Racing composition question...

[brmill26]

For you guys who shoot car racing and the like, does the rule of thirds still apply to action shots? I was looking over my photos from this weekend's autocross, and almost all of them are center-framed. But, to my eye, if I crop it more to a thirds shot, it just looks strange. Specifically I'm speaking of panning-type shots where I'm at or near fully broad side to the cars. I have a few going/coming shots that are off center that look great.

Plenty of examples here: http://www.zooomr.com/photos/bthed19/sets/28548/


Also, after cropping nearly every image, I definitely have zoom lense envy :-/

[SmartWombat]

Yes, though less than you might think for publication.
Top end magazines like F1 Racing publish fantastic art shots of the racing, which other magazines don't have space for in their news coverage.
There's definitely a difference between shooting for weekly motorsport, or the newspapers, or something monthly (or once per-race) that has more in depth coverage, more pages, and more space for images.

I think that if possible you should bear in mind that the car needs space in front, so you have somewhere for it to be going to in the image.
And unless you have a position that puts the action square centre on the track it won't be as effective centred in your image, either.

As well as lens envy, consider using a different focus point. I pick the focus point to get the composition I want while retaining AF. It's not possible to tell exactly what's going to happen, but on the right corner you know there will be some overtaking and can plan accordingly.
I have the luxury of lots of good fast focus points with a 1D, but even with the 20D I will use the corner points to focus on the car overtaking on the outside, or the car slipping through on the apex as someone runs wide.

If you have a choice for your photos, unless it's for special effect like backlighting an evening or morning shot, get up-sun of the car.

[brmill26]

Thanks, Paul. The way that particular course was setup, I was stuck on the shadowed side almost everywhere. But normally they run more of the course in the other direction, so hopefully as the season goes on I'll get in some better positions.

That's exactly the sort of advice I was looking for. Thank you very much.

[adamsti]

I do use center point some, for tight driver shots, but most of the time I use the bottom focus point to keep the car in the bottom of the frame. I also take a lot of pics where part of the car is cut off, some don't like this though.

[brmill26]

Thanks, Tim. I'll try some of that too. I looked through some of your gallery, you have some fantastic shots there.

[SmartWombat]

Some shots I use the top focal point, for example in an attempt to get the driver of a single seater framed in the focal point and so actually get the car in the frame

If you get a position in the live pits (rare) then try a slow shutter speed like 1/125 or 1/60 and use the bottom left focus point and pan with that centred on the front wheel. Takes practice but you get very spectacular effects.

[tufcat]

I am an amateur photographer and a hack. I take race photos for fun and do not know what the “professional” standard is. With that being said, take these comments for what they are worth.

Mostly, I find myself focused on the individual car and not on the race itself. Since my D50 has only 6mp of resolution, I find myself trying to fill the frame for most shots. I always use a center focus and I take a lot of bad shots.

In the photos that I print or share on the web, I always crop the photograph. Almost always, the subject was originally centered (or intended to be centered) when the photo was taken. I do have some finished photos that I cropped, as Paul described, so as to leave the subject someplace to go (in the photograph). In every case though, the composition is the result of post processing (cropping) and not in the way that I framed the shot when it was taken.

I almost always shoot racing photos with center focus and the subject centered in the viewfinder. I do not try to frame action photographs (I am not that good) though I may consider how I want to present a particular photo and adjust focal length to allow enough room for strategic cropping.