British GT Silverstone

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Jonny
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Hey all,

Well it's been almost exactly a year since it rained on me during a motorsport event (when before that it was pretty much every time I went out)... The Silverstone 500 race was epic, with a massive field and the differing weather made for some varied shots... Here's a small selection from my attempts - you can see a bunch more over on my Instagram if you are that way inclined https://www.instagram.com/fireproof.creative/

Here goes, C & C most welcome as always :)

1. The TF Sport cars really do look good!
#47 TF Sport Aston Martin Vantage GT3 2019: Graham Davidson, Jonny Adam - Silverstone 500 - Round 5 - British GT by Jonny Henchman, on Flickr

2. Did some work in F3 with Kaylen Frederick
Kaylen Frederick - Carlin British F3 by Jonny Henchman, on Flickr

3. Stoked for Scott & Nick who finally pulled off their first win of the year which they've been robbed of up till now.
#66 Team Parker Racing Mercedes-AMG GT4: Nick Jones, Scott Malvern - Silverstone 500 - Round 5 - British GT by Jonny Henchman, on Flickr

4. The Balfe 720s still looks great :D
#22 Balfe Motorsport McLaren 720S GT3: Shaun Balfe, Rob Bell - Silverstone 500 - Round 5 - British GT by Jonny Henchman, on Flickr

5. RAM also deserved a win
#6 RAM Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3: Ian Loggie, Callum MacLeod - Silverstone 500 - Round 5 - British GT by Jonny Henchman, on Flickr

6. ...so I'll let them have two photos
#6 RAM Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3: Ian Loggie, Callum MacLeod - Silverstone 500 - Round 5 - British GT by Jonny Henchman, on Flickr

7. These helmets and goggles should be mandatory for all pit crews :D
#20 Balfe Motorsport McLaren 570S GT4: Graham Johnson, Michael O'Brien - Silverstone 500 - Round 5 - British GT by Jonny Henchman, on Flickr

8. We'll end with a pit stop for the ERC car making it's come back to British GT, this time in GT4
#30 ERC Sport Mercedes-AMG GT4: Peter Belshaw, Maximilian Buhk - Silverstone 500 - Round 5 - British GT by Jonny Henchman, on Flickr
 
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Some cracking shots there! Love the motion captured, and the colours. The reflective goggles shot is great too :)
 
Fantastic set, loving the colours in your post processing. I've tried for this look but failed miserably.

I'm really looking forward to seeing these at Brands in August.
 
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Some cracking shots there! Love the motion captured, and the colours. The reflective goggles shot is great too :)
Thanks pal, I appreciate it
I like them all - the weakest is the 3rd. It seems a tad washed out and flat compared to the others. Did you lift the mid point of the tone curve way out - that can have that effect.
Thanks very much, actually it was edited that way intentionally - been playing with colour grading and I kind of like the subdued look.
Fantastic set, loving the colours in your post processing. I've tried for this look but failed miserably.

I'm really looking forward to seeing these at Brands in August.
Thanks man, yea you're in for a treat - the British GT this year is outstanding!
Really good photos, especially capturing the motion with your panning shots. Something I’ve tried, but never mastered
Thanks very much, there's a healthy dose of Photoshop in there too for a couple of them, don't be mistaken :)
 
I don't feel I need to comment on your posts TBH, stunning as always.
 
tbh, I'm not sure how I feel about some of these, they're all stunning, but knowing the 1st is photoshop'ed, for example, kinda makes me feel, I don't know, something a bit less than "OMFG how the f*&k did you manage that", which used to be my reaction to shots like this.

I know you don't hide the fact you photoshop some of your images (and I know you have the skills not to need to), but comments on here and on Flickr demonstrate that not everyone gets that.

