My Isle of Man TT

[rich1888]

Hi everyone

I have been going to the TT with my dad for a few years now, taking his point and shoot camera trying to get some half decent pictures of the bikes! Its this which last year made me to want to get into photography and in December I got my first DSLR, Nikon D5100.

So, I thought I would share my photos from this years TT, for which I hired a 70-200mm f2.8 VRII from lensesforhire to try and get some good full frame shots of the action. I found panning difficult but I'm hoping its just a case of practice makes perfect. The lens was absolutely brilliant and gave my left arm a good workout! Only problem is its now left me wanting one...

Please feel free to leave comments and criticisms.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/rshipley/sets/7215763...


Thanks
Rich

[horacethefrog]

Nothing to be ashamed of there, you've got some good shots. Especially like the Gary Bryan/Gary Partridge one head on. If you're looking for improvement, I'd say you need to drop the shutter speed on the panning shots (doesn't matter head on because there's little movement in the frame)- you're using 1/1000 - 1/1600 at the moment and it's freezing the action. For a first session with a DSLR you've done pretty well I'd say.

ETA - it is, of course, a lot harder to get the bike sharp when the shutter speed is low so, if you're finding it difficult at the moment to get them sharp, it may be a step too far at this stage.

Edited by horacethefrog on Sunday 10th June 11:58

[rich1888]

horacethefrog said:

Nothing to be ashamed of there, you've got some good shots. Especially like the Gary Bryan/Gary Partridge one head on. If you're looking for improvement, I'd say you need to drop the shutter speed on the panning shots (doesn't matter head on because there's little movement in the frame)- you're using 1/1000 - 1/1600 at the moment and it's freezing the action. For a first session with a DSLR you've done pretty well I'd say.

ETA - it is, of course, a lot harder to get the bike sharp when the shutter speed is low so, if you're finding it difficult at the moment to get them sharp, it may be a step too far at this stage.

Edited by horacethefrog on Sunday 10th June 11:58

Thanks!
Yeah I tried lowering the shutter speed but it was really bright up there and it was just washing the colours out. I have no filters at the moment, but I have ordered some for my 18-55 kit lens to try and do some different things with. I might be wrong but I think these would have come in useful here to enable slower shutter speeds?

I've had it since December so it isn't my first go with an SLR per say, its just the first time I've had a go at action with it! ( or is that what you meant? )

Thanks for the feedback and advice

Rich

[horacethefrog]

Ah, I see you're using manual mode. I hope you haven't been taken in by some of the folk on here who ardently believe you're not a real man unless you use manual? If you reduce the shutter speed (which will let in more light) then you need to decrease the aperture (confusingly a larger value) in order to compensate. If the camera was set to Tv or whatever Nikon call 'shutter priority' then the camera would sort that out for you. The only circumstance I can think of when you'd need to put a neutral density filter on to reduce the light would be if you wanted a slow shutter AND shallow depth of field.

[rich1888]

horacethefrog said:

Ah, I see you're using manual mode. I hope you haven't been taken in by some of the folk on here who ardently believe you're not a real man unless you use manual? If you reduce the shutter speed (which will let in more light) then you need to decrease the aperture (confusingly a larger value) in order to compensate. If the camera was set to Tv or whatever Nikon call 'shutter priority' then the camera would sort that out for you. The only circumstance I can think of when you'd need to put a neutral density filter on to reduce the light would be if you wanted a slow shutter AND shallow depth of field.

Yeah I was using manual mode. I was hoping for a shallow depth of field on the square on shots but until I was thinking about it afterwards I had completely forgot that aperture would have sorted the light out for my panning efforts

Ah well it was a good learning experience as well as some brilliant racing! Hopefully Ill remember for the next time!

[RJB_666]

I'm no expert to be commenting on these myself but they do look great shots. I found out how difficult motorbikes are to shoot a couple of weeks back myself. As for what's already been said about shutter priority or manual mode. First two times out at a circuit I used shutter priority mode. After this though I have gone manual myself. I was recommended this by someone who shoots a lot of motorsport. It didn't take me long to get used to it. Just a case of balancing out aperture and ISO to match conditions. What I tended to do with shutter speed for panning was to set it at about 1/250 and then work down.