Bedford Trackday Shots - Advice Please
Bedford Trackday Shots - Advice Please
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Ed_P

Original Poster:

701 posts

298 months

Monday 13th June 2011
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I met my son at an EVO evening trackday at Bedford Autodrome on Friday, for a passenger ride in his Exige (supercharged Type-R powered). After I had recovered (!), I tried some shots from the pit straight and the hairpin at the end of the pit straight. I rarely shoot motorsport and struggled getting the right settings. Here are a few of my better attempts.

Advice on framing, focus point and shutter speed for these type of shots would be much appreciated. All the hairpin shots have been cropped a bit and all were taken with a 1D3 with 400mm F5.6 L.

EVO's RS5 - 1/400 second, F8

Audi RS5 by Ed Phillips 01, on Flickr

1/200 second, F8

TVR T350 by Ed Phillips 01, on Flickr

1/250 second, F8

Ariel Atom by Ed Phillips 01, on Flickr

1/50 second, F8. Perhaps 1/50 a bit optimistic!

Lotus Exige_02 by Ed Phillips 01, on Flickr

mike80

2,422 posts

245 months

Monday 13th June 2011
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Looks like you are getting just a bit of shake with the head on shots. Perhaps up the shutter speed a little bit, until you are used to following the car.

Benja_Exige

195 posts

287 months

Tuesday 14th June 2011
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Nice pics Dad! It was a really great evening huh.

Couple of comments about the pics :

- I know you don't want to hear it but IS in mode2 helps a lot with getting that critical sharpness for shots like this. I thought after that I should have bought my 300 for you to use.
- There seems to be a weird pink colour cast most noticeable on the RS5, were you using a Skylight?
- As far as exposure I tend to (well I used to) for moderate speed corners start at 1/320 to 1/400 to get some keepers and go down from there. It all depends on the speed of the corner and your location on the corner etc etc.

Ed_P

Original Poster:

701 posts

298 months

Wednesday 15th June 2011
quotequote all
Benja_Exige said:
Nice pics Dad! It was a really great evening huh.

Couple of comments about the pics :

- I know you don't want to hear it but IS in mode2 helps a lot with getting that critical sharpness for shots like this. I thought after that I should have bought my 300 for you to use.
- There seems to be a weird pink colour cast most noticeable on the RS5, were you using a Skylight?
- As far as exposure I tend to (well I used to) for moderate speed corners start at 1/320 to 1/400 to get some keepers and go down from there. It all depends on the speed of the corner and your location on the corner etc etc.
Good advice Ben.

I see what you mean about the colour caste. Don't use a Skylight or anything, so must have been just lazy post processing! I've taken a white-balance reading from the RS5 bodywork now, and you can see the comparison:


Audi RS5 by Ed Phillips 01, on Flickr


RS5: Colour-Corrected by Ed Phillips 01, on Flickr

Interesting too about the benefits of IS in these situations. Should have used the 70-200 with 1.4x Entender (which I had with me), and sacrificed a bit of reach. It's my shaky ol' hands!

Would love to have a try (and a strut around!) with your 300mm F2.8 if we do it again ...

Benja_Exige

195 posts

287 months

Wednesday 15th June 2011
quotequote all
Looks much better without the caste.

Yes I'll bring my 300 f2.8 next time. Its sat in its box for at least a year! Maybe I could sell it to you and use the cash to buy a chargecooler to liberate a few more ponies smile

I also had a thought about the AF not using the cross sensor with the 400 f5.6 which also won't help with the AF,....although my memory of all that stuff is a bit sketchy.