Farewell to the 40D... :(

Fireproof Creative

Fireproof Creative

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Jonny
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I've finally made the leap of upgrading my gear, It is with a moderate amount of sadness that I can now post up the obituary gallery for the 40D and Sigma 100-300 :) (both still working fine I just have a thing for the dramatic)..

Anyway got them in the summer of 2009 as a complete photo noob, my first DSLR and second ever camera, they taught me a lot. Loads of help & advice from the folks in here (although I still love photoshopping).

All from the cheap seats with the 40D and the Sigma 100-300 f4. This is basically my learning process in pictures so feel free to criticise especially if they dont get better towards the end :)

1. Lotus festival 2009 -The First ever shot, not the best (or in fact worst)

first by Fireproof_Art, on Flickr

2. 2009 Same event - heavy Photoshop, my favourite of the weekend, driver asked for a print Yay!

Europa Edit by Fireproof_Art, on Flickr

3. British Grand Prix 2009 - Hulkenberg, from the stands at Luffield (Formerly A now the 'complex')

GP2, Hulkenberg, 2009 by Fireproof_Art, on Flickr

4. A year on, BGP 2010 - Kubica, hopefully he will be back

Robert Kubica, Renault - British Grand Prix 2010 by Fireproof_Art, on Flickr

5. Autosport 1000km 2010 - this is what the Stig (Ben Collins) did after being outed

Autosport 1000km 2010 by Fireproof_Art, on Flickr

6. 2011 British GP - another year - my favourite shot of all i've taken, before and since :)

Sebastian Vettle by Fireproof_Art, on Flickr
 
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7.2011 DTM Brands - Rain :(

DTM Brands Hatch 2011 by Fireproof_Art, on Flickr

8.2012 - last year - WEC and Martin Brundle

Brundle WEC 2012 by Fireproof_Art, on Flickr

9.2012 BGP - Button, seemed to be the community favourite of my shots

Button by Fireproof_Art, on Flickr

10.2012 BTCC - Nice light as the suns going

8 by Fireproof_Art, on Flickr

11.2012 Britcar - getting the hang of fences, Manual focus and teleconverters :D

BritCar 24hrs Silverstone #51 by Fireproof_Art, on Flickr

12.2012 BSB - Bikes, first time ever, amazing scenes:D

bsb 3 by Fireproof_Art, on Flickr

So long camera, its been emotional :D
 
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Stunning set of shots all so sharp. I have the same set up and I'm not getting as sharp shots any chance of letting me know what setting you have used
 
brind315 said:
Amazing shots all of them. (y)
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Thanks mate, although I'm hoping its going to get better this year

Stunning set of shots all so sharp. I have the same set up and I'm not getting as sharp shots any chance of letting me know what setting you have used
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I think you asked me before Kev :) the truth is they change all the time but generally - always ISO 320 or below, Monopod every time, if you are using a filter make sure its not crap, if you are using a teleconverter MANUAL FOCUS, if you are using Auto focus its a bit hit and miss in a lot of situations (never bother if using a teleconverter). Try and avoid shooting wide open, I found my sigma was sharpest between f8-f11

Bikes are generally faster than cars and there's a lot more movement because of the rider, I found it much harder to get a good image so if that's what you shoot it could be a factor.

Get your lens calibrated to your camera - I never did this but I was always paranoid it was slightly back focussing. If you set up manual focus then spray and pray see if you get more sharp images.

Other than that, drink loads of beer and stop the shakey hand syndrome :) ....photography should be enjoyed responsibly*

couple of other things - I always shoot RAW, never Jpeg - and I do usually spend at least some time adjusting and sharpening in ACR - and don't be fooled I still get soft shots and OOF errors, I spend a lot of time going through my images to try and weed out the best, its not unusal for me to take 400+ images and end up with only 10-20 that pass my standards.
 
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Top tips there. I'm hoping to get to some motor sport events this year and will take all those on board. Especially the beer one. :naughty:
 
terrific images, even though i have upgraded to a 7D im going to keep my 40D its been a very loyal workhorse :)
 
Absolutely brilliant, so sharp looks like you had a good lens and body combo there too.
 
Just stunning spot on colours to. Thank you for your tips I'm going to try your settings and see how I get on. I know the uv filter was a cheap one off eBay so any recommendations on a good filter thanks again .......... Stunning !
 
ggwildlife said:
terrific images, even though i have upgraded to a 7D im going to keep my 40D its been a very loyal workhorse :)
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Thanks, yea id agree a great camera - I just needed a bit more

Ben6 said:
Absolutely brilliant, so sharp looks like you had a good lens and body combo there too.
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Cheers :), Yep the 40D and Sigma 100-300 f4 did me proud for the most part

Beav said:
Great set! :) Damn, I really need a lens with more than 250mm zoom.
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Thanks, most of these were at 300mm at Silverstone so its possible although some are right on the edge of crop/resizeability.

kevstar said:
Just stunning spot on colours to. Thank you for your tips I'm going to try your settings and see how I get on. I know the uv filter was a cheap one off eBay so any recommendations on a good filter thanks again .......... Stunning !
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Thanks again, I too bought a cheap filter and it softened my photos up good... I shot without a filter for all of these (slightly crazy, but never got damaged)... new gear has hoya filters which seem good, but not much experience...others may well be able to offer more informed opinions



Thanks all so far for commenting :D
 
mike hayes said:
If you don't mind me asking, what is the new kit and what are you hoping to do better?
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I intend to test a few bits to see if I can achieve what I want. As for specifically what I want to do better, the 40D doesn't quite have the resolving power to get the flexibility with cropping and image quality is beginning to be superseded by lesser bodies. I'd like to be able to have a few stops higher usable ISo. The auto focus could be improved and I'd like a bit more reach... I use a lot of my images for art reference at very large sizes so 10 mpx is quite small for this purpose.... Technique wise I'd like to get more creative but I'm fully aware that has little to do with equipment :) ill post up my exploits throughout the year to see if I can pull it off
 
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