Another post for my shutterbug friends

So what did I learn at the Monterey Historic races? Mainly I was able to confirm several theories I’d developed at the USGP. Going through the on track photos I took, I can say I believe the following at this point:

1. Being close makes a BIG difference. I can take terrible pictures from trackside, of course, but when I get one right it looks much sharper than the best I can do from far away. I suppose this sounds like common sense, but my point is that a long lens only gets you so far toward a nice, sharp image. I posited last time that a long lens is no substitute for being close to the action to begin with, and I think this is true now more than ever. The sharpest pictures I got were ones I took when I was right by the track. How I got there is another story. ;)

2. A fast shutter speed for fast objects is a must, even if you have to boost ISO in broad daylight. Even at 1/500 I got noticeable blur of spinning tires but much better sharpness of the cars. It was a very bright day, and to get to 1/500 at F/13 I had to go to ISO 400, but on the 30D the noise is not bad. (At ISO 800, I start seeing some noise even without zooming in at all. It’s not bad, but it’s there.) It’s certainly visible if you zoom in to 100%, but if you get close enough to fill the screen with the car, you don’t need to zoom in that much for the final image, do you? For the first time since getting the 30D, I started using Shutter Priority to experiment with various speeds and the results have suggested guidelines like this:

• If the car is moving fast and you want a clear shot without panning, go at least 1/500 and up to 1/1000, though unless the car is really hauling as you approach 1/1000 you’ll nearly stop tire/wheel blur, too.
  
• Judging the right aperture for desired DOF takes experience or a DOF calculator. Trying to get the whole car in focus, I played around a lot with smaller apertures and often got the car in focus but also too much DOF. How about this for a gadget: a laser distance to subject finder that you point at the car, which then gives you a read out of DOF for a given aperture and focal length combo? I’d buy one after Saturday’s experience!
  
• If you are panning and want a lot of background blur, slow the shutter way down and take A LOT of shots, hoping to get some right. I found that 1/120 was a bit too slow for the amount of background blur I wanted as the cars moved from Turn 6 toward the corkscrew. 1/80 was good but very hard to get the driver sharp as I panned.

3. If you’re able, have two cameras with different lenses. A crash happened right in front of me when I happened to have the 24-70 mounted. The shots I got of the crash and the aftermath would be better if I had had a second body with the 100-400 ready to go. I felt that if I’d changed lenses at the moment, I’d have missed something, but looking at the photos, I should’ve done so anyway. The shots of Mr. Rutherford helping Mr. Elford out of his wrecked car are too far away.


Using different settings on my camera this time gave me a lot more clear shots than I got at the USGP and put my mind to rest about my camera body. I had been wondering, since I see so few pros using the 1D series rather than the 30D, if this camera is capable of taking good sports shots and now I know that it is if I do everything right.

But shooting things as fast as racing cars and bikes at speed is very challenging for the amateur. I hope I’ll be able to refine my technique further in September at the AMA event at Laguna Seca! Now, should I rent Big Bertha again…?