new to the camera, so it might be that, or part of the post process in photoshop..or a mixture of things.

dunganick

06-09-2010, 13:51

Its just image 7 and to a lesser degree 6 and 2. They are just not quite sharp on the front of the car. Perhaps backfocused or just a slightly OOF image, its difficult to know.

surrealillusions

06-09-2010, 14:49

Its just image 7 and to a lesser degree 6 and 2. They are just not quite sharp on the front of the car. Perhaps backfocused or just a slightly OOF image, its difficult to know.

Ah right. All 3 of those were shot through the fence, so that might of been a factor.

Is it just one of them things or can you control to some degree where the camera/lens focuses on? The lens is set on Autofocus, will setting it to manual help or will it cause more problems?

dunganick

06-09-2010, 15:13

Astraeus

06-09-2010, 15:15

LOVE #10. It reminds me of (in reverse) going along that stretch of the course on TOCA 2 for the PS2. Loved this track on that game!

Chrisbie

06-09-2010, 15:28

good considering...
now the learning curve starts
I remember when i moved from S5 to DSLR.... and still learning.
I use single point focus and select which point depending on what I want to shoot and where I want the focus point to be relative to the frame.
perhaps the problem with 1 is a white balance issue maybe??
BUT good start with nice composition

gribbsy

06-09-2010, 15:32

#10 is the pick from me - that says Donington all over, especially now the Dunlop bridge has gone. Some of these do look slighltly OOF, whether that's the fencing causing problems I couldn't say. Certainly #8 looks spot on, in comparison with #6 which is definitely back focused slightly.

rereg2010

06-09-2010, 16:00

Nice set, really like number 10 but number 1 looks very static.

Zoe

surrealillusions

06-09-2010, 16:06

Manual focus is a no no on moving things in my experience. It might just be a shot where the camera has jumped focus. Are you using a specific AF point? and are you using AI Servo?

I would check myself, but i cant get any exif off the pics.

AI Servo for definate, the other one, not sure.
Metering mode was centerweighted-average, aperture of f/5.6. Cant see any data for AF points in Photoshop.

LOVE #10. It reminds me of (in reverse) going along that stretch of the course on TOCA 2 for the PS2. Loved this track on that game!

Thx :)

good considering...
now the learning curve starts
I remember when i moved from S5 to DSLR.... and still learning.
I use single point focus and select which point depending on what I want to shoot and where I want the focus point to be relative to the frame.
perhaps the problem with 1 is a white balance issue maybe??
BUT good start with nice composition

Could be White Balance..I cant remember what WB I used on that shot, but the settings were probably all over the place on Friday :)
Will have to try a few other settings next time.

#10 is the pick from me - that says Donington all over, especially now the Dunlop bridge has gone. Some of these do look slighltly OOF, whether that's the fencing causing problems I couldn't say. Certainly #8 looks spot on, in comparison with #6 which is definitely back focused slightly.

#8 - no fence ;)
But maybe I need to look out for the fences more in future and realise that not even a DSLR can get rid of the fence completely or at least the fence can still affect the photo.

dunganick

06-09-2010, 16:20

Sounds like the fence might well be the cause of the softness. Its also worth trying to make sure you use mainly the centre AF point, i've always found it works more accurately than the assist af points. Alot of lenses also work best stopped up a bit, so depending on the lens somewhere between f5.6 and f8.

Anyway, let us know how you get on at the next event. And welcome to DSLR :)

surrealillusions

06-09-2010, 20:41