It's a horrible thing to say, because personally I'm still struggling to take pictures as good as your worst, and I debated whether to even comment, because it adds nothing and takes nothing away from the fact you're a supremely talented photographer, I guess I just wish I could bask in your godliness unhindered by such thoughts.
 
tbh, I'm not sure how I feel about some of these, they're all stunning, but knowing the 1st is photoshop'ed, for example, kinda makes me feel, I don't know, something a bit less than "OMFG how the f*&k did you manage that", which used to be my reaction to shots like this.

I know you don't hide the fact you photoshop some of your images (and I know you have the skills not to need to), but comments on here and on Flickr demonstrate that not everyone gets that.

It's a horrible thing to say, because personally I'm still struggling to take pictures as good as your worst, and I debated whether to even comment, because it adds nothing and takes nothing away from the fact you're a supremely talented photographer, I guess I just wish I could bask in your godliness unhindered by such thoughts.
I used to think like that, and there's nothing wrong with that tbh. However, I'm at the point now that if I like an image I don't worry how it's been achieved. It's like Lisa Holloway, I know a lot of her images have been photoshopped to hell but I like the end result.

I think digital 'enhancing' is part of photography now, and I've started to embrace it. Now I don't know enough about PS to be able to do it myself (nor do I have the skill to get the shot in the first place tbh) but if I did I would play with the odd image to see what results I could get. Also, techniques like this do help you get shots that would otherwise be impossible i.e. trying to get a 3/4 car shot that is completely in focus with this much background 'movement'. I get that some people will like it and some won't though (y)
 
tbh, I'm not sure how I feel about some of these, they're all stunning, but knowing the 1st is photoshop'ed, for example, kinda makes me feel, I don't know, something a bit less than "OMFG how the f*&k did you manage that", which used to be my reaction to shots like this.

I know you don't hide the fact you photoshop some of your images (and I know you have the skills not to need to), but comments on here and on Flickr demonstrate that not everyone gets that.

It's a horrible thing to say, because personally I'm still struggling to take pictures as good as your worst, and I debated whether to even comment, because it adds nothing and takes nothing away from the fact you're a supremely talented photographer, I guess I just wish I could bask in your godliness unhindered by such thoughts.

I'm with @snerkler. Whilst I understand your view point, for me it's all about the final image.

As long as it's not being sold as something it's not I don't see the problem. No.1 doesn't even come to close to pretending to be out of camera (and I'd guess the intention was actually the opposite) but that's what grabs my eye and interests me.

If you want to try and get your shots straight out of camera that's fine (and very useful if you want to shoot as media) but at the same time I don't see the problem with using all the technology you have to hand either. In this case it's not like Jonny has just pushed the 'go' button and this image has magically happened, there is a lot of skill and experience that has gone into this, it's just a different skill.
 
@snerkler, @MFlip, I don't disagree, I (try to) use photoshop myself to produce "creative" versions of my images, what made me a little uncomfortable was poster #2, #5 and #7 in this thread, and a commenter on Flickr, appear not to have realised image #1 has been photoshop'ed.

Does the "wow" factor for image #1, for example, come from the "appreciation of the skill required" to capture motion, or the motion conveyed in the image?

As I said, I hesitated to post, perhaps in hindsight I shouldn't have, the images are stunning, Mr Henchman is one of my inspirations, and I long for the day I can produce images even remotely like these, by any method!
 
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@snerkler, @MFlip, I don't disagree, I (try to) use photoshop myself to produce "creative" versions of my images, what made me a little uncomfortable was poster #2, #5 and #7 in this thread, and a commenter on Flickr, appear not to have realised image #1 has been photoshop'ed.

Does the "wow" factor for image #1, for example, come from the "appreciation of the skill required" to capture motion, or the motion conveyed in the image?

