Continental Tire Sports Car Festival

[tecboy]

Feedback?
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[Braineack]

Honestly I think these are a bit boring and I don't like the crops. What shutter speed? Around 1/250? Try getting it down to 1/40, that really exaggerates the bg and blurs the wheels, but it takes a ton of practice.

I took this at 1/80:

The problem I have with taking pictures of cars on the track is ending up with an interesting/dynamic picture and being able to show off action.

 

[KmH]

I take it that is Laguna Seca (Mazda Raceway).
As a driver, other than the 'corkscrew' (turn 8, 8a) I never cared much for that track.

I agree they are cropped a bit to tight top to bottom, but are OK left to right in that there is a bit of room in front of the cars giving them space to 'move'.
I get the impression they are all somewhat under exposed, and a bit blue (white balance).

The quartering shots, like 1, 2, & 5, that show some of the front of the car are more interesting.

Without credentials it's hard to be in the best shooting spots, like shooting at the angle from corner exit track out back towards the corner entry braking zone and shooting a burst as the car negotiates a corner.

As mentioned using a slower shutter speed and panning blurs the background more and lets the car's wheel blur more, both helping to convey the sense of speed.

Feedback?
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View attachment 60080

I corrected the white balance and exposure, boosted the mid tone contrast a bit, bumped the Vibrance a tad, sharpened just the car a bit, and added a narrow black border.

 

[SnappingShark]

I agree, they look a bit dull without the movement/motion being portrayed correctly in the background, rather than just a blur.

My favorite is number 5 though!

 

[lambertpix]

Not bad; #5 is probably my favorite -- it seems about the sharpest of the lot. FYI, the shutter speed needed to show motion is somewhat relative to the speed of the car -- I've got shots at 1/250 that show a fair amount of b/g blur because the car was hauling a$$. Believe it or not, the design of the wheels seems to make a difference, too -- some "disappear" better than others. There are some good points here about technique and story-telling, too, and KmH is right about it being really tough to shoot at some tracks without credentials. I love Road America, but Mid Ohio's only got a couple of decent spots, and Indy is *really* difficult with all the fencing they've got up.

 

[Braineack]

True, there's some rule of thumb I've heard, like if the car is going 40mph, use 1/40, if it's going 80mph, try 1/80.

I still got pretty good stuff at 1/125, but any higher and it was obvious and lacking.

this was my first attempt at panning and this was 1/250:

then again, 1 year later same event and same spot at 1/40:

just a much more interesting photo if you ask me. It really looks like that locost is hauling ass, where the EVO looks stationary. I try whatever I can to get track pics to look interesting; otherwise, I'm pretty disappointed in them when I cycle through thousands of the same shot over and over with just different cars in the frame.

The only place that could be useful for me is if I was selling them to the drivers, which at most tracks there's usually a vendor doing just that.

 

[tecboy]

Thanks guys for the feedbacks. When you guys talked about credentials, what is that mean? Yep, these photos are shot in Laguna Seca (Mazda Raceway). Each shots are 1/250. I don't know about lower than 1/80. These cars are pretty fast, and it is hard keep the camera steady at that low shutter speed.

 

[12sndsgood]

When they say credentials it's the same as a media pass. meaning your out on the track versus being up in the stands. If I have to be up in the stands i'll usually just leave the camera in the bag.

 

[lambertpix]

I don't know about lower than 1/80. These cars are pretty fast, and it is hard keep the camera steady at that low shutter speed.

Yup. It's tricky. I've heard that when you hit a golf shot just right, the "ping" is just fantastic. My shutter makes that noise on rare occasions. ;-)