Drag Racing Pictures, need help...

[GrantH]

Okay, so I went to the drag strip today to practice taking photos of cars as they were launching and I can say I am absolutely disappointed. I thought I was doing well as they were showing up in camera fairly decent but once I put them on the computer they look horrible. All of these are SOOC, and I think a couple are fairly decent, i'm looking to understand why the difference in quality... I don't need OOF/under or over exposed/bad composition comments..I want to know why vividness and quality are so inconsistant. Each photo has EXIF listed with it.

1. I think this one is fairly decent, obviously the person in frame and guard rail could be lost but those are things I can't control at our local track. The signs are obviously blown out, but again, not sure what to do about that because the rest would seem under exposed then...I think.

Lens = 50/1.8
Exposure Time = 1/640"F Number = F6.3
Exposure Program = Aperture priority
ISO Speed Ratings = 100
Metering Mode = Partial
Focal Length = 50mm
Exposure Mode = Auto exposure
White Balance = Auto white balance

2. This one is not near as vivid or colorful as the one above, it seems everything is kind of drowned out or more towards unsaturated. I don't know if there was maybe some lingering smoke, or my settings were off, but I tried to stay partial metering, AF on center point either one shot of servo, and Av or Tv. Suggestions?

Lens = 18-55/3.5-5.6
Exposure Time = 1/200"
F Number = F8
Exposure Program = Aperture priority
ISO Speed Ratings = 100
Metering Mode = Partial
Focal Length = 55mm
Exposure Mode = Auto exposure
White Balance = Auto white balance

The only thing I can think of is the smoke, which would put an obvious haze on the photo, but the 50mm photo is so much clearer. Maybe someone can help, or maybe verify it was the smoke most likely.

 

[gsgary]

2 different lenses will never produce the same results, put a lens hood on either lens and you will get more ccontrast. But both aree shot from very boring angles

 

[GrantH]

The 18-55 had a lens hood and the 50mm literally has one built in. The angle is as interesting as you can get. The paid (i guess) photographer was 50 feet or so ahead of the cars, theres a chain link fence 20 feet off the track, and no grand stands other than 10 or so rows of high school bleachers.

I realize two lenses will not produce the same picture, but the colors are far off from correct on the second image. Surely something other than "different" lenses can be attributed to that.

 

[gsgary]

The 18-55 had a lens hood and the 50mm literally has one built in. The angle is as interesting as you can get. The paid (i guess) photographer was 50 feet or so ahead of the cars, theres a chain link fence 20 feet off the track, and no grand stands other than 10 or so rows of high school bleachers.

I realize two lenses will not produce the same picture, but the colors are far off from correct on the second image. Surely something other than "different" lenses can be attributed to that.

Prime lenses usually produce better images but most people likke zooms for versitility, i'm a big prime man except 70-200 and 24-70

 

[SCraig]

It's not that easy. Been there, done that

My guess is that your camera metered on something different between the two shots, but I'm not sure what "Partial" metering means. The second one is slightly more exposed than the first, probably due to the large area of black track in it.

Hints:
Lose the aperture priority and use shutter priority. Shutter speed is more important that aperture shooting something that fast.

Watch the tree, just like the drivers. Nothing much is going to happen until it starts to count down and then hang on.

 

[GrantH]

It's not that easy. Been there, done that

My guess is that your camera metered on something different between the two shots, but I'm not sure what "Partial" metering means. The second one is slightly more exposed than the first, probably due to the large area of black track in it.

Hints:
Lose the aperture priority and use shutter priority. Shutter speed is more important that aperture shooting something that fast.

Watch the tree, just like the drivers. Nothing much is going to happen until it starts to count down and then hang on.

Killer shot SCraig!

Partial is sort of like spot metering but a larger area. Something between 10 and 15% of the total frame. I probably should have spot metered the cars paint. Can anyone confirm/correct that?? I shot a few in shutter mode, i'll have to dig those out. I was also watching the tree as a lot of them were getting their front wheels off the ground at launch, but they seem to be dull like the second picture. I'll dig through and post a couple.

