Silverstone Moto GP 2019

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Toby
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Great set, thanks for sharing, #1 is outstanding, I need a lot more practice to pan at that speed and get anything sharp. Enjoyable weekend there though.
 
Great set, thanks for sharing, #1 is outstanding, I need a lot more practice to pan at that speed and get anything sharp. Enjoyable weekend there though.
Thanks very much. I’m no expert by any means but what I found helped was to try and get as slow a shutter as you can, even as low as 1/8. Your hit rate will be very low but eventually you will find that you get some shots, then when you pan at 1/100-1/250 it almost feels easy.

Also, choose one part of the bike or car to keep your eye on such as the number on the side or a wheel and make sure that part stays in the same part of the frame as you pan.
 
Pics look good to me mate, a bit of photoshoppery in a couple yes? The only thing I’d say is that your highlights look a bit ott and could be reigned in a bit... that said it looked super bright on tv so the contrast will have been quite harsh
Thanks very much, yes just a touch on a couple. Light was indeed a nightmare, very very bright with direct light causing awful contrast. Shadows had to be boosted a lot, but I chose not to do highlights too much as it made the images look muted imo.
 
Great set!
How did you manage to get up to the loop? I tried to go there but was turned away by security saying 'the public isn't allowed here'. When I asked why the response I got was 'I dont know'. Unless you're media ofcourse?
 
Great set!
How did you manage to get up to the loop? I tried to go there but was turned away by security saying 'the public isn't allowed here'. When I asked why the response I got was 'I dont know'. Unless you're media ofcourse?
Thanks. I just walked across the bridge over the Wellington straight and walked down, there were other people sat on the bank between farm and the loop and every now and again another non pro tog would pop along for a few minutes. I was even chatting to Marshalls and track officials/security. I'm not media no, I wish ;) This was on the Saturday though not race day, what day were you trying to get to the infield?
 
Thanks. I just walked across the bridge over the Wellington straight and walked down, there were other people sat on the bank between farm and the loop and every now and again another non pro tog would pop along for a few minutes. I was even chatting to Marshalls and track officials/security. I'm not media no, I wish ;) This was on the Saturday though not race day, what day were you trying to get to the infield?

I was trying to get down there on the Friday! None of those spectator safety team folks about, I walked over the Wellington Straight bridge, turned right, walked down that road and was swiftly turned away!
 
I was trying to get down there on the Friday! None of those spectator safety team folks about, I walked over the Wellington Straight bridge, turned right, walked down that road and was swiftly turned away!
Not sure who the spectator safety folk are tbh, but there were a lot of officials etc and no-one seemed to mind. Not sure why you had a different experience :(
 
Not sure who the spectator safety folk are tbh, but there were a lot of officials etc and no-one seemed to mind. Not sure why you had a different experience :(
That's why I'm not particuarly keen on Silverstone. Too many people telling you where you can and can't stand, too many fences, too far away :ROFLMAO::ROFLMAO:
 
Thanks for the tip Snerkler, I find panning shots at 120-160 fairly successfull with cyclists, still a lot of misses but usually some I'm happy with in the mix. Trying even that with these guys, at these speeds, is a whole different and very blurry world of pain for me :LOL: I will try your suggestion and keep working on it. Luckily I'm not far from one of the smaller tracks, so will have a few busy weekends down there trying out. Out of interest were these taken with the 70-200?
 
Thanks for the tip Snerkler, I find panning shots at 120-160 fairly successfull with cyclists, still a lot of misses but usually some I'm happy with in the mix. Trying even that with these guys, at these speeds, is a whole different and very blurry world of pain for me :LOL: I will try your suggestion and keep working on it. Luckily I'm not far from one of the smaller tracks, so will have a few busy weekends down there trying out. Out of interest were these taken with the 70-200?
It depends where you’re trying to take the shots from tbh. If you’re on the Wellington straight trying to catch them at 200mph+ you’ve all on catching them in the viewfinder with a tele lens let alone trying to pan at slow speeds ;) I would guess that all the shots above were taken with the bikes doing sub 100mph. Tbh I shot with much higher shutter speeds than I normally would for the panning but I wanted to make sure I definitely got the shot, plus with motorbikes there’s a lot more movement to consider when compared to cars, such as the bikes leaning side to side and rider movement which blurs images.

I wasn’t using my Nikon, I was using my EM1-II so they were shot with the 40-150mm f2.8, 100-400mm and 300mm f4, the latter of which I borrowed on the Olympus test and wow.
 
OK Snerkler I give up, it's time to go and find another game (j/k) - that last one is superb. I can imagine some not so keen, dare I say it's a marmite image.
Thanks for sharing.
 
Excellent set of photos. I am not a motorcycle man but my brother is. He was at the same event and will be well impressed when I show him your photos.
incidentally, how on earth did you get that much background blur/sense of speed on photos 1, 5 and 9. I have looked at your shutter speeds and focal length and as someone who has taken thousands of car photos at Silverstone (often down to 1/10 and rarely over 1/100), I am very envious. I do think it is perhaps time I revised my understanding of the interaction between shutter speed, lens focal length and f stop in so far as the background in shots is concerned.
 
OK Snerkler I give up, it's time to go and find another game (j/k) - that last one is superb. I can imagine some not so keen, dare I say it's a marmite image.
Thanks for sharing.
Lol thanks. Nothing special about that image in terms of technique tbh, just about the PP.
Excellent set of photos. I am not a motorcycle man but my brother is. He was at the same event and will be well impressed when I show him your photos.
incidentally, how on earth did you get that much background blur/sense of speed on photos 1, 5 and 9. I have looked at your shutter speeds and focal length and as someone who has taken thousands of car photos at Silverstone (often down to 1/10 and rarely over 1/100), I am very envious. I do think it is perhaps time I revised my understanding of the interaction between shutter speed, lens focal length and f stop in so far as the background in shots is concerned.
You don't need to revise anything, I 'cheated' and added some motion in PP, a technique I learnt recently thanks to a well known member on here.

I don't usually like to 'add' things in PP, however the reason I did this at this event was that I wanted pin sharp images and when you start going below 1/100 you start getting blur due to the rider moving about, especially their heads shaking about. I can get sharp-ish images at slow shutter speeds with bikes such as this at 1/15, but as the Moto GP bikes were on track for only a short period of time I didn't want to risk coming away with anything I wasn't happy with (y)

P7072631-Edit
by TDG-77, on Flickr
 
Awesome set, love the panning shots, particularly number 1. (y)
 
I can see the post work but it’s not offensive, we use the tools we have. These are fantastic and 1/8 - 1/15 is very impressive.
 
Good stuff (y)

I was trying to get down there on the Friday! None of those spectator safety team folks about, I walked over the Wellington Straight bridge, turned right, walked down that road and was swiftly turned away!
I also got turned away from the loop on the Friday, bit gutted now looking at a few of these...
 
Great set... as usual [emoji106]
1 and 5 for me Toby, that shot of Cal is the pick of the bunch tho, I love it.
Good stuff (y)


I also got turned away from the loop on the Friday, bit gutted now looking at a few of these...
Thanks guys, appreciate it.

Sorry to hear you got turned away too Ben, wonder why? I’d have thought they’d have been stricter on Saturday not Friday.
 
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