Britcar, Donington Park

[Jim.R]

Headed up to Donington to try some night shots for the first time (other than some light trails a few years ago).
The first challenge was to avoid getting blown off various parts of the circuit in the rather hurricane like wind. Thankfully the rain stayed mostly at bay, although there was enough to cause some troubles for the guys out on track.

Turns out that shooting after dark is bloody hard work with my meagre kit. The 450D really isn't much cop above ISO400, the 70-300 has a max aperture of F/3.5, but F/4 or higher at any sort of useful focal length and my panning really isn't good enough to drop the shutter much under 1/80th. So, what follows are pretty technically shocking, but give a good flavour of the event.

C+C much appreciated (you don't need to mention the noise, I'm aware of it )

1 - Golden hour


2 - Kerb hopping


3 - Mosler


4 - Black, black, black...


5 - More Mosler


6 - Ginetta

 

[Gary]

when you are shooting like that in the dark, look for extra light sources to get just that little more light in the camera.. for example have the pit garages in the background.

also, when its dusk, knock the exposure down a bit to make it look like its dark even, thus giving you a higher shutter speed and making it look dark.. did i just admit that? nahhhh *cough*

 

[Jim.R]

Thanks Gary.

when you are shooting like that in the dark, look for extra light sources to get just that little more light in the camera.. for example have the pit garages in the background.

That's what I did. They were all taken down the pit straight which had the only available extra lighting.
Even waiting for the cars to be lit by others behind them didn't seem to help much, just couldn't get enough light in the camera I guess.
It's not helped by being public side and having to find inventive ways of shooting around the catch fencing, on top of trying to harness all the available light.

I had great fun trying to shoot them though, a bit different from the usual motorsport challenges.

also, when its dusk, knock the exposure down a bit to make it look like its dark even, thus giving you a higher shutter speed and making it look dark.. did i just admit that? nahhhh *cough*

<scuttles off to sort through the dusk photos...>