Historic GP cars at Goodwood

[GregR]

Rather than crowd Dom's thread (plus his are better ) I thought I'd start my own goodwood thread. An awesome day on Sunday - Audi hospitality right trackside and more F1 legends than you could shake a stick at, and boy was I shaking!

DC back where it all started:-


Sir Jackie, driving the Matra that won him world championship number 1:-



Eddie Irvine in a G Villeneuve Fezrari:-



MP28 as close as I could get - what a noise!




One of my favourite combinations, Sir S Moss and a chuffing great Merc. He's catching a wee drift out of the first corner here:-



Ukio Kagayama lighting it up off the start:-



One thing I realised was that I'm a complete amateur. I tried using Dave's suggested settings for panning but there was too much light, so I had to speed them up to stop the shots getting over expoased - that's why they don't look that fast - any help with that much appreciated!

Greg

[Dominic]

Great shots Mr Rolfe! Don't think mine are better!

We tried to get into the Audi hospitality, but should have taken my dad's audi keys. Did however manage to get onto the audi allroads off-road experience. The Q7s are actually quite impressive off-road,.. I even managed to get about 3 foot of air under the tyres .... one at a time though

[campbell]

One thing I realised was that I'm a complete amateur. I tried using Dave's suggested settings for panning but there was too much light, so I had to speed them up to stop the shots getting over expoased - that's why they don't look that fast - any help with that much appreciated!

Greg

Neutral grey filter or rig the ISO setting on the camera, set it higher eg 400 when it should be 100 etc, that's a couple of stops for a kick off!

Presume you had already tried to take the aperture setting up to max (ie, making minimum aperture).

Still grand pics though and what an opportunity, Audi hospitality eh...do they pay your fuel there n back too !

[graeme]

One thing I realised was that I'm a complete amateur. I tried using Dave's suggested settings for panning but there was too much light, so I had to speed them up to stop the shots getting over expoased - that's why they don't look that fast - any help with that much appreciated!

Greg

Neutral grey filter or rig the ISO setting on the camera, set it higher eg 400 when it should be 100 etc, that's a couple of stops for a kick off!

Presume you had already tried to take the aperture setting up to max (ie, making minimum aperture).

Still grand pics though and what an opportunity, Audi hospitality eh...do they pay your fuel there n back too !

Eh? Higher ISO = more sensitive 'film' = even more over-exposed surely?

Greg, Nice pics mate, but wrong approach for sorting the exposure for panning shots. Don't speed the shutter up to keep the light out. Shrink the aperture instead. Panning shots rely on the long shutter speed to create the background blur, so you can't reduce it too much or you'll freeze the background and the wheels.

If you're using fully manual mode and you're happy with the level of "blur" in the panning shots (probably about 1/160th or 1/200th secs), you've got the correct shutter speed, so reduce the aperture (bigger f number) until the exposure is good. You shouldn't need a filter. I'd wager my left nut you don't hit the minimum aperture for your camera/lens before you're happy. You could cheat and use Shutter Priority mode (not really cheating - that's what it's for) and just set 1/160th and let the camera do the aperture size itself. If you want to override the camera in Shutter Priority mode, use exposure compensation.

Of course, all my advice may be crap. Campbell's a far better snapper than me...






P.S. If you use any of my advice, please donate £10 to charity.

*runs like the clappers*

[GregR]

Cheers Graeme, your approach sounds pretty sensible - I'm still getting to grips with the camera and forgot all about aperture As you'll see from the shots - frozen wheels and background - not what I was looking for.

[graeme]

It takes time and experimentation. I fannied about with a DSLR (all the gear and no idea) for months and months before my mum (and old-skool film snapper) sat me down and explained to me the facts of life about the relationship between shutter speed, aperture size, depth of field, focal length, ISO, and all the other things which in the old days were calculated and understood but to us kids are just "settings".

Since then, it's just applying the science. I rarely get it right, but I can look at a shot and understand why it was wrong, and I'm slowly getting a better keepers:duffers ratio.

Happy to have a chat sometime and impart what I've learned. Most of it was taught to me in dummy speak so I should be able to explain it simply.

[Rag_It]

The Rolfe, I would have been keeping the settings I was showing you (shutter speed wise) 1/80 through to 1/160 and would have as Graeme said used exposure comp, if the highlights were looking blown!

Anyway, the important thing is just to experiment.

I Still don't feel comfortable flicking straight to manual and guessing settings!

Good photaes though!

[GregR]

The Rolfe, I would have been keeping the settings I was showing you (shutter speed wise) 1/80 through to 1/160 and would have as Graeme said used exposure comp, if the highlights were looking blown!

Anyway, the important thing is just to experiment.

I Still don't feel comfortable flicking straight to manual and guessing settings!

Good photaes though!

I've got a good few blown ones - the last one could have been so much better if it wasn't so blown!

