2016 Roar before the Rolex 24 pics

Thanks

I did it the right way but it didn't work.

Sometimes it shows as a link in the preview but embeds in the reply.

I just posted the video in the New Ford GT thread using the same method and this time it worked.

Either this forum has a mind of it's own or I'm jinxed

 

I shoot through the fence all the time as it makes for a great angle. These two pictures of the BMW and Corvette were shot through the fence using a Canon 400mm 5.6. I use a monopod to help keep the camera in one spot. I put the lens as close to the fence as I can get without touching it and center the lens over one hole in the fence. Most of the time the fence doesn't show at all and if it does its because I changed the angle following the car and the fence creeps in. At the very worst I may get a light vignette if I fade back a bit but that can be corrected in PS.

I feel kinda bad when I walk over to a stretch of fence with a few people straining to shoot over it because they don't have a step stool and I'll set my stool down and sit on it shooting as low as I can get through the fence.

The only time I try to fade the fence away with depth of field is when I'm physically unable to get up against the fence and shoot through it like I described above. I had that problem once shooting the Indy car race at St. Pete a few years back and had some success.

So for those wanting to take pictures at the Rolex 24 there are a few options. Having a step stool will allow you to shoot over the fence which gives you room to pan your subject. You can find a hole ripped in the fence or try and put your lens right up close. All three approaches can net you some great angles.

If all else fails I guess you can get someone to hold you on their shoulders.
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I like your shots and you're certainly on the right track.

You mention the vibrancy of my daytime pictures and a lot of that is achieved in post editing of the images.

My photography began long ago with shooting Kodachrome 64 slide film where everything had to be perfect. Today with digital and easy access to photo editing software one can vary their approach. I've changed from trying to get everything perfect right out of the camera to shooting in a way that I know I can achieve my desired results in the end with editing software. In the beginning I resisted because I thought it was a form of cheating or using photoshop as a crutch. Times have changed and now I just consider it a step in the work flow towards the desired image.

I took the liberty of using your photos to show you how you can adjust them to your liking. What I did may not be what you want but you can see how post editing gives you options.

For the 1st picture of the 458 I added some contrast to make it more vibrant as you say.
There is also a light reflection on the ground just behind the front tire. It is probably a reflection of your lens from the lights behind. I used the clone tool to remove that because it is a distraction. I don't like to " fake " a picture and try my best to keep the integrity of the image so I won't do something like photoshop a different driver behind the wheel but I will take the liberty to remove or alter something that is there because of the photographic technique like the light reflection or add some contrast or make something lighter or darker if needed.

I didn't do anything to the 2nd picture but I would have changed the framing by cropping it a bit different. A general photography rule is leaving space in your image for the moving object to " move " into. So in the case of the second image I would crop the image so there was less space behind the car and more space in front of it.

When I'm actually taking the picture I zoom out and leave myself enough space in the raw image to crop it how I really want it. It also gives me the space to adjust the horizon making it level or giving it that little tilt everyone seems to like. Looking back at my set of pictures, most of them have been framed that way in the editing part and I was able to do that by they way I shoot them.

The 3rd shot you have it just the way I was talking about in the 2nd shot. The only thing I would do is get rid of the bumper of the car in front as it adds nothing to the shot and is distracting. I would either crop it out or use the clone tool like I did in the 458 shot to remove it for the added space.

The 4th shot for me is a little washed out and not vibrant like you say so I used the burn tool to darken the background and then added some contrast to get the vibrancy you're looking for. I also used a touch of " sharpen " just to the car.


You can try to get them perfect out of the camera or take the pictures in a way you can use editing software to complete the desired image and think of the software as another dial on your camera as I do.

I'm not a teacher and I'm certainly not an expert in photography. I just figure out enough to get what I want and of course my way may not be the best. I hope it gets you thinking in the right direction to get what you want out of your images.




