Drag Strip Racing

[ArmySoldier777]

Hey everybody,

I was out at the local drag strip last night, and took about 400 something pictures. I kept about 142 of them, not because the others were "bad" but because they just didn't really attract my attention, I think the composure was decent in most of them, they just had boring subjects "ugly cars." I spend most of my time racing out here, but a few of the other bikers wanted me to take pictures for them so I decided that this time I'd just be the photographer. But anyway, I'd like to know what you guys think about the image posted below.

1) Shutter Speed: Was it fast enough to capture good detail on the bike, while still giving it a sense of motion?
2) Composure: This is about 1/3 of the original image. I had a lot of photos to go through, so most of them were just quickly cropped to reach a decent composure. Do you think I should go back and change it a little, or do you think it does the photo justice?
3) Color/Contrast: Did I get enough color and contrast in the image without it being too much. I've found that very few things ever look as vibrant in real life as they do in a photograph. People always seem to add just a little more contrast to an image to make it more interesting. Did I go too far with it? Maybe not enough?

I appreciate any and all replies, thanks in advance!
David

Btw, if you'd like to see the rest of the images from my night you can view them here Z Max June 2011 pictures by Stormchaser2o11 - Photobucket. I always enjoy seeing what people think!



Camera Model: Canon EOS DIGITAL REBEL XSi
Date/Time: 2011:06:22 18:57:10
Resolution: 1279 x 876
Flash Used: No
Lens: 55-250mm
Focal Length: 96.0mm (35mm equivalent: -214...
Exposure Time: 0.0031 s (1/320)
Aperture: f/8.0
Focus Dist.: Infinite
ISO Equiv.: 200
Whitebalance: Auto
Metering Mode: matrix
Exposure: Manual
Exposure Mode: Auto bracketing

[IABoomer]

As to the questions you asked:

1. I think there's a sense of motion, but it's not terribly pronounced. If you get back to the track, try and slow the shutter down a bit and pan with the action. Even something still relatively quick like 1/160 or 1/200 might give you just enough additional blur to really imply a sense of speed.

2. At first I thought this was uncropped (I tend to look at the image before reading the text) and was going to congratulate you on not cutting off the back of the bike and giving him some room to ride into.

Since you've cropped this, I might like to see a little more room to the right. Keep the aspect ratio and expand the top right corner to pull in a bit more of that back wall. That could add a little more depth to the image and make it slightly less claustrophobic.

3. The color looks great to me. The reflected glint on the back wheel, the rich reds in the paint, the subtle light to dark in the denim all work, IMHO.

I'd be happy if I shot this, and if at all possible, I'd see if you could sell a print to this rider for his man-cave.

[ArmySoldier777]

IABoomer,

Thanks a lot for the feedback. I really appreciate it.

I tried going with a slower shutter speed on a few shots, but for some reason "probably panning too fast," I wasn't able to get the bike sharp enough. I probably just need to spend more time on action shots so that I can get the motion down so I'm able to use a slightly slower speed.

I took your advice on the cropping, and I do agree with what you said. So I'll post the re-composed image below. I did manage a few shots that night with a tight original composure that still looked pretty good. I just tend to not try it with every shot so that it gives me a little bit of play with what I can do in post processing.

Again, thanks for taking the time to critique this photo. As far as selling prints, I have had a few people offer to pay me at the track in the past, but back then my shooting skills weren't the best and I was always nervous about how the photos were going to turn out. I didn't want people paying for sub-par photos. But maybe I'll re-think that now.

Here's the re-cropped image. As well as a link to the original full-sized image.
Z Max June 2011 :: IMG_0124.jpg picture by Stormchaser2o11 - Photobucket

EDIT: Deleting the original image off of photobucket and replacing it with the new one changed the original posted image. So I guess there's no longer a need for me to post it in this one lol.

[3bayjunkie]

Random fact, but did you know that a Top Fuel Dragster uses about 5 gallons of fuel in 4 seconds? That is pretty cool

[ArmySoldier777]

3bayjunkie,

That I did not know. Being that Top Fuel Dragsters use Nitromethane fuel if I'm not mistaken, and Nitromethane fuel costs around $50 per gallon, that's some expensive racing!

After reading your post, I got curious about it and decided to do some reading. A Top Fuel Dragster consumes about 22.75 gallons of nitromethane fuel during warmup, burnout, staging, and the quarter mile run.... Now, I'm not a complete math expert, but that's around $1100-$1200 for a single run..


Gotta love fun random facts,
David

[kmarie93]

I looked through your photobucket, I thought the pictures turned out GREAT! I especially loved 19 and 77. Nice job!

LOL to the random fact men.

[ArmySoldier777]

kmarie93,

Thank you! I never thought anybody would actually look through all the others. But I really appreciate you're feedback on them.

Lol, random facts can be fun!
David

[dvtldav]

Random Top Fuel Dragster facts:
1: One TFD's 500 ci Hemi makes more horsepower than the first four rows @ Daytona
2: A stock dodge 426 Hemi cannot produce enough power to drive the TFD's supercharger.
3: Dual magnetos supply 44 amps to each spark plug. This is the output of an arc welder in each cylinder.
4: With a redline of 9500 RPM's, top fuel engines turn approximately 540 revolutions from light to light. Including burnout, the engine needs to survive only 900 revolutions under load.
This is from an article in American Driver around 2004.

Dave

[KriegHammer]

Some nice pics.. My fav, 64, 65, and 116. I'm old school. Pic 76 you can see why the guy on the red bike lost. Your peripheral vision sees the tree, you don't look at it, or you lose reaction time at the tree.

Army, I grew up a son a Gunny Jarhead drag race, and later built my own, Thanks, I enjoyed the pics.
K.H.

[ArmySoldier777]

KriegHammer,

Thanks for the feedback! Sorry for the late reply, been busy moving. I appreciate you taking the time to look through them though!

David