Road Photo

Racing season is upon us and I want to be able to take the best photos possible. I used my Canon Rebel Ti with a Tameron 75 - 300 lense.
Comments welcome.

To be honest, roadracing is the hardest thing I've ever shot. They're so fast, you're so close, and there's so little to focus on. And this is coming from someone who's shot motorcycle roadracing and car racing. They're easy compared to professional bicycle roadracing.

Looking at this photo, the first thing you need to do it work on your panning technique. What shutter speed did you use for this? What is your panning technique? For a photolike this, I would pre-focus on the pavement where I want to shoot, set the shutter speed for 1/125th, start my pan way back, and fllow through well after I squeezed the shutter release.

I gotta agree. Car racing is incredibly easy to shoot compared to bikes. The fact that you don't have to think about exposure so much does allow you to use more creativity in composing the shot etc, so it's kinda relaxing and nice..

I had a bit of mixed success this weekend...
I set to 1/125 and prefocused. I found that group shots were harder because I prefocused in the middle of the road but some of the riders we closer. What do you guys think?

Thanks

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Shane Young
www.oregonvelo.com

When you see this picture, you can tell it is a drag race to the finish. Unfortunately, unless you are on the motorcyle in front it's very hard to get that perspective.

If you shooting a criterium, head for the slowest corner that they go through, pre-focus (manual focus only), and get ready to pan. A good flash, and slow-sync will make the cyclist pop out. Road racing pictures from the road are not usually very good unless you go to the top of the big hill.

The picture attached was taken with a N80, Sigma 28-135 @35mm, with Velvia 50 (pushed to asa 80)

Out of two rolls I got about 5 decent pictures. It's very very very low percentage shooting but the ones that do are really cool.

Loren

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Photo-John

They're easy compared to professional bicycle roadracing..

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I made a typo in this. I meant, professional "motorcycle" roadracing.

The main reason is that the relative speed is so much faster, because your're so close. And because there's so little to focus on.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Photo-John

To be honest, roadracing is the hardest thing I've ever shot. They're so fast, you're so close, and there's so little to focus on. And this is coming from someone who's shot motorcycle roadracing and car racing. They're easy compared to professional bicycle roadracing.

Looking at this photo, the first thing you need to do it work on your panning technique. What shutter speed did you use for this? What is your panning technique? For a photolike this, I would pre-focus on the pavement where I want to shoot, set the shutter speed for 1/125th, start my pan way back, and fllow through well after I squeezed the shutter release.

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Hehehehe, Hey John, try shooting the USAC Silver Crown series when they race at the Indiana State Fairgrounds. These guys are flying through the corners at 90 MPH 2 to 3 feet from you with only a two and a half foot (if that) steel baricade between you. Not only is it extremly challenging but the sounds, smells and feeling the air blowing past you and the ground shaking as the cars going by is simply unreal. You can't imagine it, or the rush, especially at feature time when 24 of them are flying around for 100 laps.
The only thing better might be the start of the Little 500, 33 sprint cars starting three wide on a high banked 1/4 mile track, of course the other 499 laps are pretty wild too!
John

When shoot road racing or cyclocross, everyone knows they are going fast.. I look for expressions of pain on the riders faces.. ;)

http://images4.fotki.com/v41/photos/...003_135-vi.jpg

Or, I try for a shot that is not standard riding.. like here, unclipping in a corner while trying to stay online...

http://images4.fotki.com/v47/photos/...003_161-vi.jpg

Some folks though, like Mike, always want to look at the camera!

http://images3.fotki.com/v36/photos/...003_167-vi.jpg