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Hi all,

I have the good fortune to go to a Formula One race in Canada next month after we do the Americade bike rally in NY (my work). I am a novice to the DSLR world, but would like very much to at least capture a few good shots of the race. Can some of you seasoned photographers give me some advise on how to shoot this event so that hopefully I come away with a few good shots.

In my signature is what i have to work with. Suggestions on how to set camera for this type photography, needed accessories that I could use to enhance what I have. I am not sure of where I will get seats or how far i will be from the action.

Thank you for your help.

D70 friend,
Wilbur

you can have a look at some of my pics on my sig for inspiration,
but i think it really depends on the track itself.
being able to identify good spots on the track without too much compromise to such things like:
sun position,
danger of flying debry or cars.
the amount of angles the position gives.
which way the cars are racing
is there anything interesting at these points e.g car that heads into s turns and car lifts up its entire left side would be more interesting than long straights.

if you haven't been there before checkout any footage of perious races
helps with looking for camera angles.

redline wrote:you can have a look at some of my pics on my sig for inspiration,
but i think it really depends on the track itself.
being able to identify good spots on the track without too much compromise to such things like:
sun position,
danger of flying debry or cars.
the amount of angles the position gives.
which way the cars are racing
is there anything interesting at these points e.g car that heads into s turns and car lifts up its entire left side would be more interesting than long straights.

if you haven't been there before checkout any footage of perious races
helps with looking for camera angles.

Thank you redline, I will keep your suggestions in mind when I get there. Hopefully I will be able to walk around and get some good shots and angles. I also enjoyed viewing your site!!!

D70 friend,
Wilbur

Wilbur,

Montreal is a pretty flat track, so unless you're going to be high up in a stand, you're going to have to be resigned to shooting through the fence. this is ok, get as close as you can (usually about 1 m) and use DOF to your advantage. The 18-70 will be useful for panning shots, but you'll need the length of the 200 mm to get more static shots. You'll probably need a shutter speed of around 1/1000 s to freeze a F1 car side on (depending on where you're shooting from).

Pray for bright sunlight, because at those shutter speeds you're either going to have to shoot wide open (probably sub-optimal on that lens) or up the ISO. I usually try to stay below ISO400, but if it's a choice between not getting the shot and upping the ISO, you may have to up it a bit. You can also choose to shoot at chicanes and slow corners, which will ease the shutter speed requirements a bit. Probably the hairpin, and the final chicane would be good spots, but I haven't been to the track in person so I don't know what sort of obstacles are there.

Hope that helps!

I'm thinking that you may need a bit more reach than your lenses give you, but you should also check with the circuit to see what restrictions they may place on the glass that you're permitted to use. In Melbourne, for instance, they don't permit anything longer than 200mm.

Not that that little detail stopped us but it's handy to know what the rules of engagement will be.

I like to be on a corner location, with the cars coming towards me, slowing for the corner, and then turning away. In Melbourne this year we had great seats with two corners' views, plus the tail view of the start-finish straight.

In Monza I've had a similar view of an approach to a corner, and then the cars took a left hander and then a right hander and then off into the sunset.

Be wary of getting a position along a straight; these cars are extremely fast, and if you've not yet experienced F1 racing, the dynamics are quitre incredible; one quick whoosh and they're gone! Remind me later and I'll check a map of the circuit and suggest some seating points.

For those who are interested, (and who've not been keeping up) we're very seriously looking at doing Malaysia next year instead of Melbourne. The total cost will be about the same as flying to Melbourne for the weekend; for us this is no longer an exercise in costing, as I've made some tentative hotel bookings this morning.

Hi MCWB,

you're going to have to be resigned to shooting through the fence. this is ok, get as close as you can (usually about 1 m) and use DOF to your advantage.

Can you elaborate on DOF and the fence. Are you saying pre-focus the point of the pic as if the fence is not there? Or am i missing your point?

Pray for bright sunlight, because at those shutter speeds you're either going to have to shoot wide open (probably sub-optimal on that lens) or up the ISO.

