Ever tried photographing a rally car?!

OK, last weekend I went down to Bournemouth for the annual Rallye Sunseeker.

I remembered my trusty Kodak camera, but alas i forgot batteries. so I had to use my phone...

not good. But has anyone ever tried to take a photo of a moving rally car?!! mission impossible.

Here's what I came up with in the end.








Awesome day out, there was a lack of VWs though...

 

On a normal camera do this -

what you want to do is set the focus to manual and focus on a tree or something that in the same place as you intend to take the pic

Now when a car comes along follow it down the road in the middle of your viewfinder , when you reach the tree or point take the pic and keep the camera moving

That way depending on shutter speed you get a crisp car and semi blurred backgroud , so gives the impression of speed

If you cam is a basic one see if it has a sports mode and that will help and and just lose a bit of depth of field which is fine of you have the manual focus

On a phone do this -
Have the button pressed halfway down so that the exposure and stuff are correct , hence when you press the button it takes the pic instantly
make sure you pan the camera as above and your be fine

 

^^ GVK nice shots, is a fair bit easier when they are coming straight on at you like that, than when you are totally side on and they are doing silly speeds - past you in a blur.

Some where in the middle produces good shots and is a bit easier. My SLR will take 3 frames per second, have it on a fast shutter speed and follow the moving object. Im crap at it but eventually I get a decent shot

 

My camera is just a Fuji S5100 , 'advanced' point and shoot camera with a few adjustable settings - trouble with those shots is we were on the exit of a blind bend, and even though we could hear the cars approaching, some took us by suprise how bloody fast they came through the corner.

I've got some side on shots from the Brit-car race, i'll post a few up.

Not perfectly sharp but ok.









If you use too fast a shutter speed the car looks like it's parked on the track,

I think I used 1/160th on the Shutter priority mode, it gives a nice blur on the wheels

Good thing about the Britcar was the night time.

 

Plymouth Baracuda (with side exhausts!) at goodwood revival



always remember to pan with the car, and carry on going as you press the shutter and a bit afterwards- dont stop as you press the button.

 

Nice shots gents

It's all about the pan..

 

Cool.

 

you should be able to get a clear shot even with a cheap and nasty camera as long as you track the car along while your pressing the button like mentioned.

this was hammering along & i took it with a cheap 2mp camera:

 

Pan, pan, pan, pan, pan...No.1 rule...

These were with my old Fuji S5500 (similar to the one Gary mentioned above);







...again not bad, for a basic camera.

These, I took at Cadwell at the weekend using a Canon 450D (bikes are even harder BTW... );

 

I've got a Finepix s5000 & find that the shutter lag is abysmal, press the shutter release with the car in the centre of the viewfinder & find that you have a shot of the boot.

How did you guys get such good ones with similar cameras? I've tried sport/action mode & fast shutter speeds on manual.

 

press the button while your panning, press it early & while your pressing it pan along following the car without slowing down.

it will then be down to working out when to press the button early if your camera has a delay in it

 

Thanks Guys! i guess moving with the car makes a lot of sense rather than just trying to snap it quickly... why the hell didnt i do that more often!

nice photos there, i like the ones at.... Brands Hatch?! in the BTCC, also 'theboymike' i love that Mk1 mexico, absolutely gorgeous! I'll be going to thruxton soon so i'll see if I can perfect the technique!

 

Gaz37 - use the S mode (shutter priority) @ 1/160th - Dex gave me those tips at the Brit-car race I took the shots at.

Used M mode for the night pics with a long exposure time.

Shutter priority explained here

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shutter_priority

 

Maybe a good thread to add tips on Photography, I'm sure we have a few 'experts' on here.

I know Elucidate and Dex know their stuff, and others!

 

It also helps if your camera has a continuous shooting mode.

Pick the point where your subject will appear, half press the shutter button to focus on that point.

When your subject appears, hold in the shutter release, and pan with it.

You`ll end up with half a dozen or so pics, with generally the first and last, not so good, but you`ll have three or four perfect shots.

This is the technique used by most top motorsport/action photographers since the advent of digital cameras.

Panning and clicking off one shot was more relevent when using film, since you only had a finite number of shots to take.

Obviously, with digital, you are unlimited.

 

my camera (and all digi SLR's I would imagine) have different focus settings, and setting it to continues focus helps keep the moving subject sharp

 

Some SLRs are better than others at continuous focussing. You have to be quick off the mark to use continuous focussing for something as fast as a car is likely to be going past (going on my own experience of track days).

Or maybe I'm just rubbish at panning!

 

Thanks for the comments - you've got to love a cheeky bubble arched escy

I took a load of the britcar and A1 GP cars at the same event but the classic touring cars are my favourite shots.

For panning shots I usually manual focus on the line of the track and use a small aperture so the focus isn't critical - stopping down is usually required to get slow enough shutter speeds anyway.

The posted shots were all shot at about 1/80 @ F/10 and ISO 100 if anyones interested.

Continuous autofocus can be useful but it means you have to keep a focus point on the car which can compromise composition; although these can be a useful reference point against the car when panning.

If you want the whole car sharp it pays to stand nearish the centre of a nice constant radius bend too..

 

Was pleased with this today, there's LOADS of crap ones, half a car, out of focus , sometimes both. Silverstone track day M3.

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