F1 night race photography tips


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oblaks

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Aug 28, 2008
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Hello friends,

I'm a newbie to dslr photography (+/- 2 months into it); currently using the 450d kit + 55-250mm lens.

Given the different lighting conditions in the event, can you give me some advice and tips to get great shots?

here are the subjects I would like to photograph (no particular order):
1. F1 cars on the track
2. interesting people
3. my friends/family
4. CBD view (i'll be at the marina bay gs

Thanks!

-O
 

well im not really a pro on taking motorsports, but here are some tips from my experience.

usually during such events do the following:

1. Chop your place early. (Like for Chingay, you need to before the crowd comes in. Not too sure if F1 is similar or you need some tix to even walk in the area. Someone please update on this)

2. Sharp corners are the best to 'freeze' the cars and get that kind of effect where the background is blurred and cars are sharp. This creates a visual that feels like the car is moving really fast. You may need to train your technique for such panning shots. Try and go the the F1 track and recce to see the area, try and take random cars first. Check for sharpness for their number plates when you upload. Yea people will mistaken you for undercover traffic police but, to hell... haha. Also, for these kind of events, I tend to use a shutter speed of 1/80-1/125 to create the background blur.

3. The harsh lighting around the race track may be unsuitable for taking portraits of friends and family. Bring a external flash if you can to fill in. Do reduce the flash power to probably -2ev to -0.5ev depending on lighting.

4. Like I said before, practice before you go. Unless your job is traffic police, if not haha.... go be one "undercover" one for training. Well thats what I did when I first picked this hobby up.

Cheers.
 

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well im not really a pro on taking motorsports, but here are some tips from my experience.

usually during such events do the following:

1. Chop your place early. (Like for Chingay, you need to before the crowd comes in. Not too sure if F1 is similar or you need some tix to even walk in the area. Someone please update on this)

2. Sharp corners are the best to 'freeze' the cars and get that kind of effect where the background is blurred and cars are sharp. This creates a visual that feels like the car is moving really fast. You may need to train your technique for such panning shots. Try and go the the F1 track and recce to see the area, try and take random cars first. Check for sharpness for their number plates when you upload. Yea people will mistaken you for undercover traffic police but, to hell... haha. Also, for these kind of events, I tend to use a shutter speed of 1/80-1/125 to create the background blur.

3. The harsh lighting around the race track may be unsuitable for taking portraits of friends and family. Bring a external flash if you can to fill in. Do reduce the flash power to probably -2ev to -0.5ev depending on lighting.

4. Like I said before, practice before you go. Unless your job is traffic police, if not haha.... go be one "undercover" one for training. Well thats what I did when I first picked this hobby up.

Cheers.
1) If seats are allocated, no choice
2) People use sharp corners because thats where F1 cars go the slowest. F1 cars zoom really quickly past straights
3) Good ans, Flash will definitely help :) For flash tips on the day itself, must see conditions, and where you are taking. Too subjective

For CBD view, most likely should bring a tripod
 

3) Good ans, Flash will definitely help :) For flash tips on the day itself, must see conditions, and where you are taking. Too subjective

For CBD view, most likely should bring a tripod

Depending on distance the photos are taken from, a flash may be of little help. Also, we are not allowed to bring tripods and monopods into the F1 area.
 

The rules have changed, you are now allowed to bring tripods, as long as you don't hinder other people.
 

Thanks for the update. They seem to keep changing the rules. Noticed there is no longer the restriction on 300mm or less lenses too.
 

Thanks for the update. They seem to keep changing the rules. Noticed there is no longer the restriction on 300mm or less lenses too.

Great news! Looks like they are more lenient and keen to listen to our voices. After all, lenses or tripod doesn't kill right? And with the seats allocated for many folks, banning these items will dampen the spirits and subsequent visit.

I wonder if they will ever allow flags to be brought in....;)
 

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2. Sharp corners are the best to 'freeze' the cars and get that kind of effect where the background is blurred and cars are sharp. This creates a visual that feels like the car is moving really fast. You may need to train your technique for such panning shots. Try and go the the F1 track and recce to see the area, try and take random cars first. Check for sharpness for their number plates when you upload. Yea people will mistaken you for undercover traffic police but, to hell... haha. Also, for these kind of events, I tend to use a shutter speed of 1/80-1/125 to create the background blur.
...

Please, you have made a few very misleading statements.

1) Have you tried panning? Panning is very hard when an object is not moving in a single direction. The fact that a car is changing its direction on a turn makes it all the more difficult to get a good panning motion on the car.

2) Shutter speed does not create background blur.
 

Btw, any ticket holder is allowed to roam around the walk-about areas (only cerain parts are designated as walk-abouts, but there are still quite a bit of them :). You can definitely get up from your seat and walk around... That said, there will be quite a bit of people crowding the sharp turns :)
 

Just my 5 cents...

