A nice tutorial Dough. I've never photographed razing cars, but it
sounds like a lot of fun. Archived for future referense :-)
BTW. What's the meaning of the abbreviations in your sig? besides the
obvious "I'm a VIP" ;-)
MaritimTim
2008/10/10 Doug Franklin <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>:
> Hi Cory,
>
> Cory Waters wrote:
>
>> It's different shooting with a 400mm Prime.
>
> I'm still looking for the Tokina SD 400/5.6 since it's a PK-A and will be a
> little more convenient and familiar to you.
>
>> It's important to remember it's not an "A" lens and you're shooting in
>> manual. (I never shoot in manual on my K10)
>
> It's not that big a deal. From about 0900 through about 1630 (at Petit time
> of year) you can just use 1/250 of a second at f/11 (f/13 maybe) with the
> camera at its default 200 ASA setting. It's often helpful to set the camera
> to manual and some reasonable settings instead of leaving it in
> (Hyper)Program mode ... you can avoid some blown exposures caused by
> sunlight glinting off race cars, windshields, stuff in the crowd, spectator
> cars, etc.
>
>> It's important not to forget to look for your mono-pod when you're going
>
> Definitely. I love my Bogen 3218 (I think) ... big hefty 3-section unit
> that works as a bludgeon, too. I use a Bogen 3262 (I think) medium ball
> head on it due to the speed at which I have to work sometimes. Most of the
> time it stays locked in place. Sometimes I'll tilt it a bit and lock it to
> accommodate a sloped surface. Occasionally I have to do something more
> radical, like flip the camera to portrait orientation.
>
>> It's important to focus correctly.
>
> "Zone focus" is your friend. At f/11 or f/13 you get decent DoF, even on
> the 400, at the distances you're working. Often I'll focus on something
> mid-track, about half way through the depth I'll be working, and leave the
> focus there. Don't forget to configure the custom settings to allow the
> shutter to trip even without focus confirmation.
>
> This approach also eases some of the "lock time" problems, presumably by
> shortening the lock time. By "lock time" I mean the time between the
> shutter contact closing and the shutter movement actually starting.
>
> For 1/250th "crossing shots" (shots of cars moving across my field of view)
> of cars crossing at any sort of speed, the lock time runs about one focus
> point horizontally in the viewfinder. That is, if you select the center
> focus point for AF, and the shutter contact closes when that is the "point
> of focus", the shot will end up with the "point of focus" about on the next
> AF point to the left or right, in the direction of travel of the subject.
>
> The shutter "run time" also has an effect, assuming the Pentax DSLRs use
> horizontal-travel shutters, which seems to be the case. At 1/250th you
> wouldn't think it's much, but it's four times longer than 1/1000th and eight
> times longer than 1/2000th. This difference can be visible on the photos in
> some circumstances, as a difference in the amount of "point of focus" shift
> on these crossing shots.
>
> To those of you familiar with Road Atlanta, the effect is most pronounced
> when shooting from close to the pavement on turns six and seven and the
> "chute" between them ('cause even a spectator can get pretty close to the
> pavement on those turns). Get the shutter speed down slow enough during
> panning and you'll start to see the "cylinder of focus" effect produced by
> the car's turn and your pan having different radii.
>
>> My keeper rate was down significantly because of these considerations.
>
> Practice, practice, practice. I haven't been shooting as frequently as in
> the past, and my keep rate definitely shows it.
>
>> Thanks Doug!
>
> You're welcome, Cory!
>
> --
> Thanks,
> DougF (KG4LMZ)
>
> --
> PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List
> [email protected]
> http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net
> to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and
> follow the directions.
>
--
MaritimTim
--
PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List
[email protected]
http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net
to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow
the directions.
