Posts
465
Joined
2/23/2015
Location
Byhalia, MS
US
Edited Date/Time
9/26/2018 7:52am
So I know there are plenty of photographers here with plenty of experience shooting moto including our very own GuyB. I'm looking to get into this for a bit of fun with friends at the track and doing some fun stuff when I'm not riding. Nothing professional is just I generally don't race anymore so I thought photos would be cool. So with that I've been looking at entry level DSLR and feel a bit overwhelmed by the minor differences between each of them much less the step up "intermediate". models. So I have almost made up my mind on the nikon d3400 due to its being $500 with a 18-55 and 70-200 lens and shoots 24mp with a burst rate of 5 shots per second. My question is will I be happy with this style camera for a decent amount of time or will I out grow it quickly? Is there anything else I should be looking into? Is this setup going to be good for local track pics?
Edit: I did shoot with at Budd's Creek 2017 and did not shoot on burst mode so I wouldn't worry about using that. Just get good at waiting for the right moment and take 1 photo.I shot with a D600. Here is an example of what the D600 can do. https://www.instagram.com/p/BdWETtxlNjz/?utm_source=ig_web_button_share…
https://www.instagram.com/millerrr973/
We are still learning so they're not pro grade and none of these photos have had any photoshop to clean them up.
The Shop
I always hated going to the track and not being with the people that had the cool camera and they never cared what I was doing. I could have the best turn or whip and they wouldn't look at me. So I want to take pictures of everyone but with no expectation of such. I'm not professional and won't be hired by anyone.
I want to take these pics and post them online free to download for anyone. No water mark or fees. If I get a good shot of your kid by accident then you should have it.
Also I think I would like to do moto "team photos" with Jr and the bike or mom dad Jr and the bike type thing but I gotta get some photo editor first.
I know doing this free leads people to expect it for free but I'm a strong willed guy who knows when to say no. I do think I might eventually charge for anything I spend time editing or something like that but again that will be down the road if I ever feel like I'm good enough. In the meantime I thought about adding a link for donations. If you get some good photos and want to donate to keep the goodwill going you can but no obligations.
I live for motorcycles and motocross in particular. It's my happy place away from work (paramedic with Denver Health) and keeps my sanity and this sounds like something fun when I'm not the one riding and something to learn.
"Is there anything else I should be looking into?"
Maybe strobes down the road. But far, far, FAR more important
than that gear stuff is how you use it. Look into really understanding lighting
and composition and developing a style. Way more important.
Here's a few I took several years ago. It's been a while since I've owned a DSLR...
Pit Row
I’m sort of in the same boat.
I’m just about being forced to buy a different camera,I’ve been using my 2 Cannon 35 mm cameras for a long time.
But it’s getting to be a real pain to find film & then get it processed. I know that my lenses will fit the newer digital cameras.
Not sure which model will work best for me, the 35 mm are EOS rebles.
Might just try & find a used body.
BTW: Where is this photo forum the FTE spoke about?
But also having a lens longer than 100mm is always nice.
My recommendation would be a second hand Canon 7D and a 70-200mm F4 to get started - they can be had very cheap on Ebay and the 7D was always a sports camera so is well suited. The glass will also move up with a full frame body.
I just shoot on film for fun and im not that good haha https://www.instagram.com/zackafilms/?hl=en
IMO, the lens is almost more important than the camera, and I think it's safe to say that the industry standard for sports is a 70-200 of any brand. The real pros will sometimes have a 300mm or 400mm, but let's not get ahead of ourselves.
I will say each of these are cropped and slightly edited. I don't have any real editing software yet so all I did was crop the pics and play with the color and dark balances. I noticed each photo was a bit washed or pale looking but look pretty good with minimal effort (less than 2 minutes per Pic.) I decided to let the camera choose the settings so that I could review them myself and see why it picked what it did. On average it was something like:
Shutter 1/1800
Iso 400
Ap 5ish.
I realize the Ap is related to the zoom but why would it choose an Iso of 400 over 100 when it was a bright sunny day with virtually no clouds? Is this something I should take into account in the future?
This weekend I think I'm going to go play with individual settings more. I was reading as well Sunday so not a lot of camera time.
Because at 1/1800th and f5-ish, ISO 100 would be under a couple stops. Either drop your shutter speed or open up at the lens if you want a lower ISO. Though the cameras are so good these days that ISO 400 is fine.
To add: I think learning how to effortlessly flow (with intent!!) up and down through ISO/shutter speed/aperture is pretty crucial.
And they all work together. Change one and you can change one of the other two to compensate.
Generally you will choose an ISO and leave it all day, leaving you to adjust the other two valuables.
Often people who shoot proffesionally or at least event photography shoot in Aperture priority mode. For this they set the ISO from the start and then choose what ever aperture gives them the most pleasing image (Depth of Field) for that particular shot and the camera automatically sets the shutter speed to get the correct exposure.
Although this is mostly used for relatively static shots where depth of field (Aperture) changes the image more than shutter speed. Wheras something like motocross where you are capturing action, shutter speed has a more prominent impact and needs to be a higher enough level to stop time. For this you might use Shutter Priority where you adjust you shutter speed and the lens will adjust exposure automatically.
Although if you ever see the shots where the background is blurry and the bike is flying through the shot really fast but is extremely sharp - they use a slow shutter and pan with the rider. Its super hard to do but can look really cool, Ive attached a couple of attempts at this. Im
sure ive seen some old cudby stuff that was amazing with this technique but i cant remembers
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