Critique British Grand Prix Weekend 2016

[Dinsdale]

Just thought I'd post some of the more acceptable efforts from my weekend at Silverstone. Brilliant weekend and even better to see Lewis win in masterful form.

1) Lewis Hamilton

Lewis Hamilton by Richard Walton, on Flickr

2) Nico Rosberg

Nico Rosberg by Richard Walton, on Flickr

3) Sergio Perez (I think)

Sergio Perez by Richard Walton, on Flickr

4) Sebastian Vettel

Sebastian Vettel by Richard Walton, on Flickr

5) Fernando Alonso

Fernando Alonso by Richard Walton, on Flickr

6) Ollie Rowlands (GP2)

Ollie Rowland by Richard Walton, on Flickr

Hope you enjoyed looking. Please feel free to comment I look forward to hearing constructive critique as always.

for looking.

 

[Fireproof Creative]

Not bad mate, but lets not ignore the elephant in the room - the fence is spoiling some of these. From an honest critique point of view your technique looks fairly solid, but 1,2 and 3 would have benefited from you being closer to the fence to blur out the lines... that said though #5 has a lot of potential, just needs a straighten and a slight crop off the top and off the bottom, where it really sings is the story it tells about Alonso ditching Ferrari for the dog that is the Mclaren, some small adjustments there and you have a great image. #4 is neither here nor there for me, #6 is ok just needs a bit of cropping and highlight adjustment. All that said Silverstone is a real pig to shoot during Saturday and Sunday of the Grand Prix weekend as spectator, so to even come away with a few shots you are happy with is to be commended.

 

[Dinsdale]

Not bad mate, but lets not ignore the elephant in the room - the fence is spoiling some of these. From an honest critique point of view your technique looks fairly solid, but 1,2 and 3 would have benefited from you being closer to the fence to blur out the lines... that said though #5 has a lot of potential, just needs a straighten and a slight crop off the top of the bottom, where it really sings is the story it tells about Alonso ditching Ferrari for the dog that is the Mclaren, some small adjustments there and you have a great image. #4 is neither here nor there for me, #6 is ok just needs a bit of cropping and highlight adjustment. All that said Silverstone is a real pig to shoot during Saturday and Sunday of the Grand Prix weekend as spectator, so to even come away with a few shots you are happy with is to be commended.

Thanks for taking the time to comment; it's really appreciated.

I agree with your comment regarding the fencing. Trying to get a shot over the fence whilst not looking down on the cars is a real pain.

#1-#3 were taken from the embankment just after Stowe and before the pit entry. I'd been using the 200-500 at full stretch to capture the cars leaving Stowe corner but they weren't very sharp and the auto-focus wasn't coping too well. As I was taking these shots however, the fence kept grabbing the focus so I switched to manual and foucssed on that part of the track then squeezed the trigger as I panned through that point. It worked fairly well but as you say the fence does spoil the image somewhat. But, that said, it is a true reflection of what we saw; just not very good for an image.
#4 was using my 200-500/f5.6 at full zoom to try and "get into" the garages. This is a cropped image. It isn't cropped by much, so I'm really pleased with the image.
#5 does need a straightening I agree. The "story" is exactly as I saw it after I'd taken the shot. Although it was my intention to try and get the sharp part of the image showing through the melee of the pits around him.
#6 I've tried getting rid of the highlights on the engine cover in LR. Using the clipping indicators the blacks are just above and the highlights are just below the respective indicators. Pushing them further within the limits just looked odd.

 

[Fireproof Creative]

Thanks for taking the time to comment; it's really appreciated.

I agree with your comment regarding the fencing. Trying to get a shot over the fence whilst not looking down on the cars is a real pain.

