Racing Pics

[wull]

Bought a D40 55 - 200 VR last year for taking photos of my nephew who races bikes.
I am a complete novice. Here is a few of the better ones. Any comments on how to take them better would be appreciated










http://www.minimotoracer.com

[BFiredup]

awsome shots....great focus...

[retroactiv]

I agree these shots are great, post some more of them. What is your setup when shooting them, it seems on a couple that there is some grain, This could be because you are using a high ISO which you shouldn't be or you are using photoshop to zoom into your shots rather than a longer lens.

[wull]

Thanks for the comments, Chris i am just starting out so sport mode for most, when i play about with the settings most come out blurred like the last one here
I have put a few more up below, if anyone can advise on the best settings ie shutter speed etc i would be grateful

[SmartWombat]

The last two photos, I think you need practice that's all.

Last one, the shutter speed of 1/320 is just right.
The wheels are blurred, but not to the point the spokes disappear.
But it looks like you have two problems, the panning and the focus.
Are you using the AF--C continuous autofocus?
Are focussing manually on the part of the track you expect them to ride on ?
(that black line would be good)

The second one, at 1/800 second ought to be sharper.
But is it a fast corner?
Looks again like the focus couldn't keep up.

Panning just needs practice.
The key is to keep the subject (usually the face in the helmet) in the focus rectangle the whole time, before the photo, while you take the photo, and afterwards.

If you don't follow through but stop after taking the photo, there is more chance that you'll jerk the camera at the instant the camera takes the picture - there is always a lag (usually very short with a DSLR) and it's that instant whe you think "phew! I caught it" and stop concentrating when it can go wrong.

Oh and relax.
I know it's hard to do when you know there aren't many laps to go.
But you'll move smoother, and smoothness is the key.

I find corners are the best and worst spots.
On the entry to the corner they're braking, so you have to slow down your panning.
On the exit from the corner they're accelerating, so you have to pan faster.
It's a lot easier to begin with if you can catch them at constant speed - right on the apex of the corner is good.
Or of course on the straight but that's less interesting unless there's some overtaking

[JSPhoto]

As Paul said panning is tough to do and get it right, it takes lots of practice, The first year I did it I had 90 races to get it right, it didn't take that long but it took a month or so shooting almost daily to get it right for fast moving cars.
There are several threads here on panning, how to do it and get it right., how to do it with high shutter speeds and low shutter speeds, but nothing beats lots of practice. Your neighbors may think your a bit odd but you could stand outside and shoot cars as they drive past to get some practice, while doing it make sure that 1: your not moving the camera as you press the shutter button 2: your moving smoothly as you go from side to side 3: as Paul stated make sure you follow through just like the batter does in baseball.

Use the little "SEARCH" just above here (not the one at the top of the page) and type in "panning" and read those threads.
On a bright sunny day you should shoot around 800 shutter & ISO and use the Aperature to control your exsposure to get good shots with wheel blur.

JS

[JSPhoto]

Heres a good thread on panning....

panning - or how not to

JS

[SmartWombat]

Looking at the images again, I think you were fighting the lack of light.
The image in bright sunlight is a lot sharper (and you have grid access, great!).

I think the problems appear when you're using the lens at wide open aperture.
The 55 - 200 VR has aperture f/4 to f/5.6 across its zoom range.
It makes a difference to the shutter speed you can use, you have to use a slower shutter speed.
Or you have to push the ISO way up to 800 or even 1600, that makes the images noisy.

What I'm seeing in the images is that each time you use 200mm and f/5.6 the picture looks soft. Most lenses are not at their best wide open, you have to shut down the aperture to f/8 or even f/11 to get best sharpness and then you have very little light*.


It's also not sharp on a few images where there's no action, which makes me wonder if you're holding the lens steady enough. That also comes with practice, bracing your feet, holding the lens in your left hand, not supporting it from the body held in your right, tucking your left elbow in to brace the lens, steady breathing, squeezing the shutter, not stabbing at it. Again when the adrenaline's flowing and you want to get that one special shot it's easy to let it all go out of the window, relax !

