Hello, I'm new here

 

In a couple of months my other half will be doing a (bike) track day at Donnington Park and I'm signed up to take photos.

 

My photography up to now tends to be largely dogs, landscapes and candid portraits. I have a bit of experience shooting dogs on the move (I have two whippets) but none with vehicles or anything else travelling at those kind of speeds!

 

Does anyone have any tips or experiences they'd like to share?

 

I'll take my Nikon D7000 with Sigma 70-200 f/2.8; I may also take my second body (D5100) with Sigma 70-300 f/4-5.6 in case I want a bit of extra reach. I find that lens a bit naff but figured it'd be better to take it than not. I've also got a monopod to save my wrists with the 70-200. Other than that I'm going in a bit blind really!

 

Thanks in advance for any replies.

 

Gemma

Having done a bit at Knockhill in the past, I would suggest a couple of things:

1) learn how to use manual. Meter of the track - that way you will have consistent exposure of the track no matter what bike happens to be in shot. Nothing worse imho than a different exposure level every pic depending on the bike in shot.

2) Learn how to pan. Bikes look best if the speed is conveyed and the best way to do that is to have the bike stationary with the track blurring and panning is essential for that. Lower is better when it comes to panning and motion blur.

3) With regards to the above, find a shutter speed you are happy with and stick with it. You don't want to be experimenting while your other half is on track and end up with zero worthwhile pics with everything blurred. Know your own limit.

4) If possible get some varied photos of action ie knee down in a slow speed corner as opposed to all of them blasting full pelt down a straight. Also some of the paddock and pre/post track showing the emotions of the day.

5) When panning, if possible allow space at the front of the bike. The bike will look better moving into space than having all the space behind it or being slap bang in the middle.

 

If you want to discuss anything drop me a PM.

Wow thanks! Great advice. What shutter speed would you suggest for starters when panning?

Good response above. Completely agree with 1, 2 and 5 esp from my recent F1 weekend.

 

Mono-pod is very useful accessory and worth carrying on the day 

Try starting at about 1/200 and work up or down from there. What you want to see is the bike frozen but the background blurred.

 

You will be able to successfully freeze the bike at slower shutter speeds with practise and generally the slower the shutter speed the better the effect (greater blurring of the track behind).

 

Be critical though - if you want to print it later, you will see any blur on the bike so better to have the bike 100% crisp and less background blur.

That's great; thank you. I'll be sure to share any decent pics here if I get any!

Do you think I'll be better off with continuous focus or just single point? I assume continuous but I've never had great success with it.

Personally I use Single point AI servo on my Canon 50D - not sure what the equivalent is on Nikon.

 

You want it continuously adjusting focus as it moves but don't let it pick the focus point - you want to control that so it picks the right bike to focus on at the time of opening the shutter.

I would use AF-C on the Nikon with single point AF, start tracking the bike as it's coming towards you.  Use continuous shutter on low 2-3 a sec and start at 1/160 shutter and bring it lower if you can although you will find it hard to get sharp shots although they will have more of a feeling of speed (wheels turning etc)  you could try shutter priority and set this as desired, let the camera work out the aperture based on exposure.

 

Shoot as the bike is coming in and around the corner so it's not travelling at such high speed..

 

Just my 2 cents.. enjoy the day and don't miss it taking photos..