Photography and bikes

[davthegreat]

Hi all.
ive seen some images on here from various people such as luke vrf at Brands hatch and the car photography on the rig he is selling, anyways im currently doing alevel photography at college and was wondering what sort of settings/lenses to use to take pictures at track days and various other motor events.

I currently have a very trusty Canon eos 350d with standard 18-55mm lense, ive been looking on ebay and i like the Canon 70-300mm USM and maybe the IS version if i can come up with the cash, will this lense be ok to be hand-held or will it need to be trypoded for the blurr shots like luke vrf's really good pictures

https://www.bikechatforums.com/viewtopic.php?t=173874
luke vrf advise needed

is there anyway i can photo my self, a trip or summit

thanks for any advise

[Kickstart]

Hi

I started with a 2nd hand Canon D30 and a 70-300 USM lens. The lens is dirt cheap. You can get some decent shots with that.

However basics, if you want to freeze a bike so it looks like it isn't moving then that is easy. Difficult bit is getting a sense of movement, and to do that you use a slower shutter speed and pan. The slower the shutter speed the more movement blur you will get on the background and on the wheels, but the harder it becomes to keep the moving target sharp.

Personally I tend not to worry too much about the aperture. I aim to keep it in reasonable bounds(f5.6~f11) for the shutter speed I want to use, and alter the ISO to try and keep within that range using shutter priority (Tv) mode. While it is generally best to keep away from the extremes of the range of apertures for your lens, with panned shots there are loads of other factors which are more important.

This shot was taken at Donington just under the Dunlop bridge, of a bike doing probably about 150mph with a fairly slow shutter speed (from memory 1/50th of a second, so the bike moved about 4 foot while the shutter was open). Plenty of impression of movement, but playing at that I had a hideous success rate (about 1 in 20 was worth keeping).

For the opposite, this pic was taken at Cadwell through the woodland section and I forgot to change the shutter speed from having done some head on shots (shutter speed of 1/1000th). Very high shutter speed results in virtually no sense of movement (but pretty easy to get a high success rate).

For normal use for panned shots I tend to use about 1/160th at the slow spots and up to about 1/400th for the fast parts.

All the best

Keith
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Traxpics, track day and racing photographs - Bimota Forum - Bike performance / thrust graphs for choosing gearing

[davthegreat]

thank you ill try some of that out tomos on some random cars i recon, with my normal lense but ill defo be getting one of them canon 70-300 ones though

[Kickstart]

Hi

The 18-55 is probably too short really.

For an example at Cadwell Park at the first section of Hall Bends you are fairly close to the track. I am normally using about 100~110mm range of the lens on a 1.6 crop factor body like yours.

If you do go for the 70-300 then I would suggest keeping an eye open for a 2nd hand one. Loads of people have them as a first lens and then upgrade. Or see if you can borrow anything from people you know.

My favourite lens is a Sigma 70-200 f2.8. Light enough and fast enough with decent image quality, and you can use a 1.4 teleconverter when you need a slightly longer lens.

All the best

Keith
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Traxpics, track day and racing photographs - Bimota Forum - Bike performance / thrust graphs for choosing gearing

[doggone]

I'm sure the 350D must have a self timer for your self portrait.
On the 300D it's on the top same button as continuous shooting - which is something you might use for any sort of fast moving subjects too.
The kit 18-55mm lens is a bit soft although you can still get decent results with a bit pf processing knowledge.

On a budget I wouldn't get too hung up on which lens is best.
You can also get more for your cash going for sigma or similar compatible lenses.

Image stabilising is good but the main thing is get loads of practise & take lots of shots.
It's more important to get good composition and clean backgrounds.
Always look out for something quirky that makes your picture stand out.

[KevTM]

Isnt the IS pretty useless for panning shots though as that's exactly what it tried to prevent. I know the more 'pro' lenses can be switched to only stabilise one axis (horizontal or vertical). I know I got on better with my VR (Nikon) off when panning, but that could be a Nikon thing .

Anyway if you find your panning could be better try hanging a monopod from the camera for a bit of counter weight.

[davthegreat]

yeah i was looking at 2nd hand lenses due to price and it will be my first add on lense so yeah.

and the self timer is the same as the 300d i think but i meant as riding past cos i cant set it off timing which is like 5 seconds or summit get on my bike and ride past fast ill find someone to click the button i recon

thanks for the help people

[Seb]

Just to chime in on the second hand shop deal, definately do a lap round your local ones, that 70-300 USM is possibly the most popular canon lens we get through and they can be had for chump change compared to some of the high end gear. Good luck with the photos
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2010 Triumph 1050 Sprint ST

[Gazdaman]

Keith that first pic at Donnington, the colours are so vivid. What makes that? My photos never look like that.

Is that a good quality body & lens or settings?

Gaz

[Dom]

For a sense of speed you need to have the shutter open for as long as possible. The downside is it becomes trickier to keep the subject in focus. IS is apparently no use at all for panning shots. None of my lenses have it, so I wouldn't know. Most of the time I just use Tv (i.e. shutter priority) mode and let the camera pick the aperture.

I took this at 1/60:
https://farm4.static.flickr.com/3647/3476385398_433bbd000d.jpg?v=0

(Sorry for the four-wheeled pic, I need to get myself down to some bike events)

Edit: Your only hope of getting some motorsports shots with the kit lens is to get down to some local MX type events. Be it an enduro, a local track, whatever - you'll probably be able to get close enough to get run over in fact, so keep an eye out for people who don't look like they're going to make the corner.
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Photos and that

[davthegreat]

mx track!!!!!!!! omg what a good idea, i didnt think of that i have a mate who mashals one near by so i probs will be able to get in for free, it will be great practise too thanks for the idea.

[Kickstart]

[Wafer_Thin_Ham]

[doggone]

[Dom]

You can also always adjust the in camera parameters for saturation, contrast etc if you have a particular preference. I shoot in raw and process in Lightroom, which is fantastic.
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Photos and that

[Wafer_Thin_Ham]

[Kickstart]

[duhawkz]

i took the shots below using the basic cheapo 70 - 300 canon lens on an eos 400d
i usually shoot at around 1/250 in tv mode for blur (i can't exactly off the top of my head i'll check the photos when im a home).I set the autofocus to AI Servo to help keep focus on moving subject.

Clicky
Clicky
Clicky
Clicky

BSB's not a bad place to practice at either as you can get fairly close to the track in places and its cheap too