The picture of the start with the marshal just out of shot surprises me, it's sharp, but appears not focussed on the #77 bike but way in front, almost on the left-most. I wonder if the marshal walked across the frame and the AF was trying to seek back to the bikes when you took the photo ?

Either you can manual focus, not autofocus.
Or you can check you're using the continuous (AF-C I think on a Nikon) not one-shot AF.
And finally use the dedicated AF button rather than the shutter button.
The AE-L/AF-L button can be used to focus the camera, and then when you let go it keeps that focus.
Different to the usual half-press of the shutter button but much more flexible.
Someone walks into view?
Lift your thumb off the AF button and then push it again after they've passed.
Want to focus on a point?
Use the AF-L button to lock focus on a spot on the track (pick something with good sharp contrast) and then leave it alone. The camera will keep tehe focus on that spot without you having to switch to manual focus.


______________________________________
* In the end I bought an expensive 70-200 f/2.8 IS lens (Nikon make a similar 70-200 f/2.8 VR) for trackside close-up work and an even more expensive 300 f/2.8 IS lens for further away. This can get very expensive if you take it seriously !

[wull]

Thanks for the comments and advice.
Unfortunatly living in scotland the amount of light is always a problem

This is one i took on a dull day at knockhill and even i can see the difference right away compared to the similar picture above which was took on a sunny day at mallory park



Quite liked this one but again a bit dark



Whilst looking through the thousands of pictures i took last year i found this one from WSB at brands hatch which i was a wee bit chuffed with



The nephew will be starting testing with his new bike in the coming weeks so i will put all your tips to the test and see if i can get the hang of it
Thanks again

[SmartWombat]

Keep practicing !

Your first photo of this last set, there's no reason why it shouldn't be in focus.
You've got a VR lens, you shot at 1/500 second.
Although it's at f5.6 if you had the camera steady and you used AF, his eyes are as near dead centre as I can guess. So they ought to be smack under the focus point.
So why is it so soft?
I'm baffled.

Second photo, like others at 55mm, is fine. Nice way to show someone out of the race, perhaps the marshals are moving his bike? Or is he just a spectator? Leaves me guessing while keeping the context of the race.

Last one, I'd like to see the full size image (please you can email it to me?) so I can see what's going on. It's almost sharp, but not quite. I can't tell why it's not looking right, and at 55mm other images with that lens look sharp. There must be something going on (I can guess what it is) and I want to be sure I'm right before I put my foot in it.


I'm wondering with so many photos at 200mm looking soft, whether it's worth setting up the camera on a tripod and trying a shots on a nice overcast day (isn't it always?) to see if you can reproduce it when zoomed out to 200mm at f/5.6 - turn VR off while on the tripod. Then try it hand held on the same subject this time with VR on.
Compare the pictures and see if they are sharp.

I read in a review that the lens doesn't have a panning mode switch like my Canon lenses, but there's smarts in the system all the time that turns off the VR in the horizontal direction when it detects you're panning.
So unless you turned off the VR switch the lens will always work with panning.

My Canon lens, if I forget to put it into mode 2, will be trying to freeze the horizontal and vertical motion and work against my effort to pan if it's in mode 1. It's so easy to knock the buttons when getting stuff out of the bag that I have to double-check all the switches before I start shooting. Sometimes I even find the AF is off and that can be a real pain with my eyesight trying to focus manually just to get a shot before there's a break in the action for me to turn AF on.

[wull]

Picture sent to you PAul.

The guy took me by suprise on the third one and i just got a quick click as he past so i would imagine user error

[adamsti]

Want to get ideas? Google Andrew Wheeler Photography. One of the finest motor bike photogs out there.

[wull]

One of the finest right enough Tim, Some excellent photos there.