It will be extremely difficult to shoot any photos in any location. If you have walk-about ticket only and you are trying to shoot along the track, there is always this 4 meter high steel fence between you and the cars.

The holes in the fence are about 80 mm x 80 mm. If you are trying to get panning shots, it is likely your camera autofocus will focus to the fence instead of the car.

It seems the best option would be sharp corners using manual focus.
 

For all who have missed this out:

TS will be at the Marina Bay Grandstand.

Hello friends,

I'm a newbie to dslr photography (+/- 2 months into it); currently using the 450d kit + 55-250mm lens.

Given the different lighting conditions in the event, can you give me some advice and tips to get great shots?

here are the subjects I would like to photograph (no particular order):
1. F1 cars on the track
2. interesting people
3. my friends/family
4. CBD view (i'll be at the marina bay gs

Thanks!

-O
 

Yeah, got one tip: Don't Block others behind you! ;)

As long as we photogs remain considerate to the crowd, I'm sure we will all get great shots (or not), and guaranteed to leave without bruises or broken lenses from an angry crowd who paid $$$ for the tickets as well :bsmilie:
 

It is indeed hard to pan with the fence in front of you, but with a bit of effort it works...

Here are two shots from the distant year 2003 in Indianapolis... Keep in mind that these are taken with a 4MP point-and-shoot Minolta :)

getPhoto.cfm


getPhoto.cfm
 

Checked out the race track with a friend over the weekend to ascertain the lighting condition. Was disappointed to find that the super bright lights actually made the brand new track fencing bright and shiny, - you know as in really stand out - making it much more obvious and intrusive than in daylight. I am not optimistic about getting a good shot through this safety barrier under those lighting conditions.
 

Please, you have made a few very misleading statements.

1) Have you tried panning? Panning is very hard when an object is not moving in a single direction. The fact that a car is changing its direction on a turn makes it all the more difficult to get a good panning motion on the car.

2) Shutter speed does not create background blur.

1) Fully agree. Its gonna be tough.

2) If i read him correctly, he is referring to 'motion blur' effect of the background with panning shots bro. In that case, shutter speed affects the amount of the blur.:)
 

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imma wondering if they lighting there gonna allow speeds of 125-200...

if not, getting/renting a 2.8 would be a good choice... since u cant flash at the cars (right?)

another tip i use sometimes is to shoot at medium/fine. coz it uses less mega pixels (apprx 8-9) so there is less noise when pushed to 1600iso (on your 450).

I cant stand the noise on 12mp, 1600iso. its not even 100% crop. its only opened in LR on my 19" screen, and im really feeling the irk.

your bend seat is not bad. you can take them as the racers are entering the bend. its much more interesting than just 1 car speeding. Its like "how can u tell the first is winning if you cant see the losers?" Have the first in focus, the rest in bokeh.

also, if yours is a tough bend... hahha touch wood, but u might get a chance to shoot a car that has gone off track/accident/exploded/flew. NOW THATS INTERESTING.

hahah my 2.3747 cents
 

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Actually the lights are very very bright. However, I think the issue is the inexperience of shooting such a fast moving object at such a distance and in such an environment.

Some tips:

1) Bring along a towel. Wipe sweat etc.
2) Bring water and some titbits. :)
3) Manual focus.
 

Well a few tips that I picked up over a few years trackside as a spectator. May not be ideal or even correct but they work for me.

For panning
If you are not confident enough to run fully manual ie full control of shutter/aperture/iso then give shutter priority and use the lowest iso you can get away with while maintaining shutter speed optimum.
shutter speed for me really depends how close i am to the car. if I am using a 200mm lens to fill the frame with a car, i can quite happily use 1/80 or 1/100
if I am using a 100mm I need 1/125 to 1/150 all this for avg speed of car going about 180-200km/h
try and pan as close as you can when the car is perpendicular to you. if you take the car as it is diag approaching you and you are very close to the car, not the whole car will be in focus which may or may not be what you want.
If I am using 400mm lens I can get by with 1/50 shutter speed

Corner Shots (exit)
For fixed corner shots, car should be slower or approaching you. If approaching you, you dont need a slow shuter speed to blur since nothing will req motion blur. In this case, full manual setting (lowest shutter speed that can freeze the car sharply) ,set the exposure before hand, full manual focus on the spot you want the car to be in(this save af trying to play catch if the car comes from a hidden corner; as the car enters the focus zone, hit the shutter and hold for whatever you can whether its 3/5/8/10 fps. with practice, timing will get better and even a burst of 3 will suffice and with the same settings and the camon a 'pod, you can replicate this shot for every car round the corner. Composition in this case is very important since most monkeys with a decent camera can get a decent shot at these points =)
 

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2) If i read him correctly, he is referring to 'motion blur' effect of the background with panning shots bro. In that case, shutter speed affects the amount of the blur.:)

Definitely, but it also affects your hit rate, especially if you are not very polished at panning. I must admit I am not very good at panning unless it is single direction panning.
 

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