As I said, I hesitated to post, perhaps in hindsight I shouldn't have, the images are stunning, Mr Henchman is one of my inspirations, and I long for the day I can produce images even remotely like these, by any method!
TBH I think as photographers ourselves we think about it too much. Average Joe sees an image, goes "wow" it doesn't even enter their heads about how it was achieved, and won't even have a clue about how shutter speed can affect the image. They probably even aren't aware of something called shutter speed ;) Don't get me wrong, I appreciate technique and yes I too have tried to replicate (unsuccessfully) Jonny's panning skills. 12 months or so ago I was pretty 'snobbish' about photoshop and hated that images were manipulated (beyond your usual exposure changes, dodging and burning etc), and I can't even tell you why I had a change of heart, probably might be something to do with watching a program about the history of photography and being made aware that photos have been manipulated since photography began. Anyway I did have a change of heart, and it's made me appreciate photos and photography on different levels.

There are still certain types of editing that I don't like, such as over baked HDR, but that's again just preference.

For what it's worth I don't think you should stop posting how you feel about things, you've not been derogatory or offensive in any way and are just offering an opinion (y)
 
Does the "wow" factor for image #1, for example, come from the "appreciation of the skill required" to capture motion, or the motion conveyed in the image?
For me the initial 'wow' is because it is both different to many other's work and it portrays British GT well for me. The appreciation for the work that's gone into it comes after that. If people don't take photography seriously (someone who's viewing it elsewhere) they may still get that initial reaction but the rest probably won't matter to them.

what made me a little uncomfortable was poster #2, #5 and #7 in this thread, and a commenter on Flickr, appear not to have realised image #1 has been photoshop'ed
I'm not sure all the posters mentioned were fooled but Jonny has highlighted that it isn't to at least one of them so they've possibly learnt something which I think is the point of this forum. Outside this forum I'm not sure how much it matters.

As I said, I hesitated to post, perhaps in hindsight I shouldn't have
Personally I think you were right to post. Your opinion is as valid as anyone else's. This is supposed to be a forum for critique, comment and discussion. If people don't take the time to raise possible negatives or areas for improvement when they see them I'm not sure it's much better than Instagram.
 
First of all, @mark.roper, never feel that you can't post your opinions - you triggered a great debate here. Sometimes people can get a bit snotty and an argument ensues, but when it's a calm discussion like this it's actually quite insightful hearing the various different opinions.

As a few have mentioned I tend to be quite open about my use of Photoshop, I don't always tag it as such because either I'm too lazy to caption fully or I think it's so obvious to the people that would care that I don't need to. There are photographers out there that turn their noses up at stuff like this and say it's "not photography" but in my experience, the ones that get really vocal about it tend to be the ones that either don't know how to use the software or believe that praising this kind of thing diminishes the value of their own unedited work... which is, of course, a load of crap, in the end, it's just a different way of using the tools available to you - no better no worse, and as many of the other commenters have said, something that's gone on in photography since the beginning of time in one way or another.

I think one of the most important things I've realised is that a photographers target audience is rarely other photographers, especially in this field - my job is to make motorsport look exciting and attractive to the general public. They don't care what shutter speed was used, or how long the lens was or if the image is dripping in Photoshop - All they care about is that "it looks cool" and, in the eyes of the people that dish out media passes, hopefully, makes them come to a race or start watching it on TV engaging with the sponsors etc. Don't get me wrong, the feedback I get from you guys is very well received, both positive and negative - I always want to make my work better and test what does and doesn't work. The danger in niche photography like this is that we all egg each other on to produce the same style of images, a holy grail of motorsport photography criteria that's been decided on by motorsport photographers - like ooooh a 1-second pan - lol an average joe wouldn't understand what's going on behind the scenes with that and might even prefer something a bit less blurry etc. Photoshop lets me create things that have a chance of standing apart (obviously I'm not the only one doing things like this) - my clients like it too because again, they don't care how or with what it was taken just that it looks cool and what's more a bit different to what 90% of the other guys give them.

