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.

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