Drifting Photography

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bildo

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Firstly, apologies for another motorsport help thread, I know they've been quite popular lately with the race season starting!

I've genuinely had a look around, and whilst I'm finding a lot of useful information on shooting motorsport generally, there's little on drifting.

I have had help from a couple of members I've been speaking to and I'm wanting to make a list of things to do/remember whilst I'm there. I've got a great success rate with remembering everything sat at home and then having a blank mind as soon as I get to where I want to shoot!

I've recently got myself a 70-300mm lens for this occasion, and it's finally come round and I'll be heading there tomorrow and I'm really excited. My main concern is coming back with no useful photos whatsoever so I thought I'd try and pick your brains before I head off.

Here's my understanding of it so far:

Lens settings: VR on, mode 'Normal' (Nikon 70-300mm)

ISO: 100 if light, 200 if cloudy, above if dark etc

Mode: Shutter, I'll be starting off with a fairly fast shutter (about 1/150?) to see how I'm coping and try and get them to about 1/60 to 1/80ish at the end of the two days.

Focus: AF-C (or would the 11 point tracking be better?) I'll be trying out panning and I've read up on that a fair bit with ensuring I keep following the subject even after the final shots have been taken. I was told that if I have the focus point on the left middle in order to get as much of the smoke in the shot as possible.

Metering: Matrix, or would spot be better? :shrug:

Shutter: Burst and snap away whilst following the car direction.

I'll be shooting in RAW as much as I can so that I can adjust stuff if an inevitable slip-up happens.

I'll be taking a carrier bag or something to wrap around the camera if the heavens decide to open!

I'm sure I've missed some bits off, there's a lot to take in. Any further help would be greatly appreciated.
 
Im guessing youre of to Lydden for the weekend if youre talking about drifting: Ill be there to :D Anyway into regards to settings

Shutter priority around 160th should get you motion, 1/80th when you start getting the hang off panning them
Stabilisation off
Iso 100 if sunny but as you say if it starts getting dark increase it.
Focus AF-C sounds like continuos auto focus so I would say yes
Individual focus point selected I would rather than let the camera decide
Metering:I dont know myself so will let someone answer.
Burst: if something goes wrong in the car crashing burst fire if not just shoot single frames unless youve got a big memeory card especxially if shooting raw

Few examples if it is Lydden:
Morning Devils elbow for shots like this: shot at 1/125th

aNGLE by Maximum Revs Photography, on Flickr

Entry into the hairpin 1/60th


IMG_9723 by Maximum Revs Photography, on Flickr

Entry into last corner 1/80th


IMG_9869 by Maximum Revs Photography, on Flickr

Last corner again but in front 1/200th

Tewaser by Maximum Revs Photography, on Flickr

Any question just fire away and ill try and answer :)
 
That first shot is fantastic, the lock is awesome! :D

You have some fantastic shots there mate, nice to see some from Lydden too.

Great selection of different parts of the track there too, gives me a great idea of what to expect. Also glad that yours are within the 200mm range as I've heard after that the 70-300mm starts to get less sharp so if I can stay under 200 it'd be great.

Thanks for sharing, sounds like I've definitely got the right idea in mind then. What part of the car do you normally focus on? Are the panning shots really difficult? I noticed that the ones you mentioned a couple are over 100, is that intentional for a reason?

Thanks again for the help, and thanks for sharing the Lydden drift shots! :D
 
bildo said:
That first shot is fantastic, the lock is awesome! :D

You have some fantastic shots there mate, nice to see some from Lydden too.

Great selection of different parts of the track there too, gives me a great idea of what to expect. Also glad that yours are within the 200mm range as I've heard after that the 70-300mm starts to get less sharp so if I can stay under 200 it'd be great.

Thanks for sharing, sounds like I've definitely got the right idea in mind then. What part of the car do you normally focus on? Are the panning shots really difficult? I noticed that the ones you mentioned a couple are over 100, is that intentional for a reason?

Thanks again for the help, and thanks for sharing the Lydden drift shots! :D
Click to expand...

