Motorsport Photography for a beginner

Wayne Douglas

Wayne Douglas

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Wayne Douglas
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I'm no photographer to say the least, I've always used the point and shoot cameras for holidays and the first day at school photos, using a bridge camera, but this has been mostly done on the idiot proof automatic settings. My son has started karting in quite a high championship and I now have a desire to learn how to use a camera correctly and to treat myself to a decent camera and lens but have no idea where to start or what I should be looking for. Could anyone recommend any good books that I should be reading and a half decent camera and lens that I should be looking at. I don't want to break the bank until I know what I'm doing, but want to get some decent photos that I would be proud to hang on the wall.
 
Wayne Douglas said:
I'm no photographer to say the least, I've always used the point and shoot cameras for holidays and the first day at school photos, using a bridge camera, but this has been mostly done on the idiot proof automatic settings. My son has started karting in quite a high championship and I now have a desire to learn how to use a camera correctly and to treat myself to a decent camera and lens but have no idea where to start or what I should be looking for. Could anyone recommend any good books that I should be reading and a half decent camera and lens that I should be looking at. I don't want to break the bank until I know what I'm doing, but want to get some decent photos that I would be proud to hang on the wall.
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I don't know of any specific books on the topic of Motorsport photography, but reading the content in this forum for a few months will teach you pretty much all you need to know about the theory of the genre.... For guidance on using your camera effectively and ditching the auto mode, pretty much any digital photography book will help you in this regard. As for equipment it's all a question of your aspirations, you can spend as much or as little as you like but ultimately it comes down to your eye for a photograph.

If you intend to focus purely on karting there's a few dab hands in here that can suggest equipment specific to that end. As a general rule you don't have to contend with fences and you can get quite close to the track so the need for deep pockets is reduced. A used dslr will be a big step up from compacts and old bridge cameras... But you shouldn't necessarily rule out the new crop of bridge and micro 4/3 cameras. If you think it's something you may grow more interested in, then a dslr will allow you to change out bits in the future and upgrade incrementally (lenses, bodies, teleconverters etc).

In terms of specifics, it depends on your budget and what you consider decent to be... At the basic end you could easily get a kit for between 2-300 quid that will give you enough reach and as your skill increases will still deliver great images.... 5-700 should probably be the most you consider spending given your experience. When choosing a brand there is little variation between makes at each tier, what I would say is choosing a Nikon or Canon will give you more flexibility when it comes to lens choice and access to a decent second hand market... While there is nothing wrong with, Sony, Pentax, Panasonic, Samsung etc.. They simply have a smaller user base so you are more likely to have to buy new if you hope to upgrade at any point.

Another general rule of thumb is it's better to buy decent lenses over bodies so what ever your budget, get the best lens you can (as for what that is, again it depends how much you want to spend and what your shooting conditions are likely to be).

Suggest a budget and the community will help muddy the decision tree for you ;-) just remember that it's not so much the camera, but the meat bag pressing the buttons :)
 
Trying not to break the bank is going to be difficult due to the type of lens(es) you need.
The camera on the other hand can be almost any reasonable DSLR if your quick with your shutter & have a good eye.
You're gonna need to have a sixth sense for where to point the lens ahead of the karts arriving position.

Panning is an art you need to master as well, search for it you'll find loads of info on photography panning & techniques.

Anyhoo, you will get advise on high frames per second, which can help but if you get the kart in frame & with a high enough shutter speed it should be a keeper.
Of course that depends upon what style of photo you're after, which most likely will change from time to time.
Stock till; motion blur with the kart; or just the back ground; or back ground blur with the kart wheels showing rotation but the kart body is tack sharp; the style of images goes on.

One piece of advise I feel most people agree on is that nearly always buy good glass (lenses) as for the most part once you start investing in glass you don't often sell them.
But the camera body is the item you'll find upgrading from time to time, and of course generally stick to the same make due to the glass you have invested in.
A Canon 60D will give you a crop of 1.6 to help with extra reach for zooming in, a 300mm lens becomes a 480mm.
It has 5.3fps & 1/8000 sec shutter speed, 18m effective pixels, 6400 iso (12800 in high mode) & I've seen them go for less than £300.

As I say the glass is where you need to concentrate on spending wisely, in another thread I have mentioned I have a Sigma (Canon mount) 120mm-300mm f/2.8
I might be telling you something you know, but that lens is pretty fast at f/2.8 & does so all the way through to 300mm, add a 2x convertor & you get a 240-600mm f/5.6 right through to the top end, 960mm on a 1.6 crop camera.
F/5.6 at 600mm effectively 960mm is super fast.
Here's the link to the thread, I have some photos posted there as well,
http://www.talkphotography.co.uk/threads/sigma-150-600mm-sports-lens.569897/#post-6605854

Consider buying a monopod if you buy a large fast lens as they are heavy & usually come with a tripod collar which fits just as easy to a monopod.
And a monopod doesn't get in the way of other spectators like a tripod might normally do, but as a plus goes a long way to help keep things steady & hold the weight!
 
This I have noticed a lot of times in various threads.
 
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