Lydden Hill Advice

BBR

BBR

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Brian
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A few friends and I (all enthusiast photographers) are off to Lydden Hill in two weeks time. Never been here before so I would welcome some advice.
Is it like Snetterton, where you can stand where you like (within reason)?
What are the favoured spots and what is the best focal length to capture the action, eg fill the frame with a car or three?
Thanks.
 
What are you shooting and assuming you don't have track access?

For cars you can get some good shots if you follow the track around the back of the pit entrance opposite the field you park in of the cars coming up over the rise and a long sweeping right hand

https://flic.kr/p/rXhYXp

The far side of the track isn't to bad with the cars coming off the straight and depending on what's being shot the bottom of the car park isn't too bad if the cars are off the apex.

If the cars are running the cut through thee is a raised seating area half way up the hill on the far side you can shoot down into as well...
 
I used a monopod and a 300 prime (f4) stood on Chessons and managed some decent results panning cars through the fast chicane by the finish line, couldn't really drop below 1/125 though, no problem with a handheld 70-200, it does take a lot of practise as Andrew says.
 
I think the photo I posted above was shot at 1/60 in order to get the blurred background, is that speed generally considered to be too slow even if you are practised at panning?
 
No not really, some shoot even slower than that but it lowers your percentage of keepers. I find that handheld 1/80th is safe with most pans, below that is a bit of a lottery really, although when you do nail them they look great !
 
Rallycross is not the easiest motorsport to pan. With the cars on rough surfaces like the shot taken above, you're gonna experience the cars bouncing about a bit, which means they are moving on a number of different planes of movement.
Circuit based racing is on such smooth tarmac, that it makes it a lot easier to pan, in that the cars will move about a lot less.
If you're starting out panning, I'd recommend sticking around 1/125 or 1/100 to really get the technique down, its quite demoralising to try and bag everything at 1/60 or less, and find that you dont have as many keepers as you would like.
I was limited to a max reach of 200mm on full frame, but still, it was possible to make most shots that I wanted to from spectator side.
At lydden, you can always try to catch the cars on the tarmac for a slower pan, like this one at 1/50
17891694660_fae5058966_b.jpg


It is possible to pan on the rough though. I tend to shoot a little wider, in order to allow for a little softness due to the surface. This one is at 1/50 as well, but over the dirt
18079377815_93ae4ba347_b.jpg


Personally, I found my favourite shots from the weekend were taken at the hairpin at the top, allowed for some good shots of the 'racing' rather than single car shots.

17891686920_1c3bf58f0d_b.jpg
 
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