My 12 Hours of Sebring 2014 Photos

cheshirecat79 · Mar 24, 2014

Hey guys, I'm looking for some critique of some photos I took at this event. I made several screwups during the trip:

- Shot on jpeg for half the trip and just about flipped out when I noticed
- Shot on 1600 ISO in the middle of the day (setting from the night before) during the closeups of the cars turning into the paddock

The pics were taken on an old 8mp Canon Rebel XT. I rented a 70-200 2.8L for the telephoto shots and swapped between the kit 18-55 and a 50 1.4 for the rest of the closer shots.

I'm trying out different ways of trying to make cars look more interesting than "there's another car going down the track", hence the angles and different crops. Also, in an effort to pull the subjects out from the background, I'm dropping the exposure of many shots about half a stop down then masking off the vehicle so I can then even out the exposure for the subject, expand the midtones a bit, and bring up the shadows so you can see the different curves/details in the darker portions of the bodywork. I may also drop the exposure of some foreground/background elements to try to keep them a little less distracting.

I use Lightroom as much as I can with Photoshop filling in the rest.

Anyway, please let me know how I can improve- any criticism is welcome, whatever it may be. Thanks!

03-14-14 Sebring 12 Hours - robwoodham (two pages)

71M · Mar 24, 2014

I like most of the night ones. And the shot like the 6 series - Hezemans-Quester, where you fill the frame. Not so keen on the tilted compositions.

Designer · Mar 24, 2014

I like the photography, but I wish you had some text with each shot telling what car, owner, driver, etc.

cheshirecat79 · Mar 24, 2014

71M said:
I like most of the night ones. And the shot like the 6 series - Hezemans-Quester, where you fill the frame. Not so keen on the tilted compositions.

Yeah- I hear you. The angled shots were me trying to get something different out of the typical "it's a car going down the track" composition. Some definitely work better than others. Thanks for the feedback!

cheshirecat79 · Mar 24, 2014

Designer said:
I like the photography, but I wish you had some text with each shot telling what car, owner, driver, etc.

I'll add that into the album!

71M · Mar 24, 2014

cheshirecat79 said:
Yeah- I hear you. The angled shots were me trying to get something different out of the typical "it's a car going down the track" composition. Some definitely work better than others. Thanks for the feedback!

I know if you're really into motorsport, there so many cars you want to photograph; a skill is to be able to (picture) edit down to the very best imagery, for a wider audience. Night/motion, cornering, blur makes for some better shots imo.

runnah · Mar 24, 2014

Is it bad that my favorite car is the e30 m3?

CdTSnap · Mar 24, 2014

Love the one of the 370Z going into the corner with the wheel in the air, orsm!

cheshirecat79 · Mar 24, 2014

71M said:
cheshirecat79 said:

Yeah- I hear you. The angled shots were me trying to get something different out of the typical "it's a car going down the track" composition. Some definitely work better than others. Thanks for the feedback!

Click to expand...

I know if you're really into motorsport, there so many cars you want to photograph; a skill is to be able to (picture) edit down to the very best imagery, for a wider audience. Night/motion, cornering, blur makes for some better shots imo.

great advice- and I agree- thanks!

cheshirecat79 · Mar 24, 2014

CdTSnap said:
Love the one of the 370Z going into the corner with the wheel in the air, orsm!

haha- yeah, that corner has a bump plus it's a pretty hard turn- check this other practice gallery. tons of three-wheeled launched off of turn 7

02-21-14 TUDOR/Continental @ Sebring Practice - robwoodham

v4forlife · Mar 28, 2014

I like them. As a set, it captures the feeling pretty well, but I feel there are a lot of very 'samey' shots. The same shot, just a different car. I know it is difficult, I do motorcycles for endurance racing, so your 3/6/12/24 hr races do become very 'samey'. I did notice a few out of focus shots in there. How do you filter the shots?

Also, I have seen this done before, but if you can get to a vantage point where you can see multiple corners, maybe a view overlooking an entire chicane or group of Ss' and use a tripod and 30 sec exposure during the night portion, makes for something a bit different.

Overall, pretty nice.

hotdrop · Mar 28, 2014

I think your shots look excellent. I wish I could get good enough to one day capture shots that good.

cheshirecat79 · Mar 31, 2014

v4forlife said:
I like them. As a set, it captures the feeling pretty well, but I feel there are a lot of very 'samey' shots. The same shot, just a different car. I know it is difficult, I do motorcycles for endurance racing, so your 3/6/12/24 hr races do become very 'samey'. I did notice a few out of focus shots in there. How do you filter the shots?
Also, I have seen this done before, but if you can get to a vantage point where you can see multiple corners, maybe a view overlooking an entire chicane or group of Ss' and use a tripod and 30 sec exposure during the night portion, makes for something a bit different.
Overall, pretty nice.

Thanks for the feedback- you're definitely right that there isn't a lot of variation in the shots. I need to move around more and get some different subject matter. As far as filtering the shots (meaning filtering out bad shots?), I just use lightroom. If you mean actual physical filters, I don't use any. I have a variable ND filter that I'm starting to practice with, but I'm not quite there yet.

I think your shots look excellent. I wish I could get good enough to one day capture shots that good.

Thanks- these were the best to come out of the set. Believe me, there were a ton of bad shots. I'm trying to get a better grasp on two things- one, actually knowing the exact shot I'm trying to capture (a panning shot with good motion blur, for instance) and then understanding why the shot did or didn't work out as it applies to technique, settings, or gear.

TJC · Apr 24, 2014

My favorite car of the bunch was the 458 Italia. That was until I saw the 71 Pinto!

My Fav pix are the first 3 night shots and the two Mazda pans. These five shots, IMO, do the most to capture the essence of the event. The blurred lighting in the background of the night shots along with the glowing heat signature of the red hot brakes , off the hook image capture! As well the daytime pan shots show what racing is all about - speed!

No crit, but one thing i always look for in posted pix are the shot details, Focal length, shutter speed. AP setting and ISO. These are things i and others can use to better ourselves when attempting the same type of shots.

IMO, very well done!