Car shots - Lotus track day.

[Tommo]

Hi all,

Went to a track day at Wakefield over the weekend, my first track day. D70 with a Tamron 70-300mm lens.

Here's some of the shots, tell me what you think








I am reasonably happy with them, although I feel the backgrounds could be better, with apexs etc in them... but I found that from a spectator point of view, a 300mm lens is not quite long enough to fill the frame of them on the apex of a corner

What does everything think of them? Good, average, great, bad, shocking, terrible?

[bwhinnen]

Friend of mine was there at that track day, not sure which Lotus he was in (a friend of his owns one).

Overall they are good shots, did you find a lot of hit and miss with the 70-300? I know I do with my Nikon 70-300G and I wonder if a VR lens would help to hit more than miss, although practise and smooth movement really does help.

1. This is a good photo from this angle, but I have never really liked this angle, it doesn't give a really profound sense of movement. Although I can almost see the determination on the drivers face!

2. The armco distracts on the back of the car, I would perhaps have taken it from a higher angle. But it's a great photo, the car really does look good.

3. The shutter speed is too fast, it's frozen the car too much, although the body roll still indicates movement, but the stopped wheels (without tyre smoke) detracts too much for me.

4. This is what I love to see in my own photos. Focal point on the driver (or close to it). I've noticed I get the same problem of a loss of focus on the front of the car. Whether this is an Aperture too wide or just a bit of shake or even the movement of the front end of the car under movement, I'm not sure. Cars in the background are nicely blurred from a motion perspective.

5. Perhaps a bigger DOF on this to bring the Lotus further into focus, to me it seems that it should be more in focus than the Porsche, I don't know why though. The whole image also seems slanted, the body roll adds to it, but the track seems to slide away in the same direction, giving a feeling of everything slanting to the left.

6. Nailed it! To be very picky a bit of blur on the front right fender is there, but to me this is what I would be extremely happy to keep. This and #4 are my favourites.

Overall well done, would love to see your other photos as I have a keen interest in shooting motorsport events as well. If you want to have a look at some of my attempts as well I'd be happy to show them to you, from the first ones I took to those I am taking now.

Thanks for sharing.

Cheers
Brett

[Tommo]

Hi Brett,

Thank you very much for the tips and advice - it was actually my first track day, so I didn't really know what to expect. I'm at WSID almost every Wednesday night though So yeah, I was very much learning about what works and what doesn't (hence the "still" shot of that Exige), and what angles to get. I think next time I'll take a ladder so I can slightly look down at the cars, I think that effect would be quite nice.

Yeah, very much so re: 70-300mm lens. I find about 50% of the shots come out average, 20% are so so, and 30% are perfect clarity. I defintely got better with my panning by the end of the day though

I know exactly what you mean about the front of the car being slightly out of focus - I was hoping someone here could advise how to fix that actually, as it bothers me

I have already found myself being a bit limited by the Tamron 70-300, mainly in speed and colour reprodution. Nothing a bit of photoshopping can't fix, but yeah... I wish there was a middle lens, instead of my type lens to a $3.5k 70-200 with VR etc etc etc

Want me to post up some of my WSID shots in here too?

[terry]

Great shots Tommo - im a little biased as i love those little Exige

Favourite shot is the 4th one - love how the car looks dirty making it seem the race is serious, especially with the other 2 cars hot on its tail.

Just a off-topic question - Do you know what lap times the Exige's were getting? I have taken my own car to Wakefield a couple of times, and just wanted to compare rough times.

Cheers,

Terry

[MHD]

I like number 4... You can just feel those things going around the curve!
Great!

[coolpix]

I too like number 4. And yes like you said i have a hit and miss record with my Nikkor 70 - 300mm

[Joe]

Tommo,

I've used the Tamron 70-300 as a track day/race day lens for a couple of years with my film Nikons, and will begin using it with the D70 at our Alfa Romeo Owners of Oregon track day, March 5. (Hope it hasn't snowed that day!)

Your images are fine; I'm particularly envious since Portland spent this weekend having an ice storm. My primary suggestion would be to watch your backgrounds; people and other detritus in the background pull an image apart. And when reality forces distracting junk along the top of the frame, you can sometimes crop it out with software.

