Photography: Night Races = Dark Track. Any Tips?

[rcTom]

Ok, :D

So the owner of a track wants me to come out again to there track, but this time there doing night races. Obviously they have lights there for the racers to see, but its not sufficient enough to take pictures.

Gear i have:
Studio strobes w/ battery power pack
Speed lights w/ external battery pack
Wireless triggers
Stands

Should i do On of Off camera lighting?
If off camera lighting, Where should i put my lights?

I certainly don't want to blind the racers, so i have to make sure i dont point it there way.

Any tips or ideas would be very appreciated.

Thanks,
Tom.

[rcTom]

So ive actually tried using off camera lighting before and wasnt to happy with the turn out.
Heres just a random picture i grabbed from the set. Its a little blurry but my main concern is the light. It just seems to boring to me

http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a98/boostd240/Photos/IMG_3807.jpg

[mole2k]

I would try to get the lighting a bit softer, if you could mount them to a softbox it would stop the harsh shadows, also I would try to have them a bit higher and further back from the track so the light falloff isnt as dramatic.

I would use the studio strobes as they should be a fair bit more powerfull as the key light and have it pointing down at the track shooting through a softbox (this would also help cut light spill so help with cutting down distractions)

Then I would place one of the speedlights low down on the opposite side of the track to give some nice low rake lighting and give the track some texture, also with the lights behind beind the cars you could get a nice rim light. I would probably put a snoot on it so the light doesnt illuminate the track closest to the speedlight.

Both these could be pointed away from the drivers so the only flash they see is off the actually track lighting up which shouldnt be that reflective. You could probably even play with some gels on the speedlight for effect.

[Lee]

I think this would really distract drivers, the other week at the euros there was a guy taking photos and he had a few remote flashes dotted round the corner, when it went off you did notice it and it was very off putting, this was also in good daylight, if it was dark i would imagine it would be a lot worse.

[jimmy]

It was Christophe Boulain from France that was taking flash photos in direct sunlight at the Euros. He got some really interesting photos using two off-camera canon flashes running on whatever infrared trigger the Canon system used I'm not sure.

I took some off-camera stuff to the neo09 race but never used it - I just felt it would be too off-putting to the drivers. I didn't have any snoots or anything and as long as the driver isn't able to see the direct flash it might be OK at least for practice / warmup - there are worse distractions on the race track like other cars for example.

It's definitely something I'd like to see more of but I'm not sure I'll be using it at the race track just yet - I'll wait to see how you's guys photos come out before I risk the wrath of racers! :thumbsup:

[mole2k]

My idea to use the snoots and lightboxes would completely enclosethe light source meaning all the drivers saw was the track getting that bit brighter they wouldnt get to see any white surfaces to reflect the light.

Personally I dont really like flashes going off when driving which is why I thought quite alot about how to set it up to be as non-intrusive as possible. Playing with flash settings would be the main thing so the flashes arnt firing at full power the entire time.

The only other alternative is get hold of an f1.2 lens and a camera that has good noise reduction at very high iso's.

[rcTom]

Something else to think about; my max sync speed is 1/250, during the day i usually shoot at about 1/400-1/600. So I'll really have to pan with the car to get it sharp.

I guess i could just fine an active corner that's facing away from the racers, and try to set something up there.

I don't have any softboxes, only umbrellas. And those wont controle the light very well, it might have flare kicking back to the drivers. Hmmm

Also, the flash duration is much faster on my Speedlight, so it will "Freeze" the subject alot better then my studio strobe. So i will try to just use 2 of those, one as a main and one as a track light/rim.

Camera gear:
Canon 40D
Canon 24-70mm f/2.8
Canon 70-200mm f/2.8
50mm f/1.8

I could try using the 50mm @ a high iso but anything over 800 isnt that great. Unless i use some type of noise reduction software in photoshop but that usally makes the image soft.

[mole2k]

The umbrella would probably be more of a distraction to the racers, if it's a white umbrella you could try shooting through it and then drape the back bit with black cloth to help stop any light bleeding. It would need to be near perpendicular to the rostrum to stop the drivers being affected by it.

My idea was to try to have the lights facing at least 45 degree's away from the drivers on either side of the course so the drivers couldnt see the light sources just whatever would reflect from the track.

Mixing the two lights could produce blurry images because the rimlight would be much much quicker than the studio stobe although I wouldnt be too sure if the speedlight would have the power for the key light. Although if you arnt using a softbox the power shouldnt be too bad. Some sort of diffusion would be good to cut down the harsh shadows though.

Whatever way you set them up I would mostly aim to try and mix the lighting to give the cars more 3d appearance than the example shot you posted. The rimlight should help that and make the shots much more interesting. I would think of trying a really low angle to catch the cars against the black/dark background with the rim light they should really stand out.

A 5D mk2 at iso6400 with a 200 f1.8 would be usefull (or a 85 f1.2!) although it might be stretching it buying all that gear to shoot a race :P

[craigosh]

I'd just use a make shift snoot or maybe make some diy grids out of drinks straws or cardboard, have the light quite hard to give more shape.

I'd say personally a softbox would be two broad a light and therefore to soft for the size of the cars. But it depends what you want from the image.

Your speedlights will be a better choice than the studio strobes, as you point out, because of the flash duration and should be more than powerful enough at night.

The key here is to use the flash duration to freeze the motion, not the shutter speed. Just use the shutter to affect the amount of ambient that's let in. So dont worry about only syncing at 1/250th, this will probably just cut all the ambient out.

I reckon you could get away with f8 @ iso 200 easily (i'd even try iso 100) using a power setting of 1/8th on both flashes.

[rcTom]

Yea, ive been trying to save up for a 5D MarkII for a while now, but i keep spending the money on other stuff. Studio strobes, lens, RC's haha.. It's hard for me to save.

Anyway, it's raining all day today so the night races has been canceled.
But i'm sure they will be doing it next friday as well.

[mole2k]

I find once the amount starts to get fairly large I find myself thinking of all the other nice things I could buy with the money!

[Iawata1305]

yep it soon mounts up!! im trying to think about how to fund a 1ds mk iii!

thinking about changing jobs to bank robber!!!! (or trying divorce, but that is spending money, not saving!!)

gear; 1d mkii, 1ds mk i, ex550, 17-35 l f2.8, 70-200 l is f2.8, 50 f1.8, 100-400 l.

[rcTom]

I cant wait to see what the new 1Ds series will be (when ever they release a new pro body)

I'm still set on a 5D MarkII, i really want the high ISO. I almost switched to Nikon for a D700 or D3 because of this, but then canon released the 5DII and well i just love Canon... So i stayed. haha