Need a tip

[Ken Neher]

Anyone got any ideas about shooting sunsets at VIR?

[Morgan J Segal]

Wait until the sun is nearly set, then shoot.... ;)

[Mike Ditz]

Is VIR like HDR:confused:

[John Thawley]

Ken... I've learned a thing or two down at the beach. :)

Morgan makes a good point. To shoot "sunset" you're actually waiting for twilight. That is the great colored sky that's reflected upward once the sun is below the horizon.

If you recall any of the great sunset shots guys have display from turn 6 at Laguna, the good stuff is actually done when the sun is blocked by the Mazda bridge. The same is often done with the sunset shot on the front straight at Sebring.

You're looking for a happy medium between a correctly exposed back lit shot and a silhouette. If you expose for back light, you're going to blow out the sky and your color. So, you've almost got to go with a an exposure that is suited to the general lighting conditions and fiddle around in post to get your color and saturation. DO NOT underexpose... you'll never pull the detail out.

JT

[Morgan J Segal]

Morgan makes a good point.


No I don't!

[Daniel Buck]

No I don't!
I was going to point that out, but decided not to. :p

[John Thawley]

No I don't!

You actually do. It's somewhat fruitless to try and shoot the setting sun. You need it to set.. at least if you're going to shoot into it.

JT

[Bob Chapman]

Ken, will you be shooting on-track stuff at sunset? Or, will you be shooting statics? VIR is not a particularly good track to shoot action at sunset, because it's tough to get a west-facing angle on the cars where there's much sky. If you're shooting statics, pit lane is awesome at sunset...shooting toward pit-in.

If you're shooting action, try a loose going-away shot at T2 or a loose head-on in the short chute between T4 and T5 (standing just to the right of the corner worker stand). The trees might be a bit tall behind T4, but if the leaves have thinned, maybe you'll get some nice color shining through. Finally, down the hill from T10, you can shoot up at the cars (head-on) as they exit the corner and drift onto the rumble stip. You can get a lot of sky in that shot (bring your longest glass, though). Even though it's not west-facing, you still might be able to get some good color.

Here's a version of the T10 shot (500mm lens on a 1.5x sensor). It can be shot from a lower vantage point to get more sky.

http://www.autosportimage.com/2009/misc_photo/20090425-g-4799.jpg

[Ken Neher]

well, it was going to be race action, so thanks for the ideas but... we had no sun, so it didnt work out- it was overcast all day except for about 5 minutes in the late afternoon, which, of course, I didnt get to shoot cause I was moving to a different corner. They even called the race early due to rain. Maybe I am the jinx- Petit Lemans, Charge of the Headlight Brigade.... whats next?