NHRA Nationals

[PhoebeG]

A couple of photos from Friday's qualifying session in Indy.

Phil G.

[SmartWombat]

I'm impressed with the sharpness at 400mm and 1/60 how did you do it?
It's going to be hard to get off the start line, but I think you should try panning, as well as these stationary shots. So you get sharp car, blurred background - instead of the other way round.

[PhoebeG]

How can you tell what length I shot these with and the speed?

To answer your question, its a VR lens, and some PP with unsharp masking.

I posted a couple of other here that were panning efforts. One was in the sun but the other was at night and the results are pretty poor unless you like that "artsy" blurred look. Pretty disapointed in my ability to get any good panning shots.

Phil G.

[SmartWombat]

I like both of them.

[jetrim]

That dragster shot in the initial post has a very cool tilt-shift look to it, almost toyish.
While you may not be impressed with your panning ability, the funny car pan is spot-on, great shot! (far better than I could have done!)

[cm_mtb]

Nice shots, Phil. I can't see anything to complain about as far as your panning goes. #1 in your second post is perfect.

[SmartWombat]

I use Firefox browser with the EXIF viewer plugin.
It shows all the camera information embedded in the file.

# Exposure Time (1 / Shutter Speed) = 10/5000 second ===> 1/500 second ===> 0.002 second
# Lens F-Number / F-Stop = 56/10 ===> ƒ/5.6
# Exposure Program = normal program (2)
# ISO Speed Ratings = 100
# Exif Version = 0221
# Original Date/Time = 2009:09:04 13:36:07
# Digitization Date/Time = 2009:09:04 13:36:07
# Components Configuration = 0x01,0x02,0x03,0x00 / YCbCr
# Compressed Bits per Pixel = 4/1 ===> 4
# Exposure Bias (EV) = 0/6 ===> 0
# Max Aperture Value (APEX) = 45/10 ===> 4.5
Max Aperture = ƒ/4.76
# Metering Mode = pattern / multi-segment (5)
# Light Source / White Balance = unknown (0)
# Flash = Flash did not fire
# Focal Length = 980/10 mm ===> 98 mm
# User Comment (Hex) = 0x41,0x53,0x43,0x49,0x49,0x00,0x00,0x00,0x20,0x20, 0x20,0x20,0x20,0x20,0x20,0x20,0x20,0x20,0x20,0x20, 0x20,0x20,0x20,0x20,0x20,0x20,0x20,0x20,0x20,0x20, 0x20,0x20,0x20,0x20,0x20,0x20,0x20,0x20,0x20,0x20, 0x20,0x20,0x20,0x20
User Comment Character Code = ASCII
User Comment =
# Last Modified Subsecond Time = 40
# Original Subsecond Time = 40
# Digitized Subsecond Time = 40
# FlashPix Version = 0100
# Colour Space = sRGB (1)
# Image Width = 800 pixels
# Image Height = 533 pixels
# Image Sensing Method = one-chip color area sensor (2)
# Image Source = digital still camera (DSC)
# Scene Type = directly photographed image
# Colour Filter Array (CFA) Geometric Pattern = 0x00,0x02,0x00,0x02,0x01,0x02,0x00,0x01
# Custom Rendered = normal process (0)
# Exposure Mode = auto exposure (0)
# White Balance = auto (0)
# Digital Zoom Ratio = 1/1 ===> 1
# Focal Length in 35mm Film = 147
# Scene Capture Type = standard (0)
# Gain Control = n/a (0)
# Contrast = normal (0)
# Saturation = high (2)
# Sharpness = hard (2)

[OldClicker]

I use Firefox browser with the EXIF viewer plugin.
It shows all the camera information embedded in the file.

For Windows with IE, download Opanda. - TF

[PhoebeG]

Thanks for the info on the software to view the camera setttings. I use IE (just a habit) so I'll check out the Opanda. I've never seen so much data on settings even from my camera (probably there somewhere - right?).

Also thanks for the comments on the images. I love to shoot drag racing, unfortuantly I only get to do it once a year, (twice maybe if I can get to the Route 66 event in Chicago). This year I got Mike Neff to autograph a picture of his funny car that I took last year. I'm going to hang it next to John Force's autographed pic from the previous year.

I didn't catch a good photo of any of my favorites this year, so I guess no autogrpahs next year.

Here's the Mike Neff shot from last year.

Phil G.