#1-#3 were taken from the embankment just after Stowe and before the pit entry. I'd been using the 200-500 at full stretch to capture the cars leaving Stowe corner but they weren't very sharp and the auto-focus wasn't coping too well. As I was taking these shots however, the fence kept grabbing the focus so I switched to manual and foucssed on that part of the track then squeezed the trigger as I panned through that point. It worked fairly well but as you say the fence does spoil the image somewhat. But, that said, it is a true reflection of what we saw; just not very good for an image.
#4 was using my 200-500/f5.6 at full zoom to try and "get into" the garages. This is a cropped image. It isn't cropped by much, so I'm really pleased with the image.
#5 does need a straightening I agree. The "story" is exactly as I saw it after I'd taken the shot. Although it was my intention to try and get the sharp part of the image showing through the melee of the pits around him.
#6 I've tried getting rid of the highlights on the engine cover in LR. Using the clipping indicators the blacks are just above and the highlights are just below the respective indicators. Pushing them further within the limits just looked odd.

Ahh are you a Nikon shooter then without trying to teach you to suck eggs, is there no focus limiter on that lens, i'm surprised? the likely problem you were suffering from is the glare - it totally screws my autofocus when trying to work through the fence and invariably, when there's problems with glare you also tend to get heat haze which pretty much rules out sharp images at telephoto ranges... it was pretty hot on Sunday afternoon and it wouldn't surprise me if that's what was causing your issues. My Friday afternoon shots were all but written off for the same reasons pretty miserable

 

[Dinsdale]

Ahh are you a Nikon shooter then without trying to teach you to suck eggs, is there no focus limiter on that lens, i'm surprised? the likely problem you were suffering from is the glare - it totally screws my autofocus when trying to work through the fence and invariably, when there's problems with glare you also tend to get heat haze which pretty much rules out sharp images at telephoto ranges... it was pretty hot on Sunday afternoon and it wouldn't surprise me if that's what was causing your issues. My Friday afternoon shots were all but written off for the same reasons pretty miserable

All my photos were from Friday. I didn't take the camera in Saturday or Sunday due to a) the lack of vantage points and having to squabble to get anywhere good and b) I wanted to enjoy the race on Sunday.

As for the lens it does have a switch that limits the focus to full range or 5m to infinity. I had it on the latter but as I was more than 5m from the fence...

 

[Fireproof Creative]

All my photos were from Friday. I didn't take the camera in Saturday or Sunday due to a) the lack of vantage points and having to squabble to get anywhere good and b) I wanted to enjoy the race on Sunday.

As for the lens it does have a switch that limits the focus to full range or 5m to infinity. I had it on the latter but as I was more than 5m from the fence...

Ahh got ya... Stowe is a pretty tough place to shoot from the outfield (largely because the the cars are quite close to the fence so the dof starts to bring it into shot), if you can get close to the fences where the cars are a little further back though you can render the fence invisible at f5.6 - again not trying to tell you what you already know, but just a tip in case you hadn't tried it

Lewis Hamilton by Jonny Henchman, on Flickr

 

[odd jim]

All my photos were from Friday. I didn't take the camera in Saturday or Sunday due to a) the lack of vantage points and having to squabble to get anywhere good and b) I wanted to enjoy the race on Sunday.

As for the lens it does have a switch that limits the focus to full range or 5m to infinity. I had it on the latter but as I was more than 5m from the fence...

I found plenty of good vantage points on Sunday with no squabbling It is easier to enjoy the race though when you're not concentrating on getting shots.

 

[odd jim]

Ahh got ya... Stowe is a pretty tough place to shoot from the outfield (largely because the the cars are quite close to the fence so the dof starts to bring it into shot), if you can get close to the fences where the cars are a little further back though you can render the fence invisible at f5.6 - again not trying to tell you what you already know, but just a tip in case you hadn't tried it

Lewis Hamilton by Jonny Henchman, on Flickr

Thats an incredible shot!

 

[Dinsdale]

Ahh got ya... Stowe is a pretty tough place to shoot from the outfield (largely because the the cars are quite close to the fence so the dof starts to bring it into shot), if you can get close to the fences where the cars are a little further back though you can render the fence invisible at f5.6 - again not trying to tell you what you already know, but just a tip in case you hadn't tried it

Lewis Hamilton by Jonny Henchman, on Flickr

Hey, don't worry about teaching me to suck eggs. With shots like this... Super crisp focus!