MotoGP, what did I do wrong?

andyjayh

andyjayh

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Andy
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I had a pretty poor result at the MotoGP this weekend to be honest :crying: Obviously the rain did not help so I left a lot of the gear I wanted to play with back in a safe place. Ended up just taking my 7D and 35-350 lens as that was easy to carry around.

Anyway, I'm very disappointed with most of the days shots to be honest, almost nothing I would consider keepers! Everything seems to have a slightly blurry, grey quality about it and I am going around in circles trying to figure out the problem. I have some very sharp examples from this lens but I am beginning to think the problem could be that I was fully open at the furthest focal length most of the time.

An example with both pre and post Lightroom work;

1) Only .jpg conversion and resize carried out
IMG_5123-4.jpg


2) Post Lightroom processing. Levels, curves etc
IMG_5123-3.jpg


Could it be that I was just pushing the lens to its poorest setting?
Is it my technique in general?
My processing workflow?
Lightroom vs CS5 (ok I doubt I cane blame the software here :bonk:)

Any pointers and help as I am feeling like a need a break from this :(
 
andyjayh said:
I am beginning to think the problem could be that I was fully open at the furthest focal length most of the time.
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I think you have answered your own question, it is times like this that high spec gear comes into it's own and pays for itself.

You won't be the only one unhappy with their results this weekend!
 
The 35-350 doesn't have a very good reputation to be honest and at the long end and wide open you will be seeing the very worst of it all.

Combine that with a dark, wet day and its not going to produce stellar results.
 
No, they aren't *dreadful*, you've just hit technical limits on a crappy day
 
desantnik said:
No, they aren't *dreadful*, you've just hit technical limits on a crappy day
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I agree 100% with above.

The whole weekend was challenging to say the least, tbh I didn't even bother taking the camera out of the bag on the Sunday.

You see some amazing images from motorsports but remember that even if you have the best kit you still get a shed load of pictures that you never show or delete straight away. I think that you have made a great effort when you consider the weather conditions and kit, also Silverstone is not an easy circuit to get close to the action which doesnt help.

Well done :)
 
Thanks guys for the feedback and advice. To be honest I was bitterly disappointed last night when I started to review my shots and then I started to question everything, kit, skill, workflow etc etc. :bang: and couldn't come to a point that I knew what I had done wrong and therefore knew what I had to take from it as a learning experience.

I 'think' that the main problem was asking to much from the glass and not realising it early enough to close the f stop down from 5.6 (wide open) to about f/8. The kicker was that I had my 120-300 2.8 in my bag but due to the poor weather I didn't want to lug a huge back pack around all day in the rain so I went for the easy to carry option. So next time I need to make sure I get myself kitted out with a good rain cover and grin and bear the weight to lug around.

I have been having a bit of a downer on my output lately and this bad result just made that worse tbh. I need to understand what my lessons are to move onto the next event with. Happy to an extent to spend a bit of cash to improve equipment, who isn't! But at this stage I need to know that it will be an improvement over the equipment I have now (200-400 when released (y)) I can't be just kit though as my buddy turned out much better shots from his (my old) 40D and a Sig 50-500...

Be great to find a media tog who needs an apprentice for the day next time :LOL:
 
Andy m8 you should of taken that big bag of yours.... i can swap the 40d for your 7d if you want....
 
Im no expert but most shots at Silverstone with bikes you need from 420mm up to 600mm for decent single bike shots if not more.

Most of the press togs that i spoke to over my 2 days there were using 500mm or 600mm sometimes with Tc's for the close stuff and i think this sort of size seems to be the most common amongst the full time Moto GP togs.

Think with the weather and the focal length you have done well.
 
andyjayh said:
Thanks guys for the feedback and advice. To be honest I was bitterly disappointed last night when I started to review my shots and then I started to question everything, kit, skill, workflow etc etc. :bang: and couldn't come to a point that I knew what I had done wrong and therefore knew what I had to take from it as a learning experience.
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I got through stages like this quite often and Saturday night when I was reviewing the days images I could have quite happily thrown the lot in the bin!! It was pretty much perfect conditions and I got very little I was happy with.. Then I checked to see if it was on one shot or AI Servo and oohh look, I think the fairies (i.e. teenage daughter) must have been messing with it as I hadn't changed it from the previous weekend!

Sunday I got some stunning shots and I found the conditions brilliant but then it does help that I was closer to the action. I never open my lens up to the full extent, normally stopping at about 180 (70-200 L f/4) and then cropping. But that comes from using a cr*ppy Tamron lens for the first year which struggled on the best of days...

I think everyone has days when you question your abilities but for me I now try to put it down to having an off day as I know that I will have a good day soon enough :)
 
Yep I definitely think I needed a longer focal length which is why I had my 120-300 and both 1.4x & 2x tc's with me. Unfortunately due to the rain and being unable to find a rain cover on Saturday to take with me I left them safe as I wasn't sure if the Sig was weather sealed.

I wish it was something simple like a setting changed, actually I guess it was if pushing the lens to max focal whilst wide open and poor light all conspired against me :bonk:

Back to the drawing board! The most frustrating this about this hobby is once you realise you've made a school boy error, the opportunity to put it right again takes ages to come around again :bang: Next time out will be ages for me now.
 
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