Just yesterday a friend saw my posts in this thread and asked why I was giving away all my secrets. Today I got on the internet and there was a quote on the home page......

" life's most persistent and urgent question is, ' What are you doing for others? ' " - Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

It's kinda like that
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Ideally, it would be great if one could take pictures that needed little to no editing right out of the camera and it would be a huge time saver.

Speaking for myself, it is very hard to get a perfectly framed shot while panning so as I said above I shoot with enough room to adjust the frame in the editing process. If I relied on getting it right at the time I snap the shutter I would get about 5% as keepers. When I shoot in a way so I can frame it later in editing I get 100% so it's worth the time.

Generally, all pictures will require some sort of editing to get from camera to final destination. You'll almost always have to resize and while you're there you can make any other adjustments to get your desired results.

Shooting with a short lens like my 70-200 at the track leaves a lot of unnecessary space around the subject so in a lot of cases I crop the picture to put more emphasis on the subject. The only way to save time on that would be to get a 600mm but I don't have $11,000.00

Keep in mind that we are talking about action photography where cars go by over 100 mph. Where anything can happen and hopefully you're ready for it. It is very different than say landscape photography where the photographer can place his camera on a tripod and carefully frame his shot and fine tune his exposure. I can take sunset pictures all month long and the only editing I'll do to 99% of them is resize. 99% of the pictures I take at the track get at least a moderate amount of editing which can include resizing, adjust the frame by cropping, add contrast, burn, dodge and sharpen.

I also give myself credit on each picture and I manually place my credit to a place in the picture where it isn't distracting. You can automate it to set in a particular position like bottom right hand corner but I take the time to place them manually for the optimum spot. BTW I hate looking at pictures where the photographer puts some giant logo / credit in a prominent spot in the picture to the point where it dominates the image.

In the two days I was at the Roar I took over 3,000 pictures. First I go through and pick out all the ones that are worth editing and put them in a separate folder. Since I'll take a shot of a car each time it comes around I'll have several similar pictures of the same car at the same spot so I'll pick the best one(s) to narrow the pile down even further. When I have picked out the best and have them in a folder, I then edit them. Starting there, it takes me about a half hour to edit 14 pics to the point where I can post them here on Fchat.

 

If you are wondering if their flash burst spilled into your shot and affected your settings I would think that is a very remote possibility. Your camera is firing at a fraction of a second and so is theirs so you both would have to snap at identical times for their flash to affect your camera.

Not impossible as I've shot other different type events where that has happened at times but it only happens once. If many of your shots were washed out like your R8 shot it would definitely be because of your camera settings. You could tell if someone's flash went off the exact time you took your picture as it would be different from the rest.

I began with Photoshop Elements on a Mac ( windows Version also available ) and it has everything I need for what I do so I've stuck with it.






Here is an example of someone's flash affecting my picture as I photograph a Daytona bikini contest.
No editing on these two pictures other than resizing them for this post.
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For that BMW shot I have my camera on a monopod and I'm shooting through the fence from a low angle sitting down on my stool.

I try and keep the ISO as low as possible and still get the shutter and aperture as I need.

I like a shallow depth of field to blur out the background so I set the 400mm lens wide open at 5.6 and with an ISO of 400 I get a shutter speed at 1/500th of a second which is fast enough to freeze the action.

In this position I'm only shooting the cars in the turn and I'm not trying to show speed like a pan. I'm looking to capture stuff like a tire off the ground or the driver or anything else that is part of the turn.

The 1st picture of the BMW I've put in this post is exactly how it came out of the camera. The only thing I've done to it is resize it for posting on Fchat. It is not affected by the fence. In the version I originally posted I added a little contrast and sharpened it a bit which also brings out some texture in the track surface.

The picture of the Ford GT is an example of what I meant by a car coming towards you while trying to pan it for a picture. Trying to capture the car that way takes a different technique than shooting a car coming at you like the BMW.
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Wouldn't it be nice if copyrights were respected and strictly enforced worldwide