I will start praying for bright sunlight now... I am assuming you are shooting in Manual mode? Meaning i would set aperture to 3.5, shutter at 1000 and ISO 400?

You mentioned that that 18-70 would come in handy for panning shots. Hopefully I can be close enough that the car will not look like a tiny toy because of distance.

Can I use the 28-200 for panning or is that not a good thing?

D70 friend,
Wilbur

Hi Gstark,

Remind me later and I'll check a map of the circuit and suggest some seating points.

I would be very interested in seeing a map and your suggestions.

Hopefully with the help of MCWB, you and others that may chime in I will get a few shoots worth sharing.

D70 friend,
Wilbur

Wilbur,

KingCobra54 wrote:Hi MCWB,

you're going to have to be resigned to shooting through the fence. this is ok, get as close as you can (usually about 1 m) and use DOF to your advantage.

Can you elaborate on DOF and the fence. Are you saying pre-focus the point of the pic as if the fence is not there? Or am i missing your point?

Certainly pre-focus as if the fence is not there, but yes, you're also missing Trent's point.

As you get closer (physically) to the fence, but continue focussing on a point some distance beyond the fence, you can see that the DoF for the region that you're focussing on effectively excludes the area where the fence might be from being in sharp focus.

But wait: there's more.

The closer you are to the fence, the more out of focus the fence's components become, to the point where they can almost be rendered as invisible.

You can possibly try this on, perhaps, a vacant children's playground or school, or some other area that's enclosed by a chain wire fence. Move up close to the fence, but focus on a subject in the distance, making sure that the fence is in the way. Have a look at the images, noting the lack of clarity of the fence.

Pray for bright sunlight, because at those shutter speeds you're either going to have to shoot wide open (probably sub-optimal on that lens) or up the ISO.

I will start praying for bright sunlight now... I am assuming you are shooting in Manual mode? Meaning i would set aperture to 3.5, shutter at 1000 and ISO 400?

Try to not have too many preconceptions of what you're going to be doing, but rather hjave a set of scenarios that you can draw upon, depending upon the conditions for each day, and noting that the conditions can and do change throughout the day.

As a genral rule, remember that most lenses perform best stopped down a notch or two, rather than wide open, so if your lens has a maximum aperture of, say, 5.6, look to shoot at f8 - f11.

If you're shooting cars coming towards you, 1/500 should be fine; you'll need a faster shutter speed if they're moving from one side (of you) to the other.

Shoot raw, and use large CF cards of 40x (or faster, but faster makes no difference at shooting time).

Here's a general map of the Montreal circuit ...



And this one has some stand locations. I don't think it's a full diagram, but it's a start.



I'd be looking at the following location, in no particular order ...

Silver 12
Silver 15
Silver 24

Bronze 33
Bronze 31.

In each case you should have a view of the cars coming towards you, braking, and then into the corner directly ahead of your seat.

The yellow bits are the superscreens, very handy to have one nearby.

Looks like Gary has said it all. Here's a map of the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve (although it's a bit old, still has the chicane in the back straight...):



This gallery has shots presumably from Silver stand 12, which will be a nice slow place to shoot from. I'd suggest searching the web for more such galleries, let us know if you can't work out where a particular shot was taken from.

Looks to me like most of the silver stands (except 16) will be good to shoot from, especially the final hairpin.

MCWB wrote:Looks to me like most of the silver stands (except 16) will be good to shoot from, especially the final hairpin.

Hi MCWB,

Thank you for the link!!! How far were you from the cars when taking the panning shots? and did you have a special pass to get this close to the cars and drivers?

D70 friend,
Wilbur

Unfortunately I've never been to Montreal! Not my photos I'm afraid, so I can't help you there, but it looks like they're taken from the Silver 24 stand side of the hairpin, looking at the braking area into the hairpin.

It looks like you can get above the fence if you're sitting high up in Silver 12 at the very least, probably other stands as well, getting above the fences is always a bonus!