Reading mode: Light Dark

Action Technique Question

Go to last post
M

Mark Richard

Well-known member
Messages
152
Reaction score
0
Location
AU
Hi Everyone,

Last weekend I tried taking some shots of Radio Controlled Cars with my CP995. The weather was overcast but not too dark so Exposure Time was around 1/200s. I was at full telephoto - trying to get as close to the cars as I could.

Since they move pretty fast ( 50kph) it was difficult to time the shots. I was half-depressing on the area in which I intended to take the shot before the car arrived. Sometimes the result was blurry though. I'm not sure if it's because the focal distance changed or if I had camera shake (will this happen at 1/200 with 4x zoom handheld?)

In this scenario (fast moving object, lot's of zoom) would I have been better to lock focus at infinity? I figure I could then blur the background in PS if necessary.

I don't have any sample shots right now but will try to post some. The initial results have given me confidence that good results are possible but my technique needs something changed. Does anyone have experience with a similar type of subject?
 
Hi,

Thanks for the suggestion. I did try panning when I could but often the cars were coming directly towards me. This is why I tried locking the focus, then panning to the car and trying to time the shot. I'll try a faster shutter speed next time - the weather is meant to be sunny this weekend but the cars will also be going twice as fast (on-road instead of off-road).

I'll try to find a position where I can pan a shot and I might try a few focusing options to see what works best.
Steven S said:
I think if you were to try panning the shot, you'd get the car in
focus, and the background blurred. I also think you should bump up
your shutter speed a bit more, to maybe 1/500th.
--
Steve S
http://www.pbase.com/sshyone/root&view=tree
Click to expand...
 
Mark Richard said:
Hi Everyone,

Last weekend I tried taking some shots of Radio Controlled Cars
with my CP995. The weather was overcast but not too dark so
Exposure Time was around 1/200s. I was at full telephoto - trying
to get as close to the cars as I could.
Click to expand...
It sounds like you've got a lot going on there. It'll probably take some doing before you get more than a few keepers out of the bunch, but if you like a good challenge, you've certainly picked one.

I agree with Steven, that your biggest obstacle sounds like the lack of illumination and the longer shutter speeds that you have to contend with as a result. Panning the camera with the subject is a good idea, but even that will take a bit of practice to get the rhythm down. If the cars are following a predictable path, pick a point on that path where you expect to take the shot. If it's possible to prefocus manally at that distance, then so much the better. Begin tracking the car with the camera well before it reaches that point and when it's there, press the shutter, but don't stop panning the camera until after your sure that the exposure has completed.

If you have an external speedlight, especially one with an IR slave sensor that could be triggered with the cameras internal flash, placing it somewhere near where the car will be travelling should just about guarantee a sharp exposure.

--
Tom Young FCAS member
http://www.pbase.com/tyoung/
 
Mark Richard said:
Hi Everyone,

Last weekend I tried taking some shots of Radio Controlled Cars
with my CP995. The weather was overcast but not too dark so
Exposure Time was around 1/200s. I was at full telephoto - trying
to get as close to the cars as I could.

Since they move pretty fast ( 50kph) it was difficult to time the
shots. I was half-depressing on the area in which I intended to
take the shot before the car arrived. Sometimes the result was
blurry though. I'm not sure if it's because the focal distance
changed or if I had camera shake (will this happen at 1/200 with 4x
zoom handheld?)

In this scenario (fast moving object, lot's of zoom) would I have
been better to lock focus at infinity? I figure I could then blur
the background in PS if necessary.

I don't have any sample shots right now but will try to post some.
The initial results have given me confidence that good results are
possible but my technique needs something changed. Does anyone
have experience with a similar type of subject?
Click to expand...
Mark, it's been many years ago that I did successfully get some race car photos using a 35mm SLR (manual focus only), Steven's suggestions of panning and a faster shutter should be helpful, also getting shots of them coming towards you or going away from you will help. It is hard to NOT get a blur if trying to shot as they go past you. Good luck this weekend, I'd like to see your results.

Mike

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hummingbird Hunter with loaded Five Seven OO
http://www.pbase.com/Mike__B
 
Mark,

In addition to the panning suggestion and the speed factor, you may want to try a technique that has worked for me photographing horses. Pre-focus either manually or AF on the spot you want to get the cars coming through and set your camera to Continuous High. This will give you a burst sequence and most often, you will have at least one of the three shots the camera takes in focus. The slave flash is also a very good idea due to the lighting challenges you will have. I've never tried this with vehicles but it works quite well with horses. Good luck.
--
Andy
 
...Last summer. on a bright sunny summer day with my 995. I gotta tell you, it ain't easy to get those skittering little speed bugs lol. It's amazing how much speed they can get from such little toy (NOT!) cars. They look like toys, but they're far far from toys. Good luck!