In reality, the raw technical skill of editorial motorsport photography is not that hard, if you spent a day on the shoulder of an experienced guy with the same equipment you'd get many of the same images (some will try and convince you otherwise but if you know your way around a camera, especially with high shutter speed stuff its pretty easy to mimic) ... I know this because I've taken my friends out who have never used a camera, set it up for them shown them what to do and where to point it, even with basic panning to a point (some of them have nailed 1/25th pans at 400mm the first time they've picked up the camera - obviously not at all consistently hahah)... once i've done basic colour correction and crops, their images are completely indistinguishable from my own. It's the knowledge bit that's difficult though, knowing where to stand, knowing how to compose, knowing how to edit (even at the basic level), understanding why a picture works etc.... not to mention all the business/personal side stuff about being professional, networking, fast, reliable, etc.... this is what helps differentiate your work from your peers.

Again though this is not to say you're wrong, there is a huge amount of skill required to produce a great photograph in camera alone and this kind of manipulation would never be appropriate for editorial or [snobby] competitions - but it depends what impresses you and who you're trying to impress - beauty in the eye and all that, whether its the technique used or just the image as a whole for what it is. I'm not a journo snapper as you may have noticed [emoji1]

I've dedicated hours in the past to achieve a particular shot in camera, nailed the composition and technique to the point I'm really pleased with myself and can honestly say its some of the best technical work I've ever produced - I enter it in a photography competition (judged by other photographers in various fields) that is won by a guy who is just machine gunning into a bend at 600mm, something I and literally anyone who has a camera could achieve with their eyes closed - I didn't even place hahaha XD But people like what people like and that's all good by me [emoji4]

Pahaha I've just read this back and realised it sounds a bit ranty, not meant to be - love these kinda discussions especially when they are conducted in such a civil way haha Thanks Mark for such high praise and don't worry I don't mind if you don't like all my shots - I don't either [emoji1]
 
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Graphix 501, I have said it this forum before, I think that photographs of motorcars can very often be boring. They do not have the same movement as motorbikes and people resort to showing them at odd angles to give them some interest. I don't care what you have done to an image PP you add an element of excitement and passion to them. You show them more as an art form than a record of the machine. I have the kit to do this, I only wish I had your skills. Please keep posting your work it is a joy to see
 
Further to my last, if you ever decided to run a "workshop" of your PP techniques I would certainly be interested.
 
First of all, @mark.roper, never feel that you can't post your opinions - you triggered a great debate here. Sometimes people can get a bit snotty and an argument ensues, but when it's a calm discussion like this it's actually quite insightful hearing the various different opinions.

As a few have mentioned I tend to be quite open about my use of Photoshop, I don't always tag it as such because either I'm too lazy to caption fully or I think it's so obvious to the people that would care that I don't need to. There are photographers out there that turn their noses up at stuff like this and say it's "not photography" but in my experience, the ones that get really vocal about it tend to be the ones that either don't know how to use the software or believe that praising this kind of thing diminishes the value of their own unedited work... which is, of course, a load of crap, in the end, it's just a different way of using the tools available to you - no better no worse, and as many of the other commenters have said, something that's gone on in photography since the beginning of time in one way or another.

I think one of the most important things I've realised is that a photographers target audience is rarely other photographers, especially in this field - my job is to make motorsport look exciting and attractive to the general public. They don't care what shutter speed was used, or how long the lens was or if the image is dripping in Photoshop - All they care about is that "it looks cool" and, in the eyes of the people that dish out media passes, hopefully, makes them come to a race or start watching it on TV engaging with the sponsors etc. Don't get me wrong, the feedback I get from you guys is very well received, both positive and negative - I always want to make my work better and test what does and doesn't work. The danger in niche photography like this is that we all egg each other on to produce the same style of images, a holy grail of motorsport photography criteria that's been decided on by motorsport photographers - like ooooh a 1-second pan - lol an average joe wouldn't understand what's going on behind the scenes with that and might even prefer something a bit less blurry etc. Photoshop lets me create things that have a chance of standing apart (obviously I'm not the only one doing things like this) - my clients like it too because again, they don't care how or with what it was taken just that it looks cool and what's more a bit different to what 90% of the other guys give them.

