First time out - Mitty shots

[Bill Peirce]

I get to go to about 20 or 25 car events a year and have been wanting to take up auto photography as a hobby. So I bought an XTi, Canon 70-300mm IS, Sigma 18-50mm and set out to have some fun.

I didn't even try to take any shots with the shutter speed set slow, so don't worry about telling me these cars looked parked---I know it. I mainly used the AUTO mode, but did try the P-mode and MANUAL stuff but it's all too confusing right now. Between worrying about f-stops, shutter speeds, film speed, lens, etc. a man could go crazy. I'm also new to using PhotoShop, so please excuse the first try at editing photos----but please give me input!

KISS was my approach at the Mitty. Just take some photos to get the feel for the camera and then work my way up to using different settings. Then maybe go buy some nicer glass in a few months; then maybe a new body in a year or two.

I have to admit that I was surprised that I shot over 600 photos. Wow. How did that happen? Anyway, I have only had time to edit 100 or so, deleted about 300 and so you can see the results of a few of the first 100 I did keep.

Road Atlanta sure doesn't make it easy to get photos. I'm used to being on the track, so I didn't realize how hard it was to find a spot to sit and take photos. I guess a 300mm lens is just not going to cut it for this track?

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- Bill

[Bill Peirce]

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Parked? Nah---just a newbie...
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- Bill

[Jeff Kapic]

Good job for your first time out Bill. The best advice I can give is to keep going out and keep shooting.....shoot, shoot, shoot. Don't be worried about how many, as long as you have enough memory cards. I'll shoot 1000-1500 per day sometimes.
It's hard for me to comment on the processing as it seems like there is some variations in most of the shots. And you really need to develop your own style. Some do very little and others do quite a bit more...it just depends on the look and feel you want to portray.

If it's a bright sunny day with little or no clouds, shoot ISO 100-200. If it's cloudy or overcast maybe ISO200-400. Shouldn't have to go higher than 400 unless you get into evening or night shooting.

Nothing wrong with shooting in Auto until you get more comfortable. But, start thinking about Tv (time value or shutter priority) to be able to control the amount of motion you want to show. For head on shots maybe 1/320 and up. For pans about 1/320 and lower. These are VERY loose guide lines. It really depends on the location you are shooting and how fast the cars are moving and what you want to portray in your images. In Tv, all you do is adjust the shutter speed, the camera will adjust the aperture accordingly.
One very important step to do when you get home to look at them, is to check the EXIF and see what the settings were. This should help you more than anything to see what worked and what didn't.

Jeff

[Bill Peirce]

Good job for your first time out Bill. The best advice I can give is to keep going out and keep shooting.....shoot, shoot, shoot. Don't be worried about how many, as long as you have enough memory cards. I'll shoot 1000-1500 per day sometimes.
It's hard for me to comment on the processing as it seems like there is some variations in most of the shots. And you really need to develop your own style. Some do very little and others do quite a bit more...it just depends on the look and feel you want to portray.

If it's a bright sunny day with little or no clouds, shoot ISO 100-200. If it's cloudy or overcast maybe ISO200-400. Shouldn't have to go higher than 400 unless you get into evening or night shooting.

Nothing wrong with shooting in Auto until you get more comfortable. But, start thinking about Tv (time value or shutter priority) to be able to control the amount of motion you want to show. For head on shots maybe 1/320 and up. For pans about 1/320 and lower. These are VERY loose guide lines. It really depends on the location you are shooting and how fast the cars are moving and what you want to portray in your images. In Tv, all you do is adjust the shutter speed, the camera will adjust the aperture accordingly.
One very important step to do when you get home to look at them, is to check the EXIF and see what the settings were. This should help you more than anything to see what worked and what didn't.

Jeff

Thank you so much Jeff. What a great reply.

So if you take 1000-1500 shots in one day, I don't feel odd shooting 600. It's funny, but I didn't know the image count had climbed that high until later in the day and I was amazed.

I think the ISO for most of my shots were set at 100. AUTO setting almost always just sets it to 100. I'll play around with it when I go out next.

