Drag Racing

[Dean_Gretsch]

1 Ford vs Chevy

2 Fortuna Racing

3 Red and White

 

[SCraig]

Just my personal opinion, but I feel that you shot them with far too high a shutter speed. The last one was shot at 1/2500 second whereas I normally shoot drag races at 1/125 second to get motion blur in the wheels and background. Again, just my personal opinion. If you got what you wanted that's what counts.

 

[Braineack]

I agree, and the crops are too tight.

 

[Dean_Gretsch]

Just my personal opinion, but I feel that you shot them with far too high a shutter speed. The last one was shot at 1/2500 second whereas I normally shoot drag races at 1/125 second to get motion blur in the wheels and background. Again, just my personal opinion. If you got what you wanted that's what counts.

I agree, and the crops are too tight.

Thank you both! I am still very new to the world of DSLR photography, but I knew from reading posts and threads here that motion is something people expect and want in sports related pics. Yesterday was the type day where it was sunny one moment, cloudy, partially sunny and then full blown sun again for 2 minutes. The race was called for rain when I decided I had spent enough time there and had to leave to take care of the dog at home. I had my hands full trying to keep up with white balance settings and exposure, so my main concern was trying to keep focus and those 2 factors acceptable. I have a question for you if you care to think about this. Are wheel or background blur the only types wanted or can the torque wrinkles in the tires created by traction serve also? I did manage to get some of those ( by accident honestly ) if you look closely. I may have to look into the mentor program here for extended help.

 

[Derrel]

RE: "Yesterday was the type day where it was sunny one moment, cloudy, partially sunny and then full blown sun again for 2 minutes."

This is the type of conditions where, over the past few years, I've used AUTO ISO in Manual exposure mode on my Nikons...works well, keeps me at the desired shutter speed and desired f/stop, and moves the ISO up or down as needed to arrive at the correct exposure that I myself, pre-selected. With the perfortmance of newer-generation sernsors in good light outdoors, AUTO ISO shooting has become very viable among a number of different genres; bird in flight people use it a lot, I love it at the beach, where back-light,side-light,and front-light conditions can change withing a second or two, simply depending on what angle you've got the camera pointed.

BTW, I enjoy seeing torque wronkles in big drag slicks!

When you have to shoot in constantly-changing lighting or background conditions, AUTO ISO in Manual shooting modecan maintain the right speed and f/stop faster than a human can even think! That's what I love about it. If the pictures look too dark, just click in a bit of Plus-Exposure Compensation, if they are consistently too bright, then dial in a bit of Minus Exposure Compoensation.

 

[Dean_Gretsch]

RE: "Yesterday was the type day where it was sunny one moment, cloudy, partially sunny and then full blown sun again for 2 minutes."

This is the type of conditions where, over the past few years, I've used AUTO ISO in Manual exposure mode on my Nikons...works well, keeps me at the desired shutter speed and desired f/stop, and moves the ISO up or down as needed to arrive at the correct exposure that I myself, pre-selected. With the perfortmance of newer-generation sernsors in good light outdoors, AUTO ISO shooting has become very viable among a number of different genres; bird in flight people use it a lot, I love it at the beach, where back-light,side-light,and front-light conditions can change withing a second or two, simply depending on what angle you've got the camera pointed.

BTW, I enjoy seeing torque wronkles in big drag slicks!

When you have to shoot in constantly-changing lighting or background conditions, AUTO ISO in Manual shooting modecan maintain the right speed and f/stop faster than a human can even think! That's what I love about it. If the pictures look too dark, just click in a bit of Plus-Exposure Compensation, if they are consistently too bright, then dial in a bit of Minus Exposure Compoensation.

Thanks very much! For quite awhile I was using Auto ISO almost 100% of the time. I was also shooting in AP and got some " decent " ( by my standards anyway! ) photos but wanted to return to total manual control to experiment and continue my meager learning experience. I shall try to keep all suggestions in mind for future reference.
Again, thanks to all that take the time to respond and help!

 

[Derrel]

I hear what you are saying...but in my book, in situations like yours, the only relevant manual control is 1) the selection of shutter speed to convey the right kind of motion rendering and 2)since you are at fairly long distance, just picking a "medium f/stop", since at over 30 meters, f/stop will be a very minimal concern on a DOF/subject band that is just two drag track lanes deep; you could use f/5.6 or f/6.3 or f/8, and it would not make much difference.

Still, I do understand wanting to experimwent and learn and to be in complete control of all the parameters. I have been shooting in AUTO ISO a lot lately, but there are times when I do step outside of it, and take full command over everything.

 

[SCraig]

In most classes, Top Fuel and Fuel Funny Car being the exceptions, the "Torque Wrinkles" disappear as soon as the tire comes up to speed. The fuel cars have so much power they distort them from the beginning of the run to the end. Here are a couple of comp cars similar to those you were shooting and you can see that the torque wrinkles go away completely about mid track:

The fuel cars will distort them all the way down the track. I've seen slow-motion video of them at the top end (although I've never been able to capture any stills) and it's amazing how those tires are distorted. Best I've got is Steve Torrence at about the 330' mark: