Beginner BTCC Knockhill 2014

David Tennant

David Tennant

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I think they're pretty good shots - are they cropped at all, or just as they come? I ask because if they're cropped I'd have left more room at the front of the cars in the first shot, and perhaps a little extra behind 3, 4 and 5. I've been trying to practise panning shots like this to try to get the car in perfect focus and the background blurred for the motion, and I get very patchy results. I posted that as a question on another forum and was told that's basically how everyone does it. There might be the odd one that can predict exactly how it's going to turn out every time, but largely it's a case of getting a lot of shots to work with and picking the best. Composition and so on depends often on the circuit - I've done most of my stuff at Oulton Park because it's quite local, and it's just lucky that it happens to have quite a few areas without a lot of fencing in the way.
 
droopsnoot said:
I think they're pretty good shots - are they cropped at all, or just as they come? I ask because if they're cropped I'd have left more room at the front of the cars in the first shot, and perhaps a little extra behind 3, 4 and 5. I've been trying to practise panning shots like this to try to get the car in perfect focus and the background blurred for the motion, and I get very patchy results. I posted that as a question on another forum and was told that's basically how everyone does it. There might be the odd one that can predict exactly how it's going to turn out every time, but largely it's a case of getting a lot of shots to work with and picking the best. Composition and so on depends often on the circuit - I've done most of my stuff at Oulton Park because it's quite local, and it's just lucky that it happens to have quite a few areas without a lot of fencing in the way.
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Thanks for your reply.

I think the first one was cropped but the others were just as they came.

If I go again this year I may try and find a different location to get some different shots. I also got quite a lot of shots which were not really any use but it's all practice I guess.
 
Yes, absolutely. I did three days at the Gold Cup meeting at Oulton last year, came back with many hundreds of photos, but still only a handful I'd show around. I think I'll put some up in a minute - I wasn't a member when it happened so still getting used to things.
 
droopsnoot said:
Yes, absolutely. I did three days at the Gold Cup meeting at Oulton last year, came back with many hundreds of photos, but still only a handful I'd show around. I think I'll put some up in a minute - I wasn't a member when it happened so still getting used to things.
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Im thinking of getting a new telephoto lens, do you guys use image stabilisation? If so does the panning stabilisation work well for motorsports?
 
I was told to turn off shake reduction / stabilisation when doing panning shots.
 
droopsnoot said:
I was told to turn off shake reduction / stabilisation when doing panning shots.
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My current zoom doesnt have stabilisation and one of the models I am considering does. I know that some lenses have 2 modes of stabilisation one of which is for panning but I have no experience of such a lens and how it would work with motorsport
 
Ivan_1983 said:
My current zoom doesnt have stabilisation and one of the models I am considering does. I know that some lenses have 2 modes of stabilisation one of which is for panning but I have no experience of such a lens and how it would work with motorsport
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These shots were taken with a very cheap 70-300mm Tamron lens with no image stabalisation.
Not saying it is the lens to get but only cost me £99 and suits my needs for the amount of time I use a telephoto lens.
 
Funnily enough I use the same lens (or did, until I got a Sigma 18-200 which will be more generally useful), but my shake reduction is in the camera body, not in the lens. I found some shots aren't that sharp, and speaking to another ftog at an event last year he mentioned that the Tamron often isn't the best at focussing - if I'm tracking an aircraft it's very easy for it to get lost and starting whirring in and out in panic mode. And sometimes it's pretty good.
 
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David Tennant said:
These shots were taken with a very cheap 70-300mm Tamron lens with no image stabalisation.
Not saying it is the lens to get but only cost me £99 and suits my needs for the amount of time I use a telephoto lens.
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I think my current lens falls into a similar category as yours, i inherited it. It must be well over 20 years old and is a push/pull canon zoom fixed at f5.6, I was surprised it even worked on my body!
When it works it works well, with some pleasing images I just wish it was a bit brighter.
 
It also can "hunt" sometimes and the marketing people have convinced me the stabilisation is a must have feature :s
 
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