Motor Racing Action

[Dieterd]

Hi ,
I was in the right place, at the right time, maybe just a bit to far, but I have recently upgraded to SLR and spent the day at the race track. I was useing a 75-300mm lens almost at its max. Any comments

[RLucas]

I can't see a picture.

[Dieterd]

Looks like I messed up the link, I will try again, newby at this

[Dieterd]

I have attached two of them, the third one I need to resize, but basically he start and end of a crash

[Jensers]

I would put a heavy crop on it - most of the background is a distraction that doesnt seem to add anything to the image. After the crop, some contrast, exposure/brightness - and saturation will make things pop a bit more. It is pretty flat as it sits.

[kingmsport]

Great shots. The key with motorsport photography is anticipating the action and being ready to capture it when it happens. Good job on that point.

I agree with Jensers. If the background does not add anything significant like and perspective or identify location crop it out. Here the focus is on the cars so crop in as close as possible.

Next you have to look at exposure. Here it looks a little dark where the cars are. You have to be caerful using an "averaging" meter setting when you have lots of direct light and lots of shadows in your image because the camera will want to select an average exposure for the overall shot. With your shots, the cars are in the shade and therefore underexposed. In these contrasty light situations you may be better with "spot" metering becasue it will set the exposure based on lighting on the subject (assuming it is in the "spot' area). In this instance the cars would have been properly exposed and the sky would have been over exposed. But that would be okay since you would be cropping most of it out anyway.

Next is color saturation. Most cameras let you boost saturation "in camera" instead of post process. This is in my opinion the prefered way to do it. I have a custom setting that boosts saturation and sharpness. With your shots you need to add some punch.

Last is the most subjective and that is "artistic enhancment." You will see from my shots that I do not do this often, if at all. But sometimes it can help especially where you have to do a significant crop that results in a graininy image. Sometimes switching to black and white or selective focus or even increasing grane can mask the problem and turn it into a positive.

The best tip for a self proclaimed "newbie" is to take lots of photos and experiment. Try to shoot with a moderately slow shutter speed to get blur in the wheels or background. It may sound counter intuitive but if you shoot with a fast shutter speed it stops the action and it looks like the car is standing still. If you have a slower shutter speed and pan with the car, the blur will capture and translate speed and motion to the photograph.

You can see some of my shots at King Motorsport Photogrpahy -- John H. King

[Dieterd]

Thanks for that, I apreciate, just some feedback, the lighting was really weird that morning, we had a thick mist over the race track to such a point they delayed the racing, and eventally started with really poor visability, you can actually see the sun shining on the grass in the front, but it was still dark where the cars were.
Anyway we live & learn, very proud to have gotten the whole sequence on camera, just kept my finger down and let the camera roll. Next time I must think about the light etc. before the race starts and be more prepared. I have started messing around with shutter speeds, and it's fun, way more than my point & shoot background.
Watch this space