My first tries on DSLR-photography

aaron_ · #1 18-07-2007

...so there was this Canon cashback-thing back in April till June.
I originally wanted to go with Nikon (D200) but they don't have the compact, leight weight 70-200mm f/4 zooms.
This together with quite a low price on the 30D made the deal for me.

Here are some pictures with the combo (and a Tamron 17-50 f/2,8 for the wide angle things)
I'll only post the first one of the series and hyperlink the others since they're quite big (almost always near 100% crops)
Click on the pictures and the should enlarge to full size.

Hpi Racing Firestorm 10T
For review purposes. This one was actually quite easy, since trucks generally react more sluggish and are less prone to get thrown around.

Some still shots
They still need post processing

Buggies in action
Well, with buggies, I always have difficults in tracking them. At close distances of ~2m at 200mm focal length, I can hardly get sharp pictures:

http://www.offroad-cult.org/Forum/im...0070606/P1.JPG

So the solution was to back off a few metres, which makes focussing and tracking easier, but requires a lot of cropping.
You might remember the location, since the pictures were shot at the RMC-Vienna

I like the wide-angle shot a lot better, tough I didn't like how I had to place myself to get the picture

Next time, I'll use a tripod and a red dot sight on the camera so I get a bigger field of view and catch up with the action faster at close distance.
It's going to be my first race behind the camera

I hope you like the photos! C&C is always welcome!

VintageRacer · #2 18-07-2007

Great static shots. The fire in the background looks fantastic. Pity about the lens and flash reflections on the other 2, Photoshop ought to be able to sort them out.

Page curl !!

. It's just wrong (IMO)

Lee · #3 18-07-2007

Very cool photos, love the losi!!

Vintage:

What do you mean the flash reflection and the lens? I am new to this so i am not picking up what the trained eye would see, if you could point out the imperfections i would be grateful.

mole2k · #4 18-07-2007

Great first shots, the fire is a great idea.

When Im shooting buggies I quite often take the pictures when they are at the apex of the corner, I would also for the most part manually focus on a point then take the picture once the car enters that point. I usually go for as short a distance between me and the car to enable you to get some nice soft out of focus backgrounds.

aaron_ · #5 18-07-2007

Thanks for the kind comments so far!

Vintage Racer, I'll upload a better fire shot without the page curl effect later.

Mole2k, thanks for your input!
Do you have any tips for manual focusing and "guessing" the right moment?
I tried prefocusing (although with AF) but the results weren't very good: DOF is about 40-50cm, and when you're low on the ground, there's hardly any reference for you to see, when the Buggy is about to enter the DOF.

The Nikons have a focus trap, Canon excluding the 1D series have not, which is really a shame

It could be very useful in shots where the car is coming towards you and the ground is to "flat" (perspectively spoken) to guess the distance.
The Canon focus trap means taping the last contact plate on the right of the lens when viewed from behind, but you loose any autofocus by doing this.

bigred5765 · #6 18-07-2007

awsome stuff
good luck with the new cam

mole2k · #7 18-07-2007

Quote:

Originally Posted by aaron_

Mole2k, thanks for your input!
Do you have any tips for manual focusing and "guessing" the right moment?
I tried prefocusing (although with AF) but the results weren't very good: DOF is about 40-50cm, and when you're low on the ground, there's hardly any reference for you to see, when the Buggy is about to enter the DOF.

The Nikons have a focus trap, Canon excluding the 1D series have not, which is really a shame

It could be very useful in shots where the car is coming towards you and the ground is to "flat" (perspectively spoken) to guess the distance.
The Canon focus trap means taping the last contact plate on the right of the lens when viewed from behind, but you loose any autofocus by doing this.

Generally when I prefocus I do it at the slowest point of the corner to give me the most chance, If you are looking at a car driving towards yourself at 200mm at a relatively close focal distance then the car will go in and out of the focal plane very quickly. The trick is not to wait untill the car is in focus, if you see the car in focus in the viewfinder then you missed your window, as the car is about to come into focus I would usually fire the shutter then depending on the speed of the cars comming towards you.

The way I learnt was basically at my local club we race indoors and I would go and fire off 500-1000 shots every night practicing getting manually focused head on shots untill i could hit them at a relatively sucessfull rate. I did a few over jumps that i basically set the focus point to where the cars would be as soon as i see them pass a point.

Here is a shot from the BADMCC track in N.Ireland. The shutter speed was far to high but I didnt have any 77mm ND filters with me to slow it down enough to get a bit of wheel blur sadly. I was crouched on the ground with the camera poking through the wire mesh fence about 6" off the ground at the end of the main straight this was just into the braking zone.

aaron_ · #8 23-07-2007

another few... (again, click to enlarge)

(I just kept it because of the nice reflections)

@Mole2k
Thanks, I'll try that next time!
Though, prefocusing on even soil without much texture is hard for me. I can't see the exact location of the focal plane. It may be easier on grass?

mole2k · #9 23-07-2007

Those are looking great Aaron, the only real thing wrong with them is something you cant directly change and thats the light. Ideally you would of wanted slightly softer light by taking these at a later time of day so the shadows are less harsh but thats no always possible.

The pre-focusing is all about timing, it takes a long time to really drill it in, basically you have to do it instinctively and even then its quite hit and miss at time's, you will find yourself getting lots of shots with sharp rear wings. I normally figure out the distance that a car will travel from when tell myself the press the shutter till there is a picture taken then focus infront of the point i want to take the picture. I see the car hit the the marker (can be very hard on some surfaces, indoors I use the lines marking different courts, outside i use different shades of stuff.) take the picture and the little time delay inbetween gives the car time to drive into the 'in focus' area.

The size of the gap changes with car speed, focal distance, angle so it generally is just a matter of try it and adjust focus from there.

aaron_ · #10 23-07-2007

Quote:

Ideally you would of wanted slightly softer light by taking these at a later time of day so the shadows are less harsh

I knew someone would point that out

Initially, we wanted to start earlier in the day, but with all the setup work, it was around midday until i finally could take the pictures.

I experimented a bit with fill light (shooting exclusively raw) but the colors get washed out too soon.
After all, I think the flashy colors of the bodyshell don't go too bad with the harsh contrasts.

About focusing, I wonder if a EOS 1D series camera could do it relieably?
But if I borrow one, there's always the danger that I'll get veeery unhappy with my equipment

practice should be the better alternative here.

mole2k · #11 23-07-2007

It would depend on what lens, Id imagine something like a 1D mk2n with a f2.8 ring usm lens would be able to keep up fine outdoors.

So thats just a few thousand :P

The harsh lighting doesnt look that bad compared to what it looks like on some other types of photos. The sharp shadows look good on the air shots.