I noticed in the EXIF data that most of my bad shots were when I used MANUAL. That means I have NO CLUE of what to set the f-stop, speed, ISO, white balance, etc. I noticed most of my favorite shots were in AUTO or PROGRAM. It was interesting to see how much difference the exposure changes from F5.6 to F11 or higher. I learned a lot from looking at the EXIF data this morning thanks for suggesting it.

I think many of my panned shots were set at about 1/320 but the background didn't blur. So should I set it to a slower speed the next time and see what happens? If I use TV, then if I understand what you're saying, I just have to mess with the shutter speed and the camera will adjust the F-stop?

Thanks again, I'm truly bitten by the bug now. I have a track testing date in June at Mid Ohio and I am already finding myself trying to figure out how to get track side inside of behind the wheel so I can try some more shots. This is kind of addicting.

Bill

[John Thawley]

Thank you so much Jeff. What a great reply.

So if you take 1000-1500 shots in one day, I don't feel odd shooting 600. It's funny, but I didn't know the image count had climbed that high until later in the day and I was amazed.

I think the ISO for most of my shots were set at 100. AUTO setting almost always just sets it to 100. I'll play around with it when I go out next.

I noticed in the EXIF data that most of my bad shots were when I used MANUAL. That means I have NO CLUE of what to set the f-stop, speed, ISO, white balance, etc. I noticed most of my favorite shots were in AUTO or PROGRAM. It was interesting to see how much difference the exposure changes from F5.6 to F11 or higher. I learned a lot from looking at the EXIF data this morning thanks for suggesting it.

I think many of my panned shots were set at about 1/320 but the background didn't blur. So should I set it to a slower speed the next time and see what happens? If I use TV, then if I understand what you're saying, I just have to mess with the shutter speed and the camera will adjust the F-stop?

Thanks again, I'm truly bitten by the bug now. I have a track testing date in June at Mid Ohio and I am already finding myself trying to figure out how to get track side inside of behind the wheel so I can try some more shots. This is kind of addicting.

Bill


A quick note about panning and using Tv mode.

By all means, pan using shutter preferred. But, in addition, check the focus points and set it to a single (center or bottom center) point. Focus points are those little lights you're seeing flash in your viewfinder. When in multiple mode, they will tend to hunt and your image won't be sharp... they won't really lock on to a spot you designate. Check the book and change it to a single point.

JT

[Jeff Boerio]

Addicting -- yes!

For your panning shots, yes, to blur the background more, use a slower shutter speed (Tv). Take a look at some of the pros around here. They're shooting some pans as slow as 1/60! I tend to be pretty steady at 1/160, and have had some success down to 1/80.

Shooting digital is beautiful. You can shoot as much as your cards can handle. You can throw images away.

You're off to a good start.

Jeff

[Bill Peirce]

A quick note about panning and using Tv mode.

By all means, pan using shutter preferred. But, in addition, check the focus points and set it to a single (center or bottom center) point. Focus points are those little lights you're seeing flash in your viewfinder. When in multiple mode, they will tend to hunt and your image won't be sharp... they won't really lock on to a spot you designate. Check the book and change it to a single point.

JT

I did that in the PROGRAM mode and I could tell that it worked better. I didn't think about using the bottom center, but that makes sense. Many of my shots were too focused on the grass in front of me. Now I understand why.

Thanks,

- Bill

[Jeff Kapic]

Thank you so much Jeff. What a great reply.

I think many of my panned shots were set at about 1/320 but the background didn't blur. So should I set it to a slower speed the next time and see what happens? If I use TV, then if I understand what you're saying, I just have to mess with the shutter speed and the camera will adjust the F-stop?

Bill


Yes Bill, a slower shutter will blurr the background more on a pan shot. And yes again, in Tv mode all you need to worry about is the shutter speed, the camera will do the rest (so to speak).
As John said, it is important that you are using only one of your focus points, then just do the best you can to keep that point on one part of the car as you pan with it. Don't worry about white balance, just leave it in auto, which it looks like you did.
Also important is to be in "AI servo" mode for your focusing. I don't know anything about the XTi so that may not be available. Check your manual. AI servo will continuously focus the lens as the distance from the subject and lens changes (and your finger is pressing the button half or all the way down).

Jeff