First motorsport shoot coming up

jazzywheelz

jazzywheelz

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James
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I'll be going along to watch the final round of the Toyota Sprint Series at Blyton next weekend, and I'll be taking my 450D with 75-300mm lens to shoot some of the action. I've only had the camera about a month and I've never shot a moving object before, so it will probably be a bit of a learning curve. I just want to make sure I've got the theory straight in my head so I'm properly prepared.

My limited knowledge tells me I should be shooting in Shutter priority mode, with a shutter speed of somewhere around 1/320s. Auto focus on AI servo using a single AF point (hopefully positioned somewhere on the front end of the car) and possibly using continuous shooting to give me a better chance at capturing a decent shot.

Does that sound about right?

Any other tips or advice would be greatly appreciated too.

Thanks :)
 
Would think that closer to 1/1000 sec shutter would be better.
 
Yep you got it:
Tv mode
AI Servo
Continuous Shooting

Get trigger speed down somewhere under 1/200th, the lower you go the more pronounced the speed blur will be and the better sense of speed you'll get. Knock the ISO up if you run out of aperture (aperture reading in viewfinder will flash when you half press the shutter if this is the case).

Read up on panning technique and hope you do better than I do with it !
 
Thanks for your replies guys :)

Ziggy said:
...closer to 1/1000 sec...
Click to expand...
Craft said:
...somewhere under 1/200th...
Click to expand...

A difference of opinion there.
I guess the shutter speed is something I'll have to experiment with anyway. I want to get as much motion blur in the backround as I can, but I guess it depends how good my panning skills are as to how low I can go while keeping the car nice and sharp.

Anyone else got any tips for me?
 
the slower speed and panning will get you the picture with motion blur :)
 
Personally I'd say 1000+ maybe if you're taking photos of the car head on.

Panning or if you can see any of the sides of the wheels you want it a lot slower so you get a bit of blur on the wheels.... slower still to do some nice panning shots
 
For panning shots i would use 1/200th or below if you want to create more blur, for head on shots use about 1/500th. Another litle tip is to use back button focus and al servo, gets a bit of getting used to but these two thing really improved my hit rate alot.
 
There are no hard or fast rules, except you want to see some motion blur in the wheels.

Try around 1/320 for front 3/4 shot and work down from that for panning.

I'm normally the official TSS photographer, but can't make this weekend, hopefully a TP member is able to make it as backup.
 
Thanks everyone for your replies :)
I just hope this crap weather clears up before Saturday.
I'll let you know how I get on :cool:
 
andrewc said:
I'm normally the official TSS photographer, but can't make this weekend, hopefully a TP member is able to make it as backup.
Click to expand...

Hi Andrew, I've got it arranged with Adrian, just hope the weather behaves itself :)


Brian
 
Don't stick to one shutter speed! you have a digital camera, use the screen to review images to see which speed works best for you.

The other tip is half press the shutter to allow the AF to capture the moving car before shooting

Take plenty of memory cards and shoot lots of images. Then criticaly review those that worked and those that didn't.
 
Well today was great :)

The weather was fantastic and there was plenty of action on the track.

I took just over 1000 photos :eek: but this evening I've cut that down to just over 500 by deleting the OOF/blurred/ruined ones.
To be honest, I'm not blown away by any of them, but I've posted a few of the best ones here...
http://www.talkphotography.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=359055

Also, just wanted to say thanks to Brian (mrgubby) for chatting to me today and giving me a few tips. Cheers :thumbs:
 
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