Hi folks,

Looking for a little C+C on these photos, I have thousands from this event and some are a lot better photos but these are the ones that I like .

I'm a total amateur and these were taken standing up with no tripod etc also with a tele photo lens.

Thanks

Crop to give greater effect and try and position yourself at gravel corners (out of the way of slingshot though) next time for some dramatic shots!

I'm a complete amateur too, but I'd say:

1 - Really like it, but can you get rid of the flag in Photoshop? (and remember to look for these sort of things next time, I learnt the hard way - panning shot of a car, the "money shot" is spoiled by a lamp post )

2 - I think it would be better framed left and up a bit, so the car is more to the bottom right

3 - A bit of advice I've read many many times from different people is, "give your subject room to move in the frame" - with the car going right, and positioned in the lower right of the frame, it's "trapped" in the frame

Hope this all makes sense

Crop to give greater effect and try and position yourself at gravel corners (out of the way of slingshot though) next time for some dramatic shots!

I have loads of gravel spray shots, I just don't particularly like them lol. No doubt someone who is a 'Wiz' on photoshop could make them look good, but, unfortunatley I'm not :(

I'm a complete amateur too, but I'd say:

1 - Really like it, but can you get rid of the flag in Photoshop? (and remember to look for these sort of things next time, I learnt the hard way - panning shot of a car, the "money shot" is spoiled by a lamp post )

2 - I think it would be better framed left and up a bit, so the car is more to the bottom right

3 - A bit of advice I've read many many times from different people is, "give your subject room to move in the frame" - with the car going right, and positioned in the lower right of the frame, it's "trapped" in the frame

Hope this all makes sense

Thanks Babs, I will have a shot of cropping that flag out. I had a brilliant picture of a Evo9 on 2 wheels before it flipped until some moron stuck their fat head in front of my lens and blocked the shot!

The only advice I can give is get out there and practice, then practice some more.

I like to get up nice and close, with a wide angle and flash

Not so slowly sideways by J.F.T, on Flickr

Even using the onboard flash can get good results, just bringing out the highlights

RAC 2008 by J.F.T, on Flickr

What camera are you using btw, what manual options do you have?

Sometimes it's better to prefocus and have the exposure set in manual.

Learn the limits of your kit and see what works for you.

Edited 7 September, 201213 yr by YorkshirePudding

Love the shot of that Escort!

Love the shot of that Escort!

They're both Escorts :p

I have a Canon 550D with kit lens and a Tamron 70-300mm f4.0-5.6, so pretty basic kit I need to use it more tbh :-/

Love the white escort pic Mr Pudding.

And kiddy I think you've done well. I would imagine fast moving things are had to photograph.

Register on the British Rally Forum and have a look at the rally photography section on there. There is often some good advice posted there as well.

Thanks for the comments on the Escort pic,

What post processing are you doing as even jpegs from a DSLR will still need a bit of work to get the best out of them.

Hope you don't mind but I've had a quick play with this one,

IMG_6310 by J.F.T, on Flickr

Nothing fancy just a mess with levels and a bit of a crop.

The Exif data in the pic shows you had a shutter speed of 800th/sec, try using 125/250th/sec for panning to get some blur, both of those Escort pics I posted the shutter speed was set at 90th/sec.

Relax, be smooth, don't snatch at your shutter release and don't stop panning when you take the picture.

Post processing? What is that I haven't edited any of my photo's, I have CS5 but have no idea how to use it. On a side note, here is a video of the Escort from my picture..... It's Steve Bannisters famous Mk2, have a look at his driving videos... The guy is awesome!

You don't have to be close to the action:

Totally agree with the getting out there and practice. If it's rallying you want to specialise in, try attending some single venue events, where you can get all day action, and try playing with different settings and angles etc. At a single venue event, i can take upwards of 1200 photos. I've now started shooting in RAW, so due to file size, i've cut down on the amount i'm taking, and with the editing, i'm rather pleased with the outcome. These following 3 shots were from the Lincoln Green Stages Rally held at Blyton Park Circuit on Saturday 8th September. I covered 8 of the 11 stages they ran, and came away with 1400 shots from the day. These 3 were some of my favourites.

I have loads of gravel spray shots, I just don't particularly like them lol. No doubt someone who is a 'Wiz' on photoshop could make them look good, but, unfortunatley I'm not :(

I am a big believer that it should be right in camera, Photo shop is there for the odd tweak but not a save all, remember you can't polish a turd!

I particularly like Sweet Lamb as a venue as you have a lot of locations in a smallish area to shoot from, here is a mate of mine who later in the day rolled this MK i down a big bank, nobody hurt and MK i is away being rebuilt!

Have taken pics of Skodas on WRC at www.retro-speed.co.uk. I use Canon D7 with 2.8 70/200 lens or a 300. My advice is to use single point focus and practice panning shots. Head on, in or out of corners, usually allows the camera to focus better than if the subject has some sideways movement. If something really good happens, ie, a car spins or heaven forbid, rolls, don't panic. Wait until you have proper focus before pushing the trigger.