Hi Walt, On 2012-05-28 0:11, Walt Gilbert wrote:
But, from what I understand, I'll be in a good place for taking photos ...
It would help to know what that position is.
[...] pointers on how to get interesting shots. One of the main drawbacks of the drag races I've shot before is the sheer monotony of the photos given the limited number of vantage points available from which to shoot.
This goes with your earlier comment ... you are only going to have one shooting position? That's going to make it more difficult to get a lot of interesting racing shots, though it may not interfere with getting some interesting racing shots, depending on what that position is.
But first off, there ought to be plenty of interesting stuff going on in the paddock (I think NHRA has open paddock, but I've never been to one of their events). Plenty of crowd action, partially (dis)assembled cars and motors, teams working on the cars, drivers confabbing with their teams, interesting juxtapositions of tools, parts, people, etc.
In some ways, shooting in the paddock is akin to what I'd expect shooting in some Moroccan open air market: very colorful and dynamic; stuff changes quickly so you've got to be ready and watching; lighting will likely range from hugely bright to dim and dark; contrast will sometimes be huge, especially on a sunny day. Probably best to use fill flash in a lot of cases, especially so you can actually see the faces of people wearing hats or baseball caps.
For the on-track action, that's going to be tough if you've only got one position. Use different focal lengths to get some variety without moving. Shots of single cars just going by quickly start looking the same, unless the car is "doing something unusual".
Try to get both cars in the shot at the same time. Also don't worry so much about getting the whole car(s) into the shot ... isolate on the cockpits, for example, if you've got the angles and focal lengths to do it. Look for the twisting effects of torque creating unusual aspects laterally ("engine torque") and longitudinally ("wheel torque"), places where the cars typically belch flames out of the pipes.
Pan with short shutter speeds (you generally want the car sharp and the wheels and background blurred). Locking the mode in manual to fix the shutter speed and aperture works best most times (reflections and stuff can mess up the automated metering). The problem here is going to be where your position is along the track. It's not so much the speed that makes life difficult, it's acceleration (or deceleration). That requires that you pan at other than a consistent speed, which is more difficult. So the second half of the thousand feet will be easier to pan than the first half, I'd guess.
Set the focus point one or two to the side of where you actually want things sharp to compensate for lock time, depending on the speed with which the cars are crossing your field of view. If you have a fully manual lens, you can try trap focus, again compensating for lock time by selection of focus point. If your not using autofocus, you still have to compensate for lock time at those speeds (trip the shutter just before the stuff you want sharp comes into focus).
I'm sure there's other stuff I'll think of later. -- Doug "Lefty" Franklin NutDriver Racing http://NutDriver.org Facebook "NutDriver Racing" Sponsored by Murphy -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List PDML@pdml.net http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
