Thanks Desantnik, does that mean my skill limits are good ?? I like the idea of Canon 70-300mm f4 L, would i need IS in this ?, also i think it will be a bit short for some circuits, do you think the same shots would look better with this ? I am getting the bikes into most shots now ( i took 1100 on Saturday ) & more in focus too, it's the basic exposure stuff i struggle with, thanks again Col
Your skill is probably getting there, but what will hold you back is the dissapointment you will feel compared to what you see others producing. You can shout "its the photographer not the kit" all you want but ultimately it will put you off and practice is what you need to get good - lots of it. With poorer kit the results will depress you enough to give up... trust me, I've been there!
The 70-300 f4L is undoubtably a nice piece of kit according to what I've read... its also a very expensive piece of kit. I'd suggest that unless you have a pile of cash burning a hole in your pocket you take a look at one of the options I gave you earlier as the next thing you will run into is the performance of the 550D. I don't believe that to be your first problem, but you will encounter it as you start to push and get better.
Basic exposure shouldn't be a problem though.... some quick tips:
1) Don't shoot into the sun! Before you start, locate the sun.
2) Select something like centre weighted metering, or evaluative metering NOT SPOT METERING!!!
3) Different coloured subjects (and or backgrounds!) will fool the metering... yes, colours are about light intensity... lighter the colour, the more light. You will get different results shooting a maroon red bike to a pink bike even if the amount of light falling on the subject remains the same (eg sticking it under a spotlight)... the darkness and lightness of a colour is actually how much light it absorbs or reflects.... sounds weird, but its not.
A black HM Plant bike against a white advertising hording is going to be a problem... you just need to understand how your camera "sees" the scene to base its decisions on. Its not a clever piece of kit, its quite stupid at this level!
4) Presumably you are using shutter priority (TV mode), watch that the apertures the camera is deciding for you don't trip you up - in particular you could have "safety shift" turned on, this will decrease the shutter speed should the camera not be able to open the aperture wide enough for the exposure it has worked out it needs. The result will be blurry shots! Turn off safety shift, which will either result in a loss of light yielding a no-fire or underexposed shots... the answer, turn up the ISO.
I dunno if that #4 makes any sense, if it doesn't then maybe you do have to go and understand what aperture, shutter speed and ISO all mean. I won't try and explain, there are better teachers than me, but do listen to one piece of advice - its not complicated!!
Absolutely it is not rocket science!
Hope this helps!
