F1 Photography

rob_hawke

rob_hawke

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hi guys,

im going to the F1 in Monza next weekend as part of a month long visit to Italy and was wondering if you guys could give me some hints and tips on the best settings etc to capture the F1 cars in all their glory.

i haven't shot any motorsport at all before so any help would be much appreciated.

also, if anyone has been to Monza before and has any good info to pass on to me that would be awesome too!

regards
rob
 
I've been to Monza as a spectator twice quite a long time ago(not for F1 so I did wander around easily), not sure what kind of ticket you have but would help knowing if you have grandstand access and if so which one also what equipment will you be using?

I've been told there is a hell of a lot of people, so it would be nice to see some photos of the fans as well as of the cars.
 
ive got a 3 day pass and sat at Parabolica C.

will be using my Canon 650D with the 18-55 kit lens and the Canon 75-300 zoom lens.

should be great as before the F1 race there is a GP1, GP2 and Porsche race. but yeah as you say, the amount of people around will be pretty manic i imagine!
 
I find a few of the photos I took before from the grandstand, not sure whether you'll be able to move around on friday, but surely that will be your best day for photos.

1

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2

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both this have been taken from the grandstand at the first chicane at around 200mm, they are very likely to be cropped.

I don't have nothing at parabolica online but I saw something on my HD, I'll post it tomorrow.
 
it depends on what type of shots do u want to achieve.
stationary or panning? panning usually works best for motorsports.
i would suggest u to try shutter speed from 1/300sec and slowly reduce it until u are feeling good with the effect.

allow me to share some of my shots..
8744444310_8b6bb3e327_c.jpg
[/url] _RIC0407 by MEphotog, on Flickr[/IMG]

8743320401_35de6ffc19_c.jpg
[/url] _RIC0763 by MEphotog, on Flickr[/IMG]

8744438270_3b78f8e22e_c.jpg
[/url] _RIC0900 by MEphotog, on Flickr[/IMG]

these are shot at pretty slow shutter speed below 1/100sec.
my record shot was 1/20 sec.
it was not easy to shoot in Singapore street night race because i had to shoot behind fences(if u notice them in my pictures),that's why i had many sharp shots but poor composition and i had to crop them to show just part of the car for keeper.
i couldn't zoom out too far as the fences will show more obvious.
shooting at 200mm with 1.3x crop is just about right for the car length
 
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The Parabolica is a 150mph corner, the fastest on on the f1 circus in fact, to track them at those sorts of speeds is tricky, especially if you've never shot motor sport before.

Basic settings wise you want to be using a single focus point with a focusing mode that will track, what your aiming for is to get the focus point onto the helmet of the driver and then keep it there as you follow them round the corner. (sounds simple right)

Shutter speeds, circa 1/640th is a good place to start you'll still get a little bit of motion in the wheels not much but they won't looked ' parked'. As you get more comfortable try lowering your shutter speed, this is where good tecnique is important and you really need to focus on keeping the focus point on the helmet

The atmosphere at monza is amazing only really beaten by japan. Its well worth going for a wonder round, a fair bit of the circuit is open to general admission. Also be sure to check out when the pit walk and autograph signing is on , normally some time on the thursday.

Hope that helps!
 
guys thank you very much for your advice... will have some practice at that in the early races before the F1 starts!
 
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