Opinions please on these.
The 24h Zolder is coming up soon and I want to get better shots there.

You know Paul, I think you have come a long way with your racing photography.
And the first photograph is a great example of that!
It shows this type of racing very well.
I like the composition the lights creates and the light is good.
Is it fog, rain or mist or?
Keep It Up!!
Brian

Oh wow, the first two are super - definitely something I'd love to see on my wall! I think the last one looks cool to, like the cars are dueling with their "laser" lights ;) The third one with the circles of light, etc. these always look cool to me.

All very nice, the first one is outstanding. Great examples of night photos at the track. Well done.

It is heavy rain, they started on wets and went to monsoon tyres when it rained heavier.
Thanks for the praise - it'a all down to practice and listening to the comments here.

Thanks, my head grew a size there :)
Maybe I shoudl post some duds for critique then !

Thank you !
It'e because learning from the forums I'm getting better.

All great results because they cannot be the easiest to get right, but the first one captures it all for me.
Tom

Thank you !
The positive comments are very gratefully received :D


The consensus seems to be there's no critique for these?
Looks like I am on the way to mastering this.

Wowwee Paul! That first one is the best yet!

Keep it up good buddy. Oh and dude Rear shutter for the ghost trails... :p

Thanks, dude.

Rear shutter sync puts the headlight trail through the body of the car.
Personally I like front sync because then you get the light trail in front of the car image from the flash.
I'm a non-conformist :D

I haven't read any of the other replies yet, but my faves are the 1st and 3rd pics here. I love how the cars fade into just lights in the first, but I would crop out whatever it is in the left-hand corner...maybe a sign? Just a preference there.
The third photo is really cool. You can sense the speed here, and I think it would make a great poster.
Emily

Thank you !

You are the first to find something to critique - well done, and thanks.
I was looking bottom left, not top left, I see what you mean.
You can see what it is from this reject portrait format shot.

Ah...okay! Sorry I forgot to specify the top left!
Even the rejected photo is good, as far as your subjects...I love the lights and the movement you get from night photos here. :)
Emily

I thought about joining the rather wet photographers and TV cameraman up on the bridge.
only for a second or two, as I was in a covered grandstand !

I thought about joining the rather wet photographers and TV cameraman up on the bridge.
only for a second or two, as I was in a covered grandstand !

Lol! You were the smart one then...;)

Sticky ! Oh my goodness !!
OK, to celebrate that ...

I found a way to extra light on the subject.
First, know your subject.
Know that the prototype cars brake later into corners and pass the GT cars through the complex.
Assume you've got the basics of pre-focussing and panning under your belt.
Or it's light enough for AF and you don't mind the centred composition.

Then wait for a prototype to pass a GT and in the next corner photograph the prototype as it turns, if you time it right the light from the GT car (even better if there's a pack of them) lights up the side of your subject car.

The same applies to the GT cars if they are about to be passed by a prototype.
But in the Luffield complex the pass has usually happened before they're in range of the stands - at least with my 400mm lens.

All these are uncropped full frame from the 20D with 100-400 L IS


While I'm here - another couple of points ...
You notice my mistake on #2 ?
Don't use auto exposure (AV or TV) as it gets confused by the bright headlights.
The grass is a pretty good metering subject (or grey tarmac) and lock the exposure on that so the headlights don't push the AE into darkening it too much.

Shoot RAW so you have that +/- 1 stop adjustment to partly compensate for this if you forget - or when in my case !
I'm a total convert to raw format, and just bought 2GB memory cards to allow me to shoot longer without resorting to JPEG mode.


Now go out and enjoy a night race at your local track !

Love the corner shot! Good work for bad light conditions. You are getting real good at this! Come to INDY 500 next year. Boring oval racing and the biggest crowd you've ever seen! Glad to see you got published as well.

Thanks !

the weather made a rather boring corner shot more exciting.
While playing with the lighting, watching for overtaking moves, dodging the rain, it all went pretty fast. I did feel I'd been on my feet for 6 hours though !

Congrats on the featured photo :) Its quite the series you have here it shows how your very dedicated to taking action shots of races in all kinds of weather. keep up the good work.

Well done :)

Cheers for a very well deserved POTW!!!!

Great work Paul, and I totally agree with the shot selected for the featured photo.Excellent framing and exposure, really captures the feel of the race and it's environment. The image would make a very nice poster. Good job

Wow. Wow. Wow. You know Im a huge race fan, seeing the American LeMans series in October at Laguna Seca Monterey.

Now, I've never seen the light trails before the car, doesn't do much for me, but different and interesting nonetheless.

Love the first one- great composition. wish the fog/blurred lights on the headlights were all the same, but still great as it is. Haven't seen many of these done at night, so these are all top notch to me.

The one of the three cars all together seems too chopped off in the rear, not enough depth, but great great shot- just want to see more of the third, rear car.

Love the entire track encircled by light trails.

Way to go :)
More more!
B.

Thanks, I'm astonished.
I thought I'd just got Sticky, POTW as well - I've hit the big time !

The feedback form everyone here has helped me get this far, and the high opinion of these photos has made me a very happy bunny this week !

THANKS EVERYONE


Seriously, I set sticky as personsl target #1 for thie year
Then POTW as target #2
Getting published as #3
Finally selling a print as target #4

I'm well on the way !
Then my plan is to do it all again.

Thanks, Gary

POTW was totally unexpected.
Very gratefully received though :)

If I clone out that starter's post in the top left and repost, will the features phot get updated automatically?
Or shall I just post it in reply to the thread in the right place?

I didn't know you were a race fan, drop my on hy other two threads, GT and F3.
I hope you enjoy the ALMS, I know nothing about the circuit and positioning for the good shots, but as a fan I hope you have some knowledge of the track.
That will help you find the right spot for the overtaking moves.
I was toying wiht the idea of walking a lap of Silverstone but the weather put me off :(

What can I say about the light trails other than I'm just different?
My view is that the trailing headlight detracts from the body of the car, which is what I'm trying to photograph.

The problem with that first photo is that as the cars turn in for Copse (first corner) their headlights point away from the camera, so the cars on the straight appear brighter.
Also the GT cars have yellow headlamps, and the prototypes white, so there is a mix towards the rear of the field.

The three cars together was in retrospect too tight, I agree. It's tricky timing the cars in the corner and I wanted to get Allan McNish (one of my wife's favourites) while he was storming through the field after the first storm passed through.
I was shooting with the 100-400 at 400mm and F5.6 wide open.
If I could afford ?5000 ($7500) for the big glass, then I'd be able to shoot stopped down and possibly get better DoF.
But in thie case I like the separation of the front two cars.

I thought hard about htat light trails shot, I have several more but that was the best of the bunch, I thought.


You want more? Coming up !!

#1) TVR on the far side of the circuit.
Massively cropped about 1/8 frame on the 20D, 400mm lens, ISO1600 1/125 wide open

#2) It's a Porsche, honest!
I thought this was a reject but a friend of mine wanted it on his wall as a poster.
Totally off the wall, I tried panning at 1/3 second and with mirror lock up I'm surprised it was this close to on target !

#3) three wheels on his Saleen
A friend phoned me from his couch, watching the race on TV, to tell me that car was coming round on 3 wheels ! Thanks to MIke I got the shot.
Thanks to the 580EX from about 100 metres on full power I got to see the broken brake rotor as well under the rear arch.

#4) one of the light trail rejects
I decided the novelty of the safety car strobes didn't compensate for the overexposed grandstand in the background - was I right?

I thought about it a bit more, and that's the starter's gantry used for the F1 races.
Here (belatedly) is the cropped version, with that gantry removed.