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Had a great weekend at Ipswich raceway last weekend. Here are some pictures, my first attempt on DSLR.













Mel.

Well done Mel! Some great angles and really good effort on the shots!

Good timing on the flame shots too, although I do see a theme with all Fords though Was great to meet you over the weekend too.

Brett

Hi Mel, always good to see people shooting motorsports, beats everything else, hands down!

Image wise, like Brett says, your angles are good. Some pointers might help you to improve that little bit more.

1.

Good timing for the flame out, Holdens seem to rely on engine compression to brake more, or at least flame out more often. Best flame outs seem to come from the Perkins J.D. team. Typically aggressive drivers make it happen. If you are shooting the cars either front or rear on, then shutter speed doesnt matter. I.E. make it as fast as you can. There is no point having it to low, then the vehicle moves out of focus before the image is taken. Anywhere up to 1/600 is fine for this sort of image.

2.

Nice panning with the FPR car, and with a flame out, it really adds to the 'speed' on the image. Shutter speed is about bang on the money. Just a tip, cars with these types of rims are easier to get panning shots with, as the multiple arms of the rim blur easier than the 5 - 6 armed rims. If you find yourself struggling, you can up the shutter speed that little bit to improve sharpness. Having another car in the background also helps with making the image have a sense of speed.

3.

Good effort in three, a 3/4 pan with both cars flaming outs is nice. Obviously late afternoon, so the sun is very yellow, and the shadows long, which makes it difficult to get a well exposed shot. They seem to come out very warm and contrasty. You can work this to your advantage sometimes, but it really is a crap time of day to get shots. Try to set yourself up on the track so you can avoid shadows etc.

4.

Nice image. I would be tempted to crop tighter and lose the wall and grass in the bottom right. Again, with this image, you can have a fast shutter speed, DOF helps in isolating the car, rather then relying on panning.

Over all good effort. If I had to hazard a guess, I would say that you have been let down by your lens also. Is it a kit lens? maybe a 70-300? They tend to produce soft contrasty shots. I started out with one also, and the images have a very similar 'feel' to them. If you are considering motorsport (or any sport) maybe look into a Sigma 70-200 F/2.8 They are inexpensive, and produce exceptionally good results, on par with the Nikkor or Canon lenses of the same focal length.

Look forward to more images!

On point 1 above Alan, I'd just add even with the faster shutter speed still pan / follow the car through the corner, don't just stab at the shutter button as it comes into frame, allow your AF to lock on and keep on the subject.

Great Rookie effort Mel......cheers

Thanks for the feedback and tips - I will try them out at Phillip Island in September.
As far as lenses go, I think the ones I have were the standard lenses that came with the camera originally, which I bought second hand. The one I used for these photos was a sigma 28-200mm UC, the other one I have is a sigma 18-125mm DC??

Mel

Hi Mel, some great shots here. To be honest, they look quite soft on my monitor, but that's nothing to worry about. The colours are wonderful. If this is your first attempt at high speed sports photography, you have done exceptionally well.

If only you had captured Holdens...

Ozi

Thanks Ozi
I did attend Ipswich raceway last year with a standard digital camera, but a few days before the event my camera broke. I took a few shots but gave up as I could only use auto mode!
And Holdens - Ha!
No, I took shots of everything and lots of them.
I found after going through the shots of the better holdens, I wasnt really happy with them. They seemed a little out of focus and I didnt think the colour was great.





Mel

Are those last two images cropped at all Mel? The reason I ask is your dust bunny has moved locations

And the discussion we were having about metering, the camera is in pattern (or matrix) metering from the EXIF data. Althought he date and time on the camera are off.

With those two shots you could have gotten away with a faster Shutter speed as Alan mentioned earlier (with respect to the rims the cars have) and considering the speed they are going. From looking at the images I'd say you are only slightly off with your panning technique, and I mean that. You are -> <- that close to having these extremely sharp, job very well done, this is where we all started from if I am being completely honest, and I am sure the others will agree!

Brett

Very nice shots Mel, love the flames coming out from the car, keep them coming

very nice photos mel keep them coming