How I Did It - Motorsport Photography as an amateur

[RichardTaylor]

What aperture are you shooting at?

[KWJams]

Originally Posted by cricket2783

I mainly take photos of motorcycle racing. FAST!! The problem I have, well, 2 problems actually..
1. Once the sun starts to go down, I might as well give up. I have tried all sorts of settings, presets, etc, but no matter what I do, I cant seem to get a picture that isnt blurry. I dont have a flash (by flash, I mean an external flash, not the pop up flash on my camera) and I realize this will probably help my situation dramatically.
2. I can get very clear, sharp, awesome pics for about the first half of the race. But there seems to be a point when my focus doesnt work anymore. I dont know if this is something I am doing wrong, or if it is my camera (Nikon D40). Just seems strange that for half of the pics, the focus is awesome, and then BAM.... it goes away.. =(
Any help would be greatly appreciated..

Cricket I somehow managed to stumble onto the correct settings after wasting a lot of time trying to get fast action in low light shots. Like Richard said, the trick is boost the ISO as high as you can get and then a large apeture and then finding the right shutter speed.

This picture of a night time hillclimb I was able to get by focusing on a spot and wait for subject to come into the frame.
f/5.6
1/800sec.
ISO 3200
Focal length 100mm and no flash but the was a mercury street light behind me while the s
rider was a good 75-100 feet away at about 10:00pm.

[DAZTOGRAPHY]

to richard...ap was 6.4. yes i do have a slow lens. at 200mm. so maybe that is why. i know i need a faster lens, but it's all i have for now. any other suggestions?

[RichardTaylor]

I have only shot one drift event, and then none of those slow panning shots.

Have a look at this Flickr group.
Some of the pics have exif info.
They seem to use fairly slow shutter speeds <=1/100 and the apertures are anything from F5.6 to F11.
I would try shooting at around 1/100 & F11 and firing off a burst. whilst smoothly tracking them. If you are sucessfull try lowering you shutter speed more. It will take a lot of practice
Good luck

Here's the group.
Flickr: The Drift Photographers International Pool

[DAZTOGRAPHY]

thanks richard. i have another drift comp next weekend..i'll give it a go and see what i come up with.