In at the deep end - Motorsport Photogaphy

[Crash Test Dummy]

A good friend of mine is a Formula Renault Driver and I am going to a testing day with his team.

All I have is a Fuji S6500 with a standard Fujinon 28-300mm lens. Thats all the kit I have and don't plan on buying anything else.

Never even thought about motorsport photography. Seen some of the images you guys produce and I wouldn't even know the first steps towards taking photos like them.

Any advice would be great. Assuming its going to be slightly overcast and on an airfield.

What aperture, exposure etc. Seems a shame to waste the oppertunity

[pmcuksnapper]

Hi there,

For starters i'd recommend you stick to using the "S" - shutter priority mode when shooting motorsport. Shutter speed of between 1/125 (you could go down to 1/30 but i think that might a bit too adventurous).

Set the focusing mode to AI Servo. If you can manually set the ISO go for between 100 and 400.

I had a quick check on google and i can't find anything about your AF points (meaning a definitive area in which you can set your camera to focus when pointing it at your subject).

Another important aspect would be positioning yourself somewhere on the track ready to shoot. What kind of angle do you want? Side on (known as panning), or near a section of the track to capture the subject moving out of, or into a turn.

The most important, to me, would be preparation the night before. Make sure your batteries are charged & you have cleared down any images from your card.

Hope this has been of some help, be sure to post some pictures up so we can see how you did

Cheers
Nick

[jagdpanther]

pmcuksnapper said:

Hi there,

For starters i'd recommend you stick to using the "S" - shutter priority mode when shooting motorsport. Shutter speed of between 1/125 (you could go down to 1/30 but i think that might a bit too adventurous).

Set the focusing mode to AI Servo. If you can manually set the ISO go for between 100 and 400.

I had a quick check on google and i can't find anything about your AF points (meaning a definitive area in which you can set your camera to focus when pointing it at your subject).

Another important aspect would be positioning yourself somewhere on the track ready to shoot. What kind of angle do you want? Side on (known as panning), or near a section of the track to capture the subject moving out of, or into a turn.

The most important, to me, would be preparation the night before. Make sure your batteries are charged & you have cleared down any images from your card.

Hope this has been of some help, be sure to post some pictures up so we can see how you did

Cheers
Nick

Pretty much echo the above...spot on!

I started doing motorsport with a Fuji S5600 which is a slow, sad, frustrating camera to do high speed work on.....but I worked it hard and produced some good results considering the cameras downfalls

[DanH]

I had an earlier fuji and the shutter lag was a nightmare for this type of stuff!

Good luck, you'll get some good shots if you persist, but it won't be easy.

[jagdpanther]

DanH said:

I had an earlier fuji and the shutter lag was a nightmare for this type of stuff!

Good luck, you'll get some good shots if you persist, but it won't be easy.

Terrible wasnt it...with a bit of forward planning and anticipation, you could get some good shots though

[Crash Test Dummy]

thanks for the help guys.

Issue comes in that the car wont be about for long as you can imagine.

Will go with the above 'set up' and see how it goes.

Been reading into panning; Sounds simple enough or am I way out of my league here?

[S500]

"The car won't be around for long"

It will be there a lot longer than you may think, mainly in the garage wired into laptops, plenty of scope for some pit shots.

[jagdpanther]

Dont worry about it fella, I managed to capture some F3000 and similar type stuff like the single seater hillclimbing specials without too much trouble...you just have to be all cool and sniper like, leading your target slightly

[GravelBen]

jagdpanther said:

DanH said:

I had an earlier fuji and the shutter lag was a nightmare for this type of stuff!

Good luck, you'll get some good shots if you persist, but it won't be easy.

Terrible wasnt it...with a bit of forward planning and anticipation, you could get some good shots though

Another Fuji user/abuser here- S5500 which was going to replace with an SLR soon but just bought an MX5 instead so it'll have to wait a bit longer. Agreed that good shoots are still doable, quite happy with some of these:

http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a...


Some suggestions:

Keep your ISO as low as the light lets you if the noise is anything like the 5500.

I use C-AF, pre-focus on the point I want to take the photo then track the car into it and follow through. 1/125 for (usually side-on) panning shots to give a good impression of speed, or faster shutter speeds if you're struggling to get the car sharp.

If its moving towards/away from you I find sharper, more static looking shots (fast shutter speed) generally turn out better.

Also try and recce the circuit to pick good spots before the car is out there, means more shooting time when it is out.

[baz7175]

A recce as mentioned above is a great thing to do - is it one of the main circuits used in the championship? If so I (and some others on here) can probably give you some tips on good spots to be

[Reidy10_0]

Location, Location, Location.
Get yourself a good spot and if possible get pit access with your friend.
Track side pictures are very same same.

[Crash Test Dummy]

change of plan.

no longer going to an airfield. A few of the teams have Silverstone to themselves. I will pretty much have access to whatever I want.

Looks like I will just be snapping away all day

[kybo]

Need anyone to carry your camera bag?