Tamron has a 1.4X dedicated telextender for the 70-300; I got one with my lens and it works very well. You'd be tight enough with that, I'd think. Much longer, and it becomes difficult to frame images, never mind defining your plane of sharp focus.

Although almost all the regular race photogs here shoot through the fence at track level, I like to get up top of the bleachers at favorite corners and isolate the car or cars against the track. Fast drivers are usually smooth, and showing their car alone, from track level, is unlikely to make a dramatic picture. But showing them in relation to other cars, perhaps in the corner with followers out of focus on the straight behind, lends a dynamic that implies what's going on out there. For that, I use the Tamron and extender, zooming back to get the horde in the first corner, then zooming out to pick out individual battles or dramatic events.

Peace,
Joe
My Alfa motto: Sono lento, ma sono brutto.

[gstark]

Joe,

Tommo,

I've used the Tamron 70-300 as a track day/race day lens for a couple of years with my film Nikons, and will begin using it with the D70 at our Alfa Romeo Owners of Oregon track day, March 5. (Hope it hasn't snowed that day!)

Now you've got my attention.

When we lived in Modesto, I was involved with the DS chapter of AROC; likewise, I was VP of the Dallas chapter when we lived there.

I'm still hosting the AROCA NSW website, being ex-secretary and ex-treasurer of that club, although we're moving the site to a commercial host within the next week or so.

Check my avatar, and if you visit my home page, you can see an image of my beautiful 105 series 2000 GTV, '72 model, with just 76000 original miles.

Guess what I drove into the office today, as it happens?

[bwhinnen]

I have already found myself being a bit limited by the Tamron 70-300, mainly in speed and colour reprodution. Nothing a bit of photoshopping can't fix, but yeah... I wish there was a middle lens, instead of my type lens to a $3.5k 70-200 with VR etc etc etc

Want me to post up some of my WSID shots in here too?

Yes I know what you mean, I'd like the 70-200VR just to be able to shoot later into the afternoon.

Also put up some shots from WSID, I love drags, here are some of mine from the Winter Nationals last year.

Cheers
Brett

[sirhc55]

Also put up some shots from WSID, I love drags, here are some of mine from the Winter Nationals last year.

Cheers
Brett

Hi Brett - went in and had a look at your pics - I particularly like the 2 shots of the blue bike.

A question tho’ - shot on Jan 1 2002! f/0! iso 100! How come you got your D70 before everyone else?

Chris

[bwhinnen]

Also put up some shots from WSID, I love drags, here are some of mine from the Winter Nationals last year.

Cheers
Brett

Hi Brett - went in and had a look at your pics - I particularly like the 2 shots of the blue bike.

A question tho’ - shot on Jan 1 2002! f/0! iso 100! How come you got your D70 before everyone else?

Chris

That's because I was lazy Whilst it's wonderful to have a gallery that can have all the EXIF information stored in a database it is rather time consuming to add it all in...

Cheers
Brett

[brembo]

Tommo, what camera settings did you use for the photos?

And like everyone else, I love photos #4 and #6. I'm sure I've seen that Orange Exige around this area before, it stands out like a sore thumb!

[mudder]

G'day,
There's plenty of advice and tips before me and I probably couldn't offer any good advice, so just wanted to say love #'s 4, 5 and 6... Wonder what #4 (dsc_46972) would look like with the following cars cropped out? Just wondering what that would do for the main subject...

#5 (dsc_44412) looks like a hunter coming up from behind the German stallion and #6 (dsc_4763) is simply awesome!

Great auto sport shots, thanks for sharing.

Cheers,
Mudder

[Tommo]

Tommo, what camera settings did you use for the photos?

And like everyone else, I love photos #4 and #6. I'm sure I've seen that Orange Exige around this area before, it stands out like a sore thumb!

Still shots, I actually just left in on sports mode. I was trying to figure what worked, and sports mode was the best for my level of understanding. For the blurred wheels effect, generally it was on Shutter Priority mode, around 1/160 sec shutter, ISO 200, Multi Pattern Metering (spot made the grass too bright or dark), and constantly adjusting focus.

Was my first day at a track with the D70, so I concentrated on my technique rather than the fine tuning of settings, knowing I can always adjust later on (I shoot in RAW).

I have a lot more pictures I'd love to post up for the track day, but I think I don't want to kill your computers

Here's an example of two WSID pictures I took last week.