Night Racing

[ncbuckeye]

Have alot to learn, and with a lumix dmc-fz7 I'm reading it's not very good with night shots. This is a sample of a picture I took during the first few seconds while the wreck was happening. I found using the sensitive scene setting works best for this camera. I'm looking into a basic tripod to help remove camera shake. In racing it's hard to get the zoom and focus right in a hurry. I always use AF. Here's a link to 158 other pictures taken that night.

James Mobley's Photos - JB wk2 bowman gray | Facebook

Any help would be appreciated.

[kuvahmagh]

I'm not familiar with that particular camera and I'm not sure which photo you are asking about in your facebook but;

Try shooting in Shutter Priority/Manual (If your camera has that option) with Continuous Auto Focus (Again if your Camera has this option).

If your camera doesn't then use manual focus, set it up so it is in focus at a specific point then follow the car until it gets to the point and then take the shot, following through as steadily as you can until you finish the shot.

There are two different 'schools of thought' so to speak about shutter times, on the one hand if your going for a panning shot you'll want a slightly slower shutter and a smooth follow through. Believe it or not this can actually be a bit easier from the stands since the distance you are from the car makes it easier to follow.

The other option is to go for a fast shot which freezes the action, for this you want High ISO to allow your sensor to go fast enough. From the Stands a flash wouldn't be terribly useful and IMHO it creates a rather boring effect by freezing it too much if not done perfectly.

To see some of what I'm talking about check out my Flickr which will also give you the settings I used and hopefully help you out a bit.

[ncbuckeye]

Yeah I forgot to load the one I was thinking of. The camera only has iso settings 80 - 400, and I can't figure out how to get a good pan on a car driving 50-80 mph in bright daylight, every time I tried it came out way over exposed. I didn't try it at night. I've been having a problem with bad grain at night, but with the setting I used it seem to clear it out a lot. Seems my biggest concern is how to set the camera to be able to take quick shots. The manual exposure on this camera is a pain, so AF is pretty much a necessity, I'd guess continual focus would be best?

[ncbuckeye]

Love some of your shots, but the ones at night just seem so dark, I'm sure there is a proper way to make the cars stand out a bit more. What kind of cars are those I've never seen them before.

[kuvahmagh]

Originally Posted by ncbuckeye

Yeah I forgot to load the one I was thinking of. The camera only has iso settings 80 - 400, and I can't figure out how to get a good pan on a car driving 50-80 mph in bright daylight, every time I tried it came out way over exposed. I didn't try it at night. I've been having a problem with bad grain at night, but with the setting I used it seem to clear it out a lot. Seems my biggest concern is how to set the camera to be able to take quick shots. The manual exposure on this camera is a pain, so AF is pretty much a necessity, I'd guess continual focus would be best?

Ok, Continuous focus is really what you need if you have it, the camera will try and track the car and 'predict' where it will be, this still requires a steady hand to follow the car to get the best results but yes if you have the option its definitely what you want.

The grain your seeing is noise that occurs at higher ISOs, nature of the beast really. At 400 it shouldn't be that bad but then again I don't know anything about that camera. If it is bad you could look at Noise Removal programs, I avoid the ones in the Camera like a plague, my camera has enough to worry about I don't want it to try and do that because I find it softens the image too much. I personally use Noise Ninja Pro Stand Alone but that does cost money. I am looking at the specs for your camera now and see that you have a "High Sensitivity Mode" which gives you access to ISO 800 & 1600. While these will create additional Noise they are an option to allow a faster shutter which will help you at night to get sharp pictures. Although from what I am reading now they may be worse than I thought.

That looks like a fast lens (F2.8 - 3.3) so you should be good there, personally I would disable digital zoom if you have that option and stick to optical zoom, you can crop in on a computer and IMHO get a better result.

You could try panning at night if you want to avoid the Higher ISO settings though this does require a steady hand to pick up the car and follow through and it will take practice to get right.

I would avoid a tripod since you will likely just annoy those around you and you probably won't find it that useful really. Using both hands to hold the camera and just practicing at it will probably do more for you at this point.

[ncbuckeye]

Yes my camera does have Continuous focus, haven't really used it much yet. I'm afraid it'll drain my battery to much.

Yeah i meant noise, still learning all the terms.

The pictures I used above are from using the high sensitivity mode, and they are a lot better. Here's one from the week before...


I very rarely use the digital zoom, I agree with that it causes more problems then it's worth, but it can be fun.

I might try panning again this weekend, and try it some at night.

The place where I sit has plenty of room for the tripod, and at times I don't have the room i have a mini flexable tripod which helped alot this weekend. Also there is a flat area I can stand for pictures, and there is always the area at the top of the track, it's actually sunken and you enter from the top. I have a very hard time holding the camera steady.