Monday, May 16, 2011
Girls and custom motorcycles
I'm excited about setting up and doing some photography at the 929 Customs open house on June 4th in Strasburg, PA. I will be shooting four or five custom motorcycles for 929. We will have models there to pose with the bikes. I have a pretty good idea of what I want to do. Key light with my Alien Bee and a shoot through umbrella. Maybe a key light for the model's hair and a ring flash. Will experiment prior to the day.
Sunday, May 8, 2011
Available light at Maple Grove Raceway
OK at Maple Grove on a sunny day is a great place to shoot. The track faces south so in the morning the sun is coming from the east and in the afternoon I shoot from the other side of the track with my back to the sun which is coming from the west. First tip, wear a shirt with a collar. If you are out there all day the back of you neck will most certainly get sunburned and if you're wearing shorts the back of you legs need protection too.
Here is a shot taken at 10:30 in the morning. Camera settings were f5.6 at 1/1250, ISO 400 with a plus 1/3 of a stop setting and the picture characteristics set for vivid. Light was mixed with clouds so conditions were changing I shot in shutter priority and with a daylight white balance. This is the jpeg exactly as it came out of the camera, just sampled down for this post. The key for this shot was the fast shutter speed. My camera was a Nikon D200 with an AFS 18 to 200mm 3.5 to 5.6 G ED zoom lens. I positioned myself about 50 feet, (really guessing on this) down the track so the car drove into position about one car length from the starting line.
This image is nice with a straight on look. You can see the car twisting under power with the left front tire off the ground. If I were to tweak this image I might open up the shadows just a bit to create some separation between the tire and the track surface.
I often take a step to the right and try to get a little more of a side view while still seeing the entire front of the car. This is a good angle because you can usually see the rear tire wrinkle as power is applied.
This image is taken at mid day; light was almost directly overhead, you can see the sun reflecting off of the visor of her helmet. I usually keep it on shutter priority and slow my shutter speed down to about 250 to increase my depth of field. If I had to guess that is what I would have thought this exposure was made at but surprise it was shot with exactly the same settings as the previous one f5.6 at 1/1250. I probably walked right off of the line and back to the burn out box to take this shot. I did do a little Photoshop work on this one sharpening a bit and lightening the riders face and the front of her leathers to open up the details.
This image was shot at the end of the day.
Here is a shot taken at 10:30 in the morning. Camera settings were f5.6 at 1/1250, ISO 400 with a plus 1/3 of a stop setting and the picture characteristics set for vivid. Light was mixed with clouds so conditions were changing I shot in shutter priority and with a daylight white balance. This is the jpeg exactly as it came out of the camera, just sampled down for this post. The key for this shot was the fast shutter speed. My camera was a Nikon D200 with an AFS 18 to 200mm 3.5 to 5.6 G ED zoom lens. I positioned myself about 50 feet, (really guessing on this) down the track so the car drove into position about one car length from the starting line.
This image is nice with a straight on look. You can see the car twisting under power with the left front tire off the ground. If I were to tweak this image I might open up the shadows just a bit to create some separation between the tire and the track surface.
I often take a step to the right and try to get a little more of a side view while still seeing the entire front of the car. This is a good angle because you can usually see the rear tire wrinkle as power is applied.
This image is taken at mid day; light was almost directly overhead, you can see the sun reflecting off of the visor of her helmet. I usually keep it on shutter priority and slow my shutter speed down to about 250 to increase my depth of field. If I had to guess that is what I would have thought this exposure was made at but surprise it was shot with exactly the same settings as the previous one f5.6 at 1/1250. I probably walked right off of the line and back to the burn out box to take this shot. I did do a little Photoshop work on this one sharpening a bit and lightening the riders face and the front of her leathers to open up the details.
This image was shot at the end of the day.
Backlighting
Well the 2011 drag racing season has started at Maple Grove Raceway. I was out there this past Friday night and Saturday to cover the American Drag Racing League, (ADRL) first ever event at the Grove. Series includes five all-professional, eighth-mile drag racing classes: Pro Extreme Motorcycle, Extreme Pro Stock, Extreme 10.5, Pro Nitrous and Pro Extreme, the quickest and fastest full-bodied, door slammer class in the world. These guys are F A S T! Door cars were topping 200 mph in 1/8th of mile and motorcycle were topping 160 mph!
So how to photograph these land rockets. Friday I arrived at the end of the day so the sun was low in the sky. I decided to try some backlit shots at the starting line. Light was low so I used two LumoPro 160 flashes with radio popper remotes to light the shadow side of the cars.
I balanced the flashes with a little trial and error to light the cars but not overpower the drama of the image. I used one flash at 1/4 power and widest angle zoom directly facing the side of the car. The second flash was forward of the car to light the front; set at 1/2 power and zoomed to 85. No stands I just set the flashes on the concrete barrier walls along the sides of the track.
Burn outs put a lot a white into the pictures which could be a problem. Using flash I usually shoot in manual mode and I just let it get blown out but shooting at 1/1000 or 1/1250 I usually hold some detail.
Shooting the motorcycles posed a little different challenge. I lit them directly from the side with two flashes on the barrier wall pointed straight at the side of the motorcycle. They were about 8 feet apart on either side of me and set to 1/2 power. I positioned myself about 20 feet past the starting line and panned with the motorcycle. I got down low to capture the second motorcycle in the far lane. I slowed the shutter speed down a bit for the panning but just to 1/800 to make sure I captured the detail as well as a sense of motion.
One added note: Many sports photographers pack big glass but that's not always necessary. I shot these with a fixed length 60mm lens. I like the smaller lenses, they're much lighter and you can zoom with your feet. Just sayin'
Please check back, I will be posting some additional images from this shoot and discussing available light shooting as well as using gradient mapping for post processing. You can see more images from this shoot at: Studio 413
So how to photograph these land rockets. Friday I arrived at the end of the day so the sun was low in the sky. I decided to try some backlit shots at the starting line. Light was low so I used two LumoPro 160 flashes with radio popper remotes to light the shadow side of the cars.
 |
| Shot: f3.5 at 1/1250 |
I balanced the flashes with a little trial and error to light the cars but not overpower the drama of the image. I used one flash at 1/4 power and widest angle zoom directly facing the side of the car. The second flash was forward of the car to light the front; set at 1/2 power and zoomed to 85. No stands I just set the flashes on the concrete barrier walls along the sides of the track.
 |
| Shot: f5 at 1/1250 |
Burn outs put a lot a white into the pictures which could be a problem. Using flash I usually shoot in manual mode and I just let it get blown out but shooting at 1/1000 or 1/1250 I usually hold some detail.
 |
| Shot: f4.5 at 1/800 |
Shooting the motorcycles posed a little different challenge. I lit them directly from the side with two flashes on the barrier wall pointed straight at the side of the motorcycle. They were about 8 feet apart on either side of me and set to 1/2 power. I positioned myself about 20 feet past the starting line and panned with the motorcycle. I got down low to capture the second motorcycle in the far lane. I slowed the shutter speed down a bit for the panning but just to 1/800 to make sure I captured the detail as well as a sense of motion.
One added note: Many sports photographers pack big glass but that's not always necessary. I shot these with a fixed length 60mm lens. I like the smaller lenses, they're much lighter and you can zoom with your feet. Just sayin'
Please check back, I will be posting some additional images from this shoot and discussing available light shooting as well as using gradient mapping for post processing. You can see more images from this shoot at: Studio 413
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