First Track Day Shoot

Get a steady stance on nice firm ground (you dont want to loose your footing half way through a pan!)

legs aproximately shoulder width apart, tuck your arms into your body to help support the weight of the camera

start to track the car nice and early with your feet facing the place when you want to take the photo and twist with your upper body, when the car fills approx 90% of the frame gently sqeeze the shutter and continue to follow the car well after pressing the shutter to avoid jerky movements

stick it in shutter priority and leave iso on auto, you dont want to be trying to adjust too much information, especially on your first go

start of with a relatively fast shutter (if you want some keepers for the end of the day) then slowly bring the shutter speed down when you gain some confidence, presuming its cars your photographing, start out at say 1/400th of a second, that should get you some nice sharp images if thats all your interested in, then as you gain more confidence that shutter speed will come down and before you know it you'll be on 1/100th, 1/40th and you'll be getting some really lovely shots with good wheel motion and background blur whilst still keeping the car nice and sharp

if you've got time before your going, go and sit at the side of a main road (keep yourself safe though) and practice on passing cars, you'll get a few funny looks but atleast you'll get some practice in before you attempt it on cars that are going flat out

and most of all, enjoy yourself, move around the track and eat some greasy burgers :D your not there to pay your mortgage so dont be disheartened if you end up with a memory card full of rubbish, we all start somewhere

out of interest what equipment have you got?
 
Phillips_91 said:
Get a steady stance on nice firm ground (you dont want to loose your footing half way through a pan!)

legs aproximately shoulder width apart, tuck your arms into your body to help support the weight of the camera

start to track the car nice and early with your feet facing the place when you want to take the photo and twist with your upper body, when the car fills approx 90% of the frame gently sqeeze the shutter and continue to follow the car well after pressing the shutter to avoid jerky movements

stick it in shutter priority and leave iso on auto, you dont want to be trying to adjust too much information, especially on your first go

start of with a relatively fast shutter (if you want some keepers for the end of the day) then slowly bring the shutter speed down when you gain some confidence, presuming its cars your photographing, start out at say 1/400th of a second, that should get you some nice sharp images if thats all your interested in, then as you gain more confidence that shutter speed will come down and before you know it you'll be on 1/100th, 1/40th and you'll be getting some really lovely shots with good wheel motion and background blur whilst still keeping the car nice and sharp

if you've got time before your going, go and sit at the side of a main road (keep yourself safe though) and practice on passing cars, you'll get a few funny looks but atleast you'll get some practice in before you attempt it on cars that are going flat out

and most of all, enjoy yourself, move around the track and eat some greasy burgers :D your not there to pay your mortgage so dont be disheartened if you end up with a memory card full of rubbish, we all start somewhere

out of interest what equipment have you got?
Click to expand...

Thanks for that real detailed information

I have a 550d with 18-55mm kit lens and TAMRON Di-II LD 55-200mm and tripod just a beginners set up really
 
I would use your 55-200 for any on track shots and keep the 18-55 for any pit lane/paddock shots. Leave the tripod at home as you won't use it and it will be a pain to lug around the track with you.

On most track days at Knockhill, you can actually drive around most if not all of the outside of the circuit, so move around and try lots of different positions. Nothing qorse than coming home with a 1000 near identical shots from the same corner. Try not to shoot into the sun if possible, as the end results will most likely look poor. If you have a lens hood, then use it.

If the weather is poor, then head down to the hairpin where you can at least get shelter under the grandstand, and maybe catch the cars powersliding out of the corner (unless they are running in reverse direction).

I would Tv mode and choose a shutter speed of between 1/400 for cars coming towards you, down to 1/160th for side on panning shots to give a rasonable amount of keepers. I'd also use the centre focus point only, and once you have focused on a car, keep the focus point on the same part of the car as it moves (e.g. a headlamp, number plate, wing mirror, race number on the side) as this will help with your panning.

When there are breaks in the track action, go through your shots in camera and delete any bad ones - this will save you lots of time (and memory card space), but keep a careful eye on your battery life as you might only get 400 - 600 shots from one battery.

John
 
JohnStewart said:
I would use your 55-200 for any on track shots and keep the 18-55 for any pit lane/paddock shots. Leave the tripod at home as you won't use it and it will be a pain to lug around the track with you.

On most track days at Knockhill, you can actually drive around most if not all of the outside of the circuit, so move around and try lots of different positions. Nothing qorse than coming home with a 1000 near identical shots from the same corner. Try not to shoot into the sun if possible, as the end results will most likely look poor. If you have a lens hood, then use it.

If the weather is poor, then head down to the hairpin where you can at least get shelter under the grandstand, and maybe catch the cars powersliding out of the corner (unless they are running in reverse direction).

I would Tv mode and choose a shutter speed of between 1/400 for cars coming towards you, down to 1/160th for side on panning shots to give a rasonable amount of keepers. I'd also use the centre focus point only, and once you have focused on a car, keep the focus point on the same part of the car as it moves (e.g. a headlamp, number plate, wing mirror, race number on the side) as this will help with your panning.

When there are breaks in the track action, go through your shots in camera and delete any bad ones - this will save you lots of time (and memory card space), but keep a careful eye on your battery life as you might only get 400 - 600 shots from one battery.

John
Click to expand...

Aww a thought the tripod would have helped?

infortunetly its in reverse so no Drifting shots at the hairpin :(
 
JohnStewart said:
When there are breaks in the track action, go through your shots in camera and delete any bad ones - this will save you lots of time (and memory card space), but keep a careful eye on your battery life as you might only get 400 - 600 shots from one battery.
John
Click to expand...

I disagree with this one, on the back of the camera your only looking at a small display and what you think is rubbish may have a small detail that you've missed that you'd be gutted about if you lost

a tripod would help you steady the shot but you'll find it'll hinder more than help, it will just get in the way, if you really want something to steady yourself get a monopod, but personally i've never bothered, on that focal length your probably better perfecting your technique as opposed to sticking a monopod on.

550d and 55-200 should be a good combination, agree with using just 1 focus point but i would change between the different points otherwise your going to have alot of pictures all with exactly the same position within the frame, if it ends up in the bin it ends up in the bin, no harm done and you can get some others that are worth keeping using the centre focus point

HTH

Danny
 
Get panning and once you're used to it shoot lots when you drop the shutter speed. Be prepared to shed shots to trash like a madman, but you'll get some amazing arty shots... if that's what you want!
 
i agree with phillips, getting some really good panning shots can take time, personally i do the same, 1 focus point, get my stance and follow smoothly.

i use my 150-500mm lens but the 200 is more than adaquate for normal use as often i am only working between 150-350mm anyway.

Once you are confident, shoot a bit more variety, i always shoot tracks in manual as i can adjust my aperture and shutter how and when i want for different amounts of motion blur and panning.

this was at 174mm with 1/250 @ f/11 but you can get down to around 1/100 or even lower.
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Mainly though you need to be steady and sure footed, much movement up / down or all over the show and your picture will be blurred.

As stated though, i personally would not bother with any manual at all on your first day, and if you are not getting clean shots then try manual and ramp the shutter speed up to near 1/1000, i know the image will look like a still but you should be able to get some clean decent shots as that is a good camera you have. :)

long winded but hope it helps
 
and especially as stated, dont go through your camera deleting, take 2 or 3 or more memory cards, when taking photos for Rising Sun Racing in the 750MC MR2 championship i take over a 1000 pictures in 50 minutes of racing and 15 minutes of qualifying, thats not counting the other races inbetween that i take for my own fun and use.

So dont bother looking through on the day as you will spend more time worrying than taking shots
 
Any update? how did it go? get some good pictures?
 
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