Otago Rally photos (56k beware)
Discussion
Was a good fun weekends rallying, a few photos:
(got a bit wet for a while)
The rest at http://s43.photobucket.com/albums/e39 or probably on www.petrolheads.co.nz sometime soon.
(got a bit wet for a while)
The rest at http://s43.photobucket.com/albums/e39 or probably on www.petrolheads.co.nz sometime soon.
Kiwi XTR2 said:
Any bruises or did you have body armour 
Got a bit sprayed but the weather had decreed many layers of clothing anyway 
(temp didn't get out of single digits on saturday, and the sou'wester was a bit nasty too. think we got to 14 degrees on sunday though 
good old Otago weather)Well after the Lawrence drag racing was called off me and my brother (on the way home) went and had a look at some of the cars leaving and arriving at the Waihola Service park for the Otago Rally and then later went with an SSE club member and his son to the around the streets stage where i got a few pics before the camera battery died and i got too annoyed with my motion shots not turning out (i sux0urs at t3h motion shots, either that or the camera does).
By the time the last few cars were going around it was nearly pitch black as the stage was running an hour and fifteen minutes late. But it was still good, and will be going to it next year too. Surprisingly enough the rear wheel drive cars weren't getting too sideways, the 4WD's were instead, and by sideways i really mean sideways. :lol:
The only spin that we saw was a Harry Potter car (not sure of the name) which really smoked it up.
The white EVO in the second and third pics was getting sideways on every corner, no doubt for fun.
Another couple of cars came fully (as in; the first time you see the car appear from behind the building it is already directly facing the road it is about to go on) sideways out of the corner after the first straight and a WRX in particular looked as though it was just going to keep sliding sideways into the buildings (see fifth pic, which was the lap after it looked like it was just going to keep sliding - got REALLY close to the tire walls), they were carrying a fair bit of speed too.
By the time the last few cars were going around it was nearly pitch black as the stage was running an hour and fifteen minutes late. But it was still good, and will be going to it next year too. Surprisingly enough the rear wheel drive cars weren't getting too sideways, the 4WD's were instead, and by sideways i really mean sideways. :lol:
The only spin that we saw was a Harry Potter car (not sure of the name) which really smoked it up.
The white EVO in the second and third pics was getting sideways on every corner, no doubt for fun.
Another couple of cars came fully (as in; the first time you see the car appear from behind the building it is already directly facing the road it is about to go on) sideways out of the corner after the first straight and a WRX in particular looked as though it was just going to keep sliding sideways into the buildings (see fifth pic, which was the lap after it looked like it was just going to keep sliding - got REALLY close to the tire walls), they were carrying a fair bit of speed too.
Your other option, depending on what your camera is capable of, is to bump up the ISO rating (sensor sensitivity) which will result in a higher shutter speed to maintain correct exposure, or to use a shutter-priority mode which lets you set the shutter speed and the camera will calculate the aperture to give the correct exposure (for a given ISO). Its normally on higher-end compact cameras or SLRs that you can do this; a compact you probably have to use the manual mode and do a bit of testing til you get it right.
For instance, in the blurry photos above the ISO is 70 and the shutter speed only about 1/40-1/50 of a second which is too slow to freeze the motion (Opera internet browser lets you view the EXIF data). I would started with a shutter speed of around 1/200 and fiddled with it until I got what I thought was an acceptable blur (you still want to convey a sense of speed).
EDIT to add: Try using the 'action' setting on your camera (if you weren't already), that will give it a higher shutter speed.
You've both got some great photos in there, thanks for sharing them!
For instance, in the blurry photos above the ISO is 70 and the shutter speed only about 1/40-1/50 of a second which is too slow to freeze the motion (Opera internet browser lets you view the EXIF data
). I would started with a shutter speed of around 1/200 and fiddled with it until I got what I thought was an acceptable blur (you still want to convey a sense of speed). EDIT to add: Try using the 'action' setting on your camera (if you weren't already), that will give it a higher shutter speed.
You've both got some great photos in there, thanks for sharing them!
Edited by htsd on Saturday 21st April 08:03
Edited by htsd on Saturday 21st April 13:08
Kiwi XTR2 said:
I'm wondering, given the amount of caffine I consume, whether I should use a mono-pod for panning action shots. Anyone tried that ?
Never tried it, but it could help. With panning its generally best to be standing in a good stable position when facing the direction you're planning to take the shot, then rotate away from there to track the car back into the position you want it, that way you're a lot steadier when you take the shot than if you start in a stable position facing the car and rotate out of that position as you pan. If that makes sense. I find leaning on a solid object like a treee helps too.
The shots on this angle were taken at ISO 400 with the camera held against a tree as it was quite dark under the trees, still came out a bit blurred and grainy due to high ISO noise though:
I was varying ISO settings (My camera can do 64/100/200/400 and I used all of them at various times) etc throughout the weekend trying to use what light there was, sometimes there just is't enough light for a sharp photo though in which case I try to get more arty panning shots, not much else you can do really
Mustang-man said:
I arrived in that group of people just on the left in this shot just as that car (Ken Block iirc) was finishing his last lap, the rally was running 1hr30 behind schedule when they came through Waipori Gorge so I assumed Anzac Ave would be too, but they'd caught up a bit of time so I missed the first few cars. (I was the ginga guy who was standing on the stack of tyres taking photos for the 2nd half of it)
GravelBen said:
The shots on this angle were taken at ISO 400 with the camera held against a tree as it was quite dark under the trees, still came out a bit blurred and grainy due to high ISO noise though:
The shutter speed is still only 1/150 though, which just isn't fast enough- your camera is probably choking down the aperture to try and get the full depth of field in the photo, which shuts out light, which slows the shutter speed. The noise is simply a function of having a small sensor with high pixel density. Were you in full manual mode or using a preset mode?
One fix would be stumping up a couple of grand for a decent SLR + lense... depends how serious you want to get with your photography! EOS 400D does 100-200-400-800-1600 ISO with negligible noise up to 800, and at 1600 it is acceptable. Some Nikons do 3200, and with a decent post proc noise reduction software package you can turn out great low-light photos. SLRs are a pricey habit though.
htsd said:
The shutter speed is still only 1/150 though, which just isn't fast enough- your camera is probably choking down the aperture to try and get the full depth of field in the photo, which shuts out light, which slows the shutter speed. The noise is simply a function of having a small sensor with high pixel density. Were you in full manual mode or using a preset mode?
One fix would be stumping up a couple of grand for a decent SLR + lense... depends how serious you want to get with your photography! EOS 400D does 100-200-400-800-1600 ISO with negligible noise up to 800, and at 1600 it is acceptable. Some Nikons do 3200, and with a decent post proc noise reduction software package you can turn out great low-light photos. SLRs are a pricey habit though.
Think it was on the standard action mode most of the time so you could be right about it trying to get better d.o.f, I hadn't thought of that. Might try shutter priority or full manual next time, its always a balance between taking photos and just enjoying watching though. If I get too caught up in playing with the camera I start forgetting to watch the cars I'm not taking photos of. dSLR is the next planned upgrade, but it has to wait until I'm finished uni and working...
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