I always try to focus on the front of the car as that is normally part you want to focus on unless you are doing rear shots of course.
At the elbow you'll mainly be under 200 and even using 70 quite abit.
Its just the last corner really that you may use over 200 as that last one was at 400.
I wouldnt say there difficult, its just getting your panning right and depending on how much youve panned before I wouldn't go straight in expecting to get 1/80th pan shots straight away, Ive made this mistake and deleted 90% of my photos.

In regards to shutter speeds Its only the last one where ive intentially dialed in 1/200th to ensure I got a sharp picture there.
For my other panning shots I start off the day arround 1/160th to gurantee at least some keepers then start going lower depending on how confident Im feeling with my pans as well as how windy it is.

If youve got an 18-55 you can get some different shots as well but it helps that when I done these it was bright blue sky which by the sounds of it tomorrow we are definitely not getting unfortunately.


IMG_7852 by Maximum Revs Photography, on Flickr


IMG_7364 by Maximum Revs Photography, on Flickr
 
D-pearce92 said:
I always try to focus on the front of the car as that is normally part you want to focus on unless you are doing rear shots of course.
At the elbow you'll mainly be under 200 and even using 70 quite abit.
Its just the last corner really that you may use over 200 as that last one was at 400.
I wouldnt say there difficult, its just getting your panning right and depending on how much youve panned before I wouldn't go straight in expecting to get 1/80th pan shots straight away, Ive made this mistake and deleted 90% of my photos.

In regards to shutter speeds Its only the last one where ive intentially dialed in 1/200th to ensure I got a sharp picture there.
For my other panning shots I start off the day arround 1/160th to gurantee at least some keepers then start going lower depending on how confident Im feeling with my pans as well as how windy it is.

If youve got an 18-55 you can get some different shots as well but it helps that when I done these it was bright blue sky which by the sounds of it tomorrow we are definitely not getting unfortunately.


IMG_7852 by Maximum Revs Photography, on Flickr


IMG_7364 by Maximum Revs Photography, on Flickr
Click to expand...

That's really useful mate thanks, I have got a 18-55mm kit lens but I reckon I'll be trying to get away with this as best as I can. If I see an opportunity where I want to be further out in may be worthwhile. I don't think I'll be doing too much showing off of the clouds we're expecting tomorrow though sadly! Shame as it looked great earlier in the week! :(

It'll be a great weekend either way, BDC is always a fantastic event to watch and really glad to see some people that are in it this year. We can always pray for a day full of smoke on the Sunday if the Saturday is a downer! Fingers crossed!

Thank you very much for your advice, I'll jot a few notes down and head on my merry way! Not long to go now, I'll be setting off at about 9am :)
 
bildo said:
That's really useful mate thanks, I have got a 18-55mm kit lens but I reckon I'll be trying to get away with this as best as I can. If I see an opportunity where I want to be further out in may be worthwhile. I don't think I'll be doing too much showing off of the clouds we're expecting tomorrow though sadly! Shame as it looked great earlier in the week! :(

It'll be a great weekend either way, BDC is always a fantastic event to watch and really glad to see some people that are in it this year. We can always pray for a day full of smoke on the Sunday if the Saturday is a downer! Fingers crossed!

Thank you very much for your advice, I'll jot a few notes down and head on my merry way! Not long to go now, I'll be setting off at about 9am :)
Click to expand...

Lucky you, I hacve to set off at 7 as im going by public transport, only takes 20 minutes by car :lol:.
One thing to watch out for if your standing on the start finish is to watch out for cars running wide into the gravel becuase its bleming painful when it hits you.


IMG_8419 by Maximum Revs Photography, on Flickr
 
I have seen the victims of this in the past! Were you in the spectator area there or did you have a media pass? Looks really close but not sure if it's because of the zoom! Haha.

I won't be able to make it for the start, I've got about a 2 hour journey to get there! I was going to offer you a lift there and/or home but I'm afraid you're well off my route :(
 
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