Anyone else shoot motorsports? (help me :))

[mrodgers]

The original post's photos, the bottom 2 are at ISO 800 and 1/2000 shutter. Simple, decrease the ISO a LOT, increase the shutter speed longer, and you can get some wheel blur while keeping the car in focus.

I think the bottom 2 shots are exposed too bright. The first shot looks better and has blur in the wheels. It was shot at ISO 100 and 1/640. Much better than the bottom 2.

 

[Jklersy]

thanks for the info on the filter, i will be sure to get a 2 and 3 stop for my bag. I love the pics you posted youngpic are really nice. I am goin to give that a try, and practice my panning tons this winter on my dog, lol.

 

[Ptyler22]

If you have photoshop, my favorite tool, which helps lots on cars, is this shadow/highlight tool. You can bring back the blown out things and get light in the shadows under the cars and such. I'll do a couple so you can see.

 

[Ptyler22]

 

[Ptyler22]

Oh, crap I just realized that most of those shots aren't yours. Well you can see how it works. If you have some shots that are slightly blown out, or some with dark spots, I can fix them. The tool is under Image, and then adjustments, its near the bottom. I recommend clicking show more options and playing around with the other options makes it possible to bring out more details

 

[Jklersy]

thanks, that looks good. I will be playing with PS more now. I guess PP is inevitable...

 

[RONDAL]

Adobe Camera RAW sounds like it might be able to help you. It's not as in depth as full CS3 but it will handle most of what you are looking for; adjusting exposure, highlights, recovery, shadows, blacks, contrast, etc.

You can then turn down the highlighted areas while enhancing the shadows to bring out the detail. It's built for RAW images but you can do jpgs with it as well, though RAW is always better for it.

I shoot some cars, not much racing, but some pretty high speed cruises and stuff. To get the wheels in motion you are going to want a slightly longer shutter speed to both blur the background and the wheels and show the motion. When standing still you can do this via panning with the cars to keep them sharp, and blur the background. I achieve my effects by shooting from a moving platform (ie. another car) most of the time.

 

[Jklersy]

Thanks for the info. I have CS2 and love shooting RAW, but I only have 2 2gig cards so that leaves me with around 300 pics. I dont own a laptop or portable pic HDD and when I travel to the races I am camping so I have to shoot jpg. I have noticed the price of those HDD are coming down so that might also help me.