[graeme]

Do you shoot in RAW format Greg? Might be able to recover some lost detail from that last one.

[GregR]

would it surprise you to hear that I have no idea?

Edit: Looks like Jpeg:-

http://www.flickr.com/photos/27693080@N ... 5304/meta/

[Rag_It]

It would appear from the EXIF data that you had your camera on Manual Mr Rolfe, ISO was prob about right, although 200 might have been better (don't know what the lighting conditions were like, but you would have been safer with limited knowledge shooting in Aperture or Shutter speed if it was a fast capture.

You live and learn, and the only way you learn is to get out there and take more!

I actually think it works as being an overexposed shot, and even with .jpg, you can still do some saving by using the edit tool on Flickr/other programmes. I do small adjustments to my jpegs using iPhoto. I'll have a shot and see, but again, i am no pro when it comes to post processing!

[graeme]

Yup, looks like it's a jpeg. Once the camera has converted the RAW data to jpeg, you're pretty much stuck. Shooting in RAW saves a lot more information, allowing you to do image adjustments on the PC later before saving a (better) jpeg yourself. I wouldn't worry about any of that now though. Leave it on jpeg and just concentrate on your shooting for now. You can switch to raw when you take something worth printing! I leave it on jpeg most of the time. You get more on a card, and I have no intention to do any touching-up or adjustments (booooring) and I never print anything anyway.

This is a good set of articles, but you'll need to treat it as proper study and not just a quick read to get the best out of it:

http://www.cambridgeincolour.com/tutorials.htm

[GregR]

It would appear from the EXIF data that you had your camera on Manual Mr Rolfe, ISO was prob about right, although 200 might have been better (don't know what the lighting conditions were like, but you would have been safer with limited knowledge shooting in Aperture or Shutter speed if it was a fast capture.

You live and learn, and the only way you learn is to get out there and take more!

I actually think it works as being an overexposed shot, and even with .jpg, you can still do some saving by using the edit tool on Flickr/other programmes. I do small adjustments to my jpegs using iPhoto. I'll have a shot and see, but again, i am no pro when it comes to post processing!

For info Dave, the lighting was an absolute nightmare! I was under trees and part of the start was under trees, then there were pockets of intense sunlight as the cars and riders moved off. Live n' learn though as you and Graeme have said. Braw fun

[flat-planedCrank]

For info Dave, the lighting was an absolute nightmare! I was under trees and part of the start was under trees, then there were pockets of intense sunlight as the cars and riders moved off. Live n' learn though as you and Graeme have said. Braw fun

Those pockets of light can be a hassle Sometimes manual mode can work against you in those situations... (unless you plan to take a shot at specific point on the track)

Can be best to set your camera to 'shutter priority' mode (or whatever your camera calls it) so you can control the shutter speed - then let it set the aperture, per-shot, as required
(Some cameras will default to use the exposure in the first of a burst of shots to set the exposure for the subsequent shots - can be useful - but for the pockets of light you were fighting, allowing it to set the aperture per-shot would be better)

In many cases you can use 'exposure lock' to manually set the exposure in shutter priority mode if you want more specific control over the settings, can sometimes offer the best of both worlds


Nice shots, especially like Hamilton waving



Cheers.

[campbell]

Eh? Higher ISO = more sensitive 'film' = even more over-exposed surely?

I did think about this for a wee while (I was tired when I wrote it!).

On reflection, I think you are right...in which case the setting has to come down the way but on my DLSR (Sony A-100) the lowest setting is 100 ISO anyway.

Grad grey filter in that case methinks.

Anyway, I agree with lots of stuff above to the effect that you do owe it to yourself to learn the basics of aperture, shutter speed, "film" ISO ratings first. Then move onto the digital principles around RAW format, histogram readings etc etc.

DSLRs can do such amazingly intelligent things on AUTO mode these days that in most cases you'd never need the above. However on the occasions that you do, the knowledge can make the results stunning.

I seem to have misplaced a lot of my original photography books however one called "The Outdoor Photographer" (Gibbons and Wilson) is a useful intro. Whilst it focuses upon landscape photography, it covers all the metering basics etc and in many ways, other than panning and follow-focus, you can learn most of what you need to for sports photography by getting the basics right on something that moves a little less quickly

It's probably out of print but here are some Amazon sellers with a copy:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/offer-listin ... dition=all

If you are really interested, and have the time, then a short photography course - including darkroom work if poss, a dying art - will set you up for life. My SCOTVEC module in same during 6th year at school was the most amazing way to devour hours every day between the couple of "real" subjects I studied, and it developed an appreciation for the technical side of photography that has served me well.

The best thing about DSLRs for learning is that, when set to manual mode, you can and should review the results and mistakes instantly and it doesn't cost you a penny. "In my day" it was a roll of film and a few days wait for processing before you could review your latest disasters

Welcome to the club!

Campbell