British GT Championship - Snetterton

[The Image Team]

This one is a short one, the dayjob wrecked all hopes I had for the weekend, running me out of time in Southampton and leaving me a 5 hour drive back to my car! God I look forward to the day I can pull the plug on the truck driving and afford to do the togging full time. As a result of the work problem I went home rather than to the race track on Saturday so missed qualifying then got a puncture on the Sunday morning so arrived at Snetterton halfway through the first GT race of the day. I only shot the GTs, having got cover for the rest of the package and having only an hour and a half to do my thing in, the angles are few and far between. Here we go.

1) One of my firm favorites. I sat down in 2013 to do a five minute interview with Phil Dryburgh and ended up chatting for about two hours. Lovely bloke with lots of stories, I cheer for him.

BritishGT_Snetterton-19052 by Nicholas Smith, on Flickr

2) Ginetta was the way to go in British GT at the start of the season but Aston and McLaren are coming to the fore. Still, there are a lot of G55s.

BritishGT_Snetterton-29652 by Nicholas Smith, on Flickr

3) The position of the sun made for a lot a going away shots.

BritishGT_Snetterton-29874 by Nicholas Smith, on Flickr

4) Damage was almost as common as wheel nuts in the pit lane at Snetterton this weekend.

BritishGT_Snetterton-29879 by Nicholas Smith, on Flickr

5) Murrays

BritishGT_Snetterton-20879 by Nicholas Smith, on Flickr


6) Parc Ferme from Race 1.

BritishGT_Snetterton-19230 by Nicholas Smith, on Flickr

7) Race start for race 2 in GT4

BritishGT_Snetterton-20314 by Nicholas Smith, on Flickr

8) Pretty car alert!

BritishGT_Snetterton-20802 by Nicholas Smith, on Flickr

 

[Kodiak Qc]

•

Nicholas, all the work preparing your shoot and
the shoot itself do not stop as you turn off your
camera and get the gear back in the bag.

Yours renditions will make or brake all your effort.
These pictures are not of constant approach. Many
are faulty in DRL, WB and tonal balance.

 

[The Image Team]

•

Nicholas, all the work preparing your shoot and
the shoot itself do not stop as you turn off your
camera and get the gear back in the bag.

Yours renditions will make or brake all your effort.
These pictures are not of constant approach. Many
are faulty in DRL, WB and tonal balance.

I understand what you are saying but I've only been doing this for 5 years, I haven't yet developed a 'my style'. I process each photo individually, not as part of a set which can sometimes lead to a mishmash of styles.

If you could offer some more direct C&C, perhaps highlighting what you see as the issues in a couple of images I can look to re-work them in a different way. Perhaps I can stop this each image is it's own story thing and get down to developing my own style after all.

 

[Kodiak Qc]

I've only been doing this for 5 years

I repeated often that prior to SR is no more but as important than PP.
5 years is time enough to have learned that.

I haven't yet developed a 'my style'

Even with or with out a style, the goal should be constant renditions
within a set.

I process each photo individually, not as part of a set which can sometimes lead to a mishmash of styles.

Since a set is generally in similar shooting conditions in terms of WB,
DRL etc, it is quite simple to render them with more uniformity. There
are exceptions of course when quick clouds movement may change
exposure and WB etc.

If you could offer some more direct C&C

Sorry Nicholas but I have to be very careful choosing the words as I
don't master the language

highlighting what you see as the issues in a couple of images

First set DRL and WB to the whole set. Tweak where necessary. Then
adjust other sliders to taste keeping a eye on the set.

get down to developing my own style after all.

You don't have to. As you're getting used to the first part — the tech-
nicad development, the second pert — your artistic intent, comes shining
through by it self, very naturally.

 

[MartyMedia]

Being honest Nick, it's a very standard set. Looks like you've gone for your safe angles and shutter speeds.

#1; What happened to the clouds? They look like something from a cartoon. Darker shadows may of also helped here.

#2; A slower shutter speed would have helped here to create more action and to take attention away from the marshalls.

#3; A tighter crop and straightening the image would help the composition. Higher contrast to to darken the tyre marks would help it out a lot.

#4; There seems to be no detail in the shots, nothing showing much difference between highlights and shadows. I also find the image too saturated, but this could just be the demon tweeks livery.

#5; For some reason my eye it drawn straight to the red section of curb. Some movement would have help this shot to the give action of the Aston Martin chasing the Z4.

#6; Rotate the image clockwise, bring your camera towards you losing the barrier and showing more Z4. PP wise, bring the exposure down a little.

#7; Race start and damaged Ginetta already? I would have preferred a slower shutter speed and followed the Ginetta into the corner.

#8; This looks as if it will work better as silhouette style shot rather than showing detail. It may have been better to try and re-take to the get the rest of the front bumper in.

 

[The Image Team]

Thank you for the feedback chaps, Ill take it all on board. As I said at the start, it was far from an ideal weekend at the race track.

@MartyMedia, you are right. I played it safe, so I definitely had something to show from the weekend rather than to get all artistic and come away with complete guff.

As for #7 there was damage from the start, I think that the Team HARD car had a bit of McLaren at Murrays on the formation lap because both came through with damage. Looking at the gaps this was lap 2 rather than the first lap, I apologise.

#4 - You are right, it looks both flat and oversaturated at the same time, (which is an interesting trick!) Ill get it into Lightroom again at some point and see what I can do with it but I'm at silverstone today so it wont be for a little while at least.

#2 - You sir have been hanging around with @stevie borowik for too long. Not every shot needs to be at 1/15th or slower! But I get your point.

#1 - I have no idea. For most of the day I was getting under-exposed cars and over-exposed sky. I couldn't figure it out.

Sorry Nicholas but I have to be very careful choosing the words as I
don't master the language

Kodiak, never worry about that with me. I have a very thick skin and a hunger to learn. I won't be offended if you pick the wrong words criticising me, after all, you are being kind enough to do it in my language for me!

First set DRL and WB to the whole set. Tweak where necessary. Then
adjust other sliders to taste keeping a eye on the set.

This is what I do, except I don't look to the full set, I take each photo individually, as a completely separate image. I will try to be more set focused in future.