 

[SCraig]

Killer shot SCraig!

Partial is sort of like spot metering but a larger area. Something between 10 and 15% of the total frame. I probably should have spot metered the cars paint. Can anyone confirm/correct that?? I shot a few in shutter mode, i'll have to dig those out. I was also watching the tree as a lot of them were getting their front wheels off the ground at launch, but they seem to be dull like the second picture. I'll dig through and post a couple.

OK, I'm with you now. Nikon just refers to it as "Center Weighted" but I suspect it's about the same; somewhere between Matrix (full view) and Spot.

The BEST way to handle insuring consistency between shots is to meter a middle gray subject (the palm of your hand works fine in a pinch) and then shoot in Manual mode using the exposure that was metered. When you let the camera make decisions it doesn't realize that you need consistency from shot to shot and meters every shot individually. That's what caused your second shot to be slightly lighter than your first shot.

I personally don't worry a lot about it. If a shot needs to be lightened or darkened to match other shots I handle that in post processing.

Edit ... Do you mind if I edit your photos slightly to show you something?

 

[GrantH]

Go for it, i'd love to see some editing on them.

 

[Robin Usagani]

Grant, sometimes getting close to the car is not always the answer. I would go far enough where 250mm would pretty much chop the car in half and maybe do some panning.

 

[SCraig]

Go for it, i'd love to see some editing on them.

Thanks. This is a classic example of metering errors.

As I'm sure you know, camera meters don't "See" in color. All they are interested in are the luminance values (which is really all that the sensor itself provides) and they ignore the chroma values. In other words they basically "See" in black and white, and use the values to adjust the overall data so that it is middle gray.

Here's your first image. The red cross is at the approximate center of the view which would correspond to the center of the metering area. As you can see most of the center of the image is already close to middle gray so the camera didn't have to compensate much. Maybe lighten it a little, but not much.

Below is the second shot, and once again the red cross is close to the center of the image. As can be seen most of that area is much darker than the first shot so the camera compensated by lightening the entire image so that area matched middle gray. The result was an overall slightly overexposed image.

A quick darkening of the image brought things back down closer to where they should really be.

 

[GrantH]

I see what you're saying, and it makes perfectly good sense. I will see about getting a gray card and learning how to use it. I'd really like to be able to (competently) shoot all types of automotive shots.

I particularly liked this shot because the smoke was wrapping around the tire before completely engulfing the staging lane.

Here is an edit I just did in LR of the same image you edited.


IMG_9995 by FlatRockerPhotos, on Flickr

 

[SCraig]

Here is an edit I just did in LR of the same image you edited.

Great edit. It looks much better that way in my opinion.

Edit ... Forgot to mention that the shot I posted of Tony Schumacher was taken at the NHRA Arizona Nationals in October. There are some more Here if you'd like to look at them. They are they first photos I've shot at a top fuel event for about 35 years and it was most assuredly a learning experience I found out that shooting drag cars is not that easy!

 

[GrantH]

Here is a couple more I took. One panning, one wheelstand at the line. I like both, though I may have over-contrasted/saturated the panning picture.

1.
Lens = 18-55 f/3.5-5.6
Exposure Time = 1/80"
F Number = F20
Exposure Program = Shutter priority
ISO Speed Ratings = 200
Metering Mode = Partial
Focal Length = 45mm



IMG_0029 by FlatRockerPhotos, on Flickr


2.
Exposure Time = 1/125"
F Number = F14
Exposure Program = Shutter priority
ISO Speed Ratings = 100
Metering Mode = Partial
Focal Length = 55mm



IMG_0067 by FlatRockerPhotos, on Flickr

 

[GrantH]

Why are these not posting correctly? I'm doing them off Flickr like I did the first edit shot. That one works...these don't.

Edit: They finally are showing. Must have been a glitch.