F1 Spa - Metering tips

agent orange

agent orange

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Hi

What metering mode or tips would you suggest for F1 at Spa? I’m anticipating cloudy skies with flat dull light but appreciate Spa can throw everything at you.

I had play with the camera at the weekend shooting everything and anything so I get used to the body. I think I’m almost there as most functions are falling pretty quickly to hand when I need to change them. Shots are ***** awful mind you. I’ve had a REAL wake up call. I thought the shots I took 20 years ago at college were quite good but having dragged them out of the loft I’ve realised they were terrible.

So I’ve a steeper curve than I thought to re-learn!

My biggest concern is washed out skies. No matter what I did at the weekend every shot was over exposed for the sky. If I were taking landscape I might be able to get around it by blending two identical images or a grad ND filter. But with motorsport this isn’t possible.

My thought was to spot meter off the curbing or advertising banners and use lowest ISO possible to ensure shutter speed of at least 1/500 ideally 1/1000ths. Go with what ever aperture the metering tells me and switch to full manual to fix.

Then machine gun away….

Right idea or am I way off?
 
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Set exposure and lock it in manual. Auto exposure will vary a lot as you pan different colour cars against different shades of background, when it should not if the light is constant. There's not much you can do about blown skies.

Use spot key-tone metering. Once you have got it right, take a spot reading off a convenient area of grass or tarmac, in the same light as the subject, that you can access any time. Note the shift in the viewfinder needle, say it reads -0.3. That's your key-tone reference so if/when the light changes, aim your spot over that area and adjust until it reads -0.3 again and it will always be correct. You will notice pros doing this, pointing their long lenses at the ground for no apparent reason.

Main problem with motorsport at big events is getting close enough with the right lens. 1/500sec to 1/1000sec sounds a bit fast for panning and I doubt you'll be at lowest ISO.

Edit: tarmac goes darker when it rains ;)
 
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HoppyUK said:
Set exposure and lock it in manual. Auto exposure will vary a lot as you pan different colour cars against different shades of background, when it should not if the light is constant. There's not much you can do about blown skies.

Use spot key-tone metering. Once you have got it right, take a spot reading off a convenient area of grass or tarmac, in the same light as the subject, that you can access any time. Note the shift in the viewfinder needle, say it reads -0.3. That's your key-tone reference so if/when the light changes, aim your spot over that area and adjust until it reads -0.3 again and it will always be correct. You will notice pros doing this, pointing their long lenses at the ground for no apparent reason.

Main problem with motorsport at big events is getting close enough with the right lens. 1/500sec to 1/1000sec sounds a bit fast for panning and I doubt you'll be at lowest ISO.

Edit: tarmac goes darker when it rains ;)
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Great info thank you very much - exactly the kind of info I was looking for. Perfect!

Yep getting close to the action might be a problem but truth be told F1@Spa wasn't meant to be my first attempt at motorsport. I was hoping and intend to learn at Goodwood and Thruxton.

Thanks too Artyman. I've been shooting RAW since I've started again and I think I'll continue. Quite lucky that the 1D will record both for the one shot.
 
agent orange said:
Guys just want to say a big thank you for these tips. Am traveling back from Spa and they really helped.

Hopefully have something to show for it.
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More than Hamilton then :(
 
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