In reality, the raw technical skill of editorial motorsport photography is not that hard, if you spent a day on the shoulder of an experienced guy with the same equipment you'd get many of the same images (some will try and convince you otherwise but if you know your way around a camera, especially with high shutter speed stuff its pretty easy to mimic) ... I know this because I've taken my friends out who have never used a camera, set it up for them shown them what to do and where to point it, even with basic panning to a point (some of them have nailed 1/25th pans at 400mm the first time they've picked up the camera - obviously not at all consistently hahah)... once i've done basic colour correction and crops, their images are completely indistinguishable from my own. It's the knowledge bit that's difficult though, knowing where to stand, knowing how to compose, knowing how to edit (even at the basic level), understanding why a picture works etc.... not to mention all the business/personal side stuff about being professional, networking, fast, reliable, etc.... this is what helps differentiate your work from your peers.

Again though this is not to say you're wrong, there is a huge amount of skill required to produce a great photograph in camera alone and this kind of manipulation would never be appropriate for editorial or [snobby] competitions - but it depends what impresses you and who you're trying to impress - beauty in the eye and all that, whether its the technique used or just the image as a whole for what it is. I'm not a journo snapper as you may have noticed [emoji1]

I've dedicated hours in the past to achieve a particular shot in camera, nailed the composition and technique to the point I'm really pleased with myself and can honestly say its some of the best technical work I've ever produced - I enter it in a photography competition (judged by other photographers in various fields) that is won by a guy who is just machine gunning into a bend at 600mm, something I and literally anyone who has a camera could achieve with their eyes closed - I didn't even place hahaha XD But people like what people like and that's all good by me [emoji4]

Pahaha I've just read this back and realised it sounds a bit ranty, not meant to be - love these kinda discussions especially when they are conducted in such a civil way haha Thanks Mark for such high praise and don't worry I don't mind if you don't like all my shots - I don't either [emoji1]
Interesting stuff and a great attitude imo. Also, I think I need to come on one of your courses if you can get people to nail 1/25 and at 400mm first time, I can barely do that after the 1000th time of trying ;)
 
Interesting stuff and a great attitude imo. Also, I think I need to come on one of your courses if you can get people to nail 1/25 and at 400mm first time, I can barely do that after the 1000th time of trying ;)

I should clarify 1st day trying, for most of the day [emoji23][emoji23][emoji23]
 
The track stuff is fab is always but as a set #2 and #3 look as though they could be from a completely different photographer. Nothing wrong with #2 but dare I say a little bit boring and 'out of camera', so not fitting your usual style.

I don't get #3 at all, honestly it looks like a flat untouched RAW file and again compared to your usual stuff really, really stands out, almost a 'before' shot before you blind us all with your editing skills :)

Interesting debate on #1 and I'm personally on the fence, but that's just a personal view because I'd happily spend my day trying to do something as impactful in camera. It's a great image though and would really work well as a piece of commercial work for the team or a sponsor.
 
@Graphix501 thanks for your consideration, and the lengthy reply, how nice to see for a thread not descend into chaos, although I feel I've mostly hijacked it now when we should be celebrating the insanely amazing photos the thread was supposed to be about!

I do get the bit about the average punter neither knowing nor caring how a picture was created, I've experienced that directly myself. I mostly shoot a specific short oval formula called "Oval Track Legends", as my step-son competes in this formula and I attend all his races. I take a load of pictures and post them on the formula's Facebook page, and the admin of the page often uses my photos in her posts when organising the meetings etc.

At a recent meet a driver came up to me and said how much he liked my photos, especially "the photoshop'ed ones". I was confused because none of them are photoshop'ed, I do everything in Lightroom, mostly because it's quicker. I asked him which ones he was referring to. He pulled out his phone and showed me a few.