--
God Bless,
Jim
CP995, CP800
icq#47512307
http://www.pbase.com/jrj02
 
This is what I do using my 990 for moving aircraft:

Do pan with the action, it helps. Set the focus to manual and 30' and set the f-stop to the middle of the range, if possible.

1/200 with max zoom and a 4x is pushing hand-holding for most people, panning will buy you something, just how much varies with the person and the day. Some days, I'm good to a 1/4-1/2 sec, others, 1/500 doesn't seem enough....

--
'I may not know much about art, but I know what I like' John Cleese
http://www.pbase.com/baywing
pbase supporter
 
I didn't get a chance to take any shots this weekend - but they race every week. I'll post a couple of shots from the first weekend tomorrow and add a link here.

Out of the 60-odd shots I took there are a few which I'm really happy with. As someone mentioned - these critters move so fast that it can be difficult to know what you will capture some times.

I'll have to practise my panning technique and perhaps even try the fill flash technique. I must admit that I never considered using the flash in sunlight but it sounds like it's worth trying.

Regards,

Mark.
 
Hi again.

I've uploaded 8 original images to pbase. Try either:

http://www.pbase.com/sparky_rc

OR

http://www.pbase.com/sparky_rc/rc

I'd love suggestions both from a photographic point of view and also from an image editing point of view. These shots are straight from cam. The bluish tinge around many of the cars is actually the exhaust fume - they blow smoke because of the simplicity of the engine.

Regards,

Mark.
 
Great shots, Mark.

I imagine it was pretty hard to compose your shots when trying to compensate for fast moving objects and the shutter lag on the 995. You did an excellent job. If these were the "blurred" shots you were concerned about earlier, don't worry. If you use too high a shutter speed it will look like nothing is moving ... which is worse for action shots.

You "might" want to try lowering the contrast setting in your 995 on bright days like this ... it will help prevent clipped highlights ... but it may also require a little brightening in PS to restore perfect exposure.

In general, I'd say all these shots need is some basic PS work: levels, curves, maybe some noise reduction (if desired), and then finally some sharpening.
Mark Richard said:
Hi again.

I've uploaded 8 original images to pbase. Try either:

http://www.pbase.com/sparky_rc

OR

http://www.pbase.com/sparky_rc/rc

I'd love suggestions both from a photographic point of view and
also from an image editing point of view. These shots are straight
from cam. The bluish tinge around many of the cars is actually the
exhaust fume - they blow smoke because of the simplicity of the
engine.

Regards,

Mark.
Click to expand...
 
rustedborg said:
Great shots, Mark.

I imagine it was pretty hard to compose your shots when trying to
compensate for fast moving objects and the shutter lag on the 995.
You did an excellent job. If these were the "blurred" shots you
were concerned about earlier, don't worry. If you use too high a
shutter speed it will look like nothing is moving ... which is
worse for action shots.

You "might" want to try lowering the contrast setting in your 995
on bright days like this ... it will help prevent clipped
highlights ... but it may also require a little brightening in PS
to restore perfect exposure.

In general, I'd say all these shots need is some basic PS work:
levels, curves, maybe some noise reduction (if desired), and then
finally some sharpening.
Click to expand...
You're right about them being hard to compose. That's what I love about digital though - "film" is cheap so I can try shots that I probably would bother wasting convential film on. These are the better shots, although the blurry ones typically weren't that different. You're probably right about not wanting them too crisp though - I don't want them to look staged.

I never knew that lowering contrast can help clipped highlights - which I've suffered from on more than one occasion.

Do you have any good suggestions for noise reduction in PS? Perhaps I should ask the same question in the retouching forum.
 
Mark,

I use PS at work and PS Elements 2.0 at home (because I didn't want to fork over that much of my own cash when I don't need CMYK). I use Macs at work and at home.

The best noise reduction program for both PS and Elements I've found is the Noise Reduction plug-in from http://www.theimagingfactory.com .

The best coolpix-camera-specific noise reduction action (for PS only) is Fred Miranda's Noise Reducer for the Coolpix line. If you have a Coolpix camera and full PS, Fred's noise reducer does an excellent job of removing ISO noise without destroying image detail ... not an easy thing for most noise reduction methods.

I'm also a big fan of Fred's Intellisharpen plug-in ... much quicker than messing aroung with Unsharp Mask manually ... and Intellisharpen usually (but not always) does a better job than my manual use of USM.

As for the low contrast setting, I leave my CP885 set on Low Contrast at all times unless I'm doing ambient-light/low-light photography at night. If it's bright outside or you're using flash, Coolpix cameras (like all consumer digicams) usually clip the brightest highlights. Lowering the in-camera contrast helps reduce this ... but it generally darkens the image a bit ... so in those cases you have to mess with levels, curves, and brightness. Another solution is to use selective spot metering ... but that