[Closed] Photo folk

Most went in the bin but some were okay. Just wanted to ask if thats the norm?

Absolutely.

Some very nice shots there. Nice work.

I like the Mk1 Escort particularly, just needed a slightly wider aperture to pull the front into focus, but I'm nitpicking. The Mk2 is shiny too, better focus but less dynamic.

(I am no expert)

Nope, totally the same with me. Some nice pics there, not perfect, but hey - good captures nontheless.

Purists with their roll of ISOXXX B&W film will tell you it's all about making sure you have the perfect shot - and they may well be right to a certain extent and have far more skill than you or I, isn't that the beauty of digital though?

just needed a slightly wider aperture to pull the front into focus

This is the kind of stuff I know nothing about. 😳 I am aware of the front being out though. Just didn't know why, or how to fix it.

Im toying with going to a local camera club. But I'm scared they're all the kind of chap that's looking to shoot nudes!

I'd say 300 is probably quite restrained (in a good way) for a day of shooting action stuff

[quote=Cougar ] just needed a slightly wider aperture to pull the front into focus, but I'm nitpicking.

Narrower aperture - higher number - wider are of focus
larger aperture - smaller number - narrrow band of focus.

And yes, shooting loads and binning most is not unusual at all. If it's your first try, then anything over 25% is a pretty good return

Those are quite nice shots. Are you sure it was today? I remember seeing most of those cars in the early 80s. 🙁
I'd be aiming for 75% success to begin with and up to 90% thereafter.
Did you find that focussing on shots 1 and 4 were easier than 2 and 3? Cameras will struggle focussing in autofocus when the object is coming at them at a rate of knots. When you're panning the auto focus does less work.
Some would say that you should choose a point in the track and then fix the focus manually then anticipate and fire when the subject enters this area. Bollox to that, I say. 😉 All the best photos will happen outside this area.
Number three looks to have a very narrow dof, try and get the whole subject in focus.
The more you take, the more you'll get a feel for where the cars are going to be and be able to anticipate better.

Regarding the flash, I did the same and ended up buying an EX580II as it has a metal plate.
There could also be some limitation due to the camera and equipment you're using. Some cameras might have problems focussing well in low light situations, etc.
I do like the pics, keep at it.

I always end up binning quite a few with fast action stuff.

Think Cougar means a narrower aperture to increase the depth of field. A wider aperture (low f number) would give less depth of field.

Edit: I see nbt has already covered it.

What focus mode are you using? I assume you've set it to the continuous focus mode? It's called Servo on Canons, not sure about Nikon.

Mia culpa, yes.

I just set it to auto focus then continuous shooting. Just trying to eliminate camera shake and get the target in the viewfinder.

Many thanks all indeed, for the feedback. I will try to find out a bit more instead of being an 'auto' guy.

I'd be aiming for 75% success to begin with and up to 90% thereafter.

I wouldn't. With no penalty for snapping away like a nutter, you might as well. I reckon you should be happy if you get a decent shot or two of most stuff you are interested in, and then a handful of proper good shots you'd frame.

Some would say that you should choose a point in the track and then fix the focus manually then anticipate and fire when the subject enters this area. Bollox to that, I say

Not bollox at all. It's a very good technique, and far more reliable I reckon than relying on your camera to get it right.

A narrow aperture would help, but on an overcast day that could result in motion blur because your shutter speed will be slower.

Incidentally, being closer and therefore being able to zoom in less will result in a deeper depth of field.

I used to take loads of rally pics with old film cameras from Kodak instamatic to Prakticas 😆 Given the cost of film and devolving prints it could be an expensive hobby getting too many blurred or dark images 🙄

One thing that did was to learn how to pan and anticipate where a car was going to be on the track. Been 30 odd yrs since I last attended a rally ❗

Another trick I used was to up the ISO number 💡

Standing on the outside of a corner is potentially dangerous for obvious reasons. Been there, done that and survived, luckily 😳 It was somewhere in the depths of Kielder before the dam was built.

With 11fps on my D4, I normally come back with 10k plus from a day's shooting action stuff. There's no penalty in taking loads as filtering through them is very quick. Might only keep 100 or so.

Eg for each car coming round the corner, I'd run a complete set at 11fps right through the corner, so say the car is in frame for 10 seconds using a 70-200 zoom, that's 110 shots, then just pick the best one or two, or maybe bin the lot if I have a better shot of that car.

Not bollox at all.

How would you take a pic of the guy that crashes outside the zone that you've set the manual focus to, Molgrips?

With 11fps on my D4, [b]I normally come back with 10k plus[/b] from a day's shooting action stuff. There's no penalty in taking loads as filtering through them is very quick. Might only keep 100 or so.

Eg for each car coming round the corner, I'd run a complete set at 11fps right through the corner, so say the car is in frame for 10 seconds using a 70-200 zoom, that's 110 shots, then just pick the best one or two, or maybe bin the lot if I have a better shot of that car.

It used to be the case that a pro would reckon on one money-making shot out of thirty-six on a roll. I used to bin, literally, dozens and dozens of slides. Digital is brilliant, take hundreds, bin the rubbish ones, they've cost you nothing.
Those are pretty damned good, I'd be chuffed with those.
Keep at it, read stuff, you'll soon learn about things like Depth of Field, (DoF). It's actually pretty easy; the smaller the aperture number on your lens, the shallower the area that's actually in focus in front of and behind the point you have actually focused on. The larger the number, the greater the in-focus area. That's a simplistic answer, as the type of lens makes a difference, a wide-angle lens will give different results to a long telephoto, but basically that's how it works.

How would you take a pic of the guy that crashes outside the zone that you've set the manual focus to, Molgrips?

Same way everyone did before AF came along, Nikon F3's, 300mm 2.8's with optics full of fag ash, sat in the rain for hours on end, all moaning about deadlines, those were the days 😉

Merak if you like some classic ar rally action, there is a good Rally that goes through the FOD every year, you might be able to cover both pleasures rallying/mtbing in one day 😉

[url= http://www.wyedeanrally.com/ ]http://www.wyedeanrally.com/[/url]

Ah, nice one! Ive seen coverage of the Wyndean before. Its a good bit down the road for me like, Im in Glasgow.

I might well make the trip though. I love a bit of winter rallying.

Same way everyone did before AF came along,

This is a joke, isn't it?

Not really, if it's something unpredictable then I just shoot as many as the camera allows as you never know what might happen - e.g. a car rolls and you'll have the whole thing captured. Really depends on the situation. With digital photography, there's no real penalty to taking loads of shots.

NB I get the whole quality over quantity argument, but with sports stuff you never know for certain where the best shot will be in advance, eg take hockey, there are 100s of tackles in a game, but only one or two will make a great shot, and you can't tell in advance which ones they will be, so you may as well capture as many as you can.

E.g. take this shot (bit out of focus unfortunately).

[url= http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8027/7672320392_86ac952588.jp g" target="_blank">http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8027/7672320392_86ac952588.jp g"/> [/img][/url]
[url= http://www.flickr.com/photos/brf/7672320392/ ]Commited![/url] by [url= http://www.flickr.com/people/brf/ ]brf[/url], on Flickr

Best shot of the match, yet I could have never predicted I'd get it - just caught it by accident amongst a few 1000 frames. I watched all the Olympic hockey matches and this is the only time I saw a player dive like that for the ball....

NB I get the whole quality over quantity argument, but with sports stuff you never know for certain where the best shot will be in advance, eg take hockey, there are 100s of tackles in a game, but only one or two will make a great shot, and you can't tell in advance which ones they will be, so you may as well capture as many as you can.

[url= http://www.geek.com/articles/geek-cetera/how-photography-works-at-the-super-bowl-20110219/ ]How some of the best sports photographers in the business do it[/url]
40,000 images from one event, for one magazine issue!
[img] [/img]
[url= http://www.blog.jimdoty.com/?p=51 ]Another article here[/url]

Good shots. I would have attempted a few more front on. Lower aperture so more bokeh. More car "popping out". Also climb a tree or get up high and shoot. Then low down on ground. All different pov. Maye a second camera nod super wide lens too, so some landscape and car shots.

More photo tips on my blog 🙂 http://www.outdoorphotography.co.nz/blog/ shoot me an email if you want some help. Cheers

Why not just take an HD video camera and select the best images?

Because the HD video camera likely has much poorer dynamic range, and also, because it will only be 2 MPx

NB I get the whole quality over quantity argument, but with sports stuff you never know for certain where the best shot will be in advance,

Read what I said Molgrips. It is a well used and respected technique that I chose to shun, I didn't say the technique was bollox

It looked like you were, apologies for misinterpreting you.

Would it upset you any more

Just to clear something up - I'm not upset 🙂

How would you take a pic of the guy that crashes outside the zone that you've set the manual focus to, Molgrips?

If we are being serious rather than having a barney - what I would be doing in reality would be trying lots of different techniques. It depends on kit a bit too - I don't think my camera could focus track a rally car with my 70-300 well enough to catch that kind of action, especially on an overcast day, but I've never really tried. The only subjects I've tried continuous AF on are kids running about, which was rather difficult 🙂

I'm off out now to knock out a Picasso.

If that's not a euphemism for something, it damn well ought to be.