He meant these :- https://flic.kr/s/aHsmEz7xmV

I can understand why he thought they were "photoshop'ed", not that he really knew what the term meant, I guess to him it was a simply word meaning "doctored in some way". When you take a photo on your phone it doesn't look like these. There are several "official" 'togs at these events, and their photos don't look like these (they use fast shutter speeds to ensure they always get the shot). I explained to him that I'd simply used a slow shutter speed + panning technique to blur the background .... and then had to explain what a shutter was!

Not that I'm against using Photoshop, I'm just rubbish at it. Here are some of my wacky creations :- https://flic.kr/s/aHsmEyG9hP

I guess the difference is, in that first set the motion was there to be captured, I just needed the skills to capture it. In the 2nd set the wacky lighting didn't exist, was not there to be captured, and the mumbo jumbo of Photoshop was the only way to apply it.

I don't know if that makes me a purist, I hope not, I use a m4/3 camera when various YouTuber's insist m4/3 is dead and I should be using FF, I guess what I really am is a novice, who believes I should at least try to learn the skills I need to take the pictures I want to take.
 
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Not that I'm against using Photoshop, I'm just rubbish at it. Here are some of my wacky creations :- https://flic.kr/s/aHsmEyG9hP
I really like this one Mark
View: https://www.flickr.com/photos/150270402@N06/48140039608/in/album-72157709280967663/


I don't know if that makes me a purist, I hope not, I use a m4/3 camera when various YouTuber's insist m4/3 is dead and I should be using FF,
Is there such thing as a purist? I don't like labelling tbh imo it leads to snobbery and that one technique is better than another (I'm not accusing you of this by the way ;))


I guess what I really am is a novice, who believes I should at least try to learn the skills I need to take the pictures I want to take.
TBH I think this is the best way to go about it, and certainly how I approached it. We are fortunate now that we have tools such as photoshop that allow us to expand our creativity and also achieve images that you can't get otherwise.
 
The track stuff is fab is always but as a set #2 and #3 look as though they could be from a completely different photographer. Nothing wrong with #2 but dare I say a little bit boring and 'out of camera', so not fitting your usual style.

I don't get #3 at all, honestly it looks like a flat untouched RAW file and again compared to your usual stuff really, really stands out, almost a 'before' shot before you blind us all with your editing skills :)

Interesting debate on #1 and I'm personally on the fence, but that's just a personal view because I'd happily spend my day trying to do something as impactful in camera. It's a great image though and would really work well as a piece of commercial work for the team or a sponsor.

Thanks for the feedback as always Chris :) I think it's just different strokes for different folks, for #2 I really liked all the droplets of spray and that's what drove me to post that one - as for the pit shot, yeah it's not for everyone, I can assure you it has been intentionally edited to draw the eye to the car and I kinda like these subdued edits, the driver likes them too, it's all just an effort to keep broadening the looks I can produce, haha it appears I may have nailed the unedited dull feel XD
 
Really nice set, the only thing I would say is the technique on #1 looks overdone. Regarding doing panning on photoshop, I would say at the end of the day whatever works for you. Its the end result that matters. Personally I always tried to get the panning right in camera, certainly if you look at the great motorsport photographers like Darren Heath, Vladamir Rys etc they always insist on getting the panning right in camera.
 
Looked at the shots and have to say the end justifies the means, if people didn’t try to improve the product wouldn’t we still be painting portraits and landscapes. Great pictures.
 
Well I can tell some have photoshopping as some call it, I prefer the words post processing myself. All photos have some from day one of photographs being taken.

I do love these and would love to learn how to post process past minor cropping (I try getting most of composition in lens if poss) which is pretty much all I do as it’s all I can do for now.

Seeing these has made me look forward to going back to brands hatch even more.. just need to remember the old tricks for shooting through the fences.
 
Brilliant shots, I don't feel any need to discuss how they have been produced. The end results are superb. :)
 
I think the end results of these images justifies the means. I would be chuffed to bits if any of those were my efforts. Both the capturing of the images and the post production applied:clap:
 
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