My Schumacher pic

I agree - it's much more difficult now with digital camera shutter lag than in the old days with 35mm SLRs. I've got a lot of very nice, crisply focused shots from the '70s and '80s, but probably 90% of my digital photos are throw-aways. At least the price is right!

Gary

 

Just out of curiousity is lowering the exposure real low the best way to take pics of moving objects like cars?

 

You can either freeze frame a car by selecting a really fast exposure time or select a slow exposure time and follow the car to get the wipe effect. Wipe effect looks more dramatic but is hard to achieve as you need to match the car's speed exactly. Freezing the car is easier, but the end results looks like the car is parked on the track. Parked in Monaco, wasn't there something? Ah nevermind.

 

I'll jump in untill the real pros give their tips ...

Faster shutter speeds is what is called for. You need to be in the Shutter priority mode or perhaps the Manual mode.

If your camera/lens combo has a quick Autofocus then it can track the car as it moves across you. Click just as the car crosses you. If Autofocus is slow then switch to manual focus and aim at the spot you want to click and then pan the camera as much as is possible and click when the car is in the sweet spot. You will also need to anticipate the shutter speed. It takes practice. I have have taken lots of pics where I get half the car in the frame or its too blurry or mere tarmac as the car was long gone.

Frustrating but with digital you don't lose anything.

 

Me too. It depends on other variables, too, like the angle and the background. In a picture like Noel's, you might as well freeze the car with a higher shutter speed. Monaco has such great backing scenery. Plus, the car is turning away from you, along with the elevated position, and the chance of going out of focus is much greater. In a shot like that, a slower shutter speed would look good if you were able to zoom in closer, although that would make the shot even harder.

 

Are you in the Hotel de Paris? I stayed there a couple years ago for a weekend and it was amazing, but I heard you have to reserve over a year ahead-a-time to have a room for the GP.

 

The problem with shooting in an 'automatic' mode is in most cases the metering in the camera sees everything as gray - and will either lighten it up or darken it, depending on the background.
In the picture above, the metering 'sees' the black tarmac, and the green grass, and tries to compensate for it. But the pic does not look too bad, exposure-wise. I would guess it was in some type of center-weighted or spot-meter mode. It's not bad.

You did name the exact reason I have not gone digital yet - lag.

You can get a really great digital camera for under $1,000, but they have a certain amount of lag to deal with, and that starts to go away - when you start spending over $3,000 for a body alone.

The best tip I can tell people is to find some sort of secluded place near their homes and practice your timing on passenger cars. No, they are not as fast, but the more you do it the more you can get a sense of the timing it will take to shoot racecars at speed.

 

There is no lag in Nikon's D70. Turn on, fire and forget.

 

Great pic.

 

Wow. Amazing pic. I also know about the difficulty of shooting those pics because here in Monterrey, Mexico every year the Champ Car World Series comes to the Parque Fundidora and I was in the suites trying to take pics of the cars in the pit's straight. I took one almost the opposite way as yours. the car was very blurred and the surroundings were clear. I just didn't tried as much times to get a picture like you. But they are very difficult to shoot.

BTW, I took the pic of Mario Dominguez. A Mexican from Indeck Racing. Paul Tracy is also in that team.

 

I was thinking the D70 didn't shoot in RAW format - something I would require, but I looked again, and it does have a RAW setting, and the D100 also has TIFF, I may have to try one.

 

It is freakin fast, trust me. As fast as the N70 I had before. It can store about 5 pics in memory so you can shoot an entire sequence of a car going around a turn. Then the camera will pause for a few seconds to store that properly and you're good to go again.

Also the D70 doesn't have the boot up time a regular digital camera has. My Sony takes forever to boot. If you're into action photography, that object is gone by the time the camera is ready for service.

 

Would you say this is similar to the Rebel XT? I've had my XT for over a month now, but I haven't used it at all...

 

I never used a Rebel, but I've seen them and would say it is similar.

The point is, that modern digital SLRs have overcome the stigma of the lag. Kinda like the turbos of the mid eighties.

 

I liked you photo very much. I spent years covering all of these races back in the 70's. Yes, of course I was only 10 or 12 years old at the time. Anyway, I learned that a good photo, can become a great photo with proper editing.

Excuse me for taking this liberty, but I tried to edit your photo as it would appear in a magazine, hope you like it:
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I'll take the turbo lag of the mid-eighties - and a hasselblad - any day.

 

Time for a new camera. My compact camera has no issues taking F1 pics...

All the professionals use Digital cameras at sporting events....

 

Well making the shutter speed faster will help capture images like these, so technically yes, the exposure is being lowered. But keep in mind, however, you need to adjust the f/stop to maintain the right exposure, you gotta satisfy the light meter.

 

Here's one taken from our seats at Acque Minerali the San Marino GP this year. I did't mess with any camera settings (this thing has got a ton of them) - just took the picture - it's a Sony DSC P-200 Cyber-shot 7.2 mega pixels - with the current card in it, I have gotten about 550 photos and still going.

Carol
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Interesting shot: It shows how they make the two turns into one big curve. Not that this is so surprising, but I didn't expect it to be evenly distributed. I thought it was more biased to the 2nd turn.

 

As a pro, with some success at taking race photos, I thought I would add some tips.

To freeze high-speed action, especially when the subject direction is perpendicular to you, you need a high shutter speed. The faster the subject is moving, and the longer the focal length of your lens, the faster the shutter speed needs to be. To get the highest possible shutter speed in any lighting conditions, set your camera to APERTURE priority - not shutter priority. In Aperture Priority, you should select the widest lens aperture you can (f/2.8 perhaps), and the camera meter will select the correct shutter speed for a correct exposure. The shutter speed will be as fast as is possible at that aperture. If you mistakenly choose shutter priority metering, and you select a high shutter speed (1/1000th of a second), the lens will stop down to the appropriate aperture, which will probably be smaller than the maximum aperture. You might end up shooting at 1/1000 @ f/5.6 instead of 1/4000 @ f/2.8.

In either case, if the shutter speed is not high enough to freeze the action, and you are at maximum aperture, there are other things you can do. You can raise the ISO, which makes the sensor more sensitive to light, requiring less light to attain a proper exposure. You can switch to a lens with a faster maximum aperture. If you are using a zoom lens with a variable aperture, such as a 50-500mm f/4.5-6.3, the lens lets more light in at shorter focal lengths, - you have to zoom out. Or, you can change your angle and shoot the cars at an angle less perpendicular, so you are shooting them coming toward you, or going away. Underexposing and fixing the exposure in Photoshop creates noise which is worse than simply raising the ISO during the shoot.

Or, you can give up trying to "freeze" the action and pan with the car, blurring the background, and imparting a sense of motion. Even when shooting pan shots, I use Aperture Priority and watch the meter's selected speed readout in the viewfinder.

Here is Shumi, going roughly the same high speed, on ensuing laps, at the same location, shot once at a high shutter speed (about 1/1000th), and again at a slower shutter speed (about 1/60th).

Regards
Tom Voegeli
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Great illustration.

Thanks.

 

True, fast exposures are food for moving objects, but a great shot can be taken at f/32 at 1/40th, as long as your panning can match the car's speed. It gives a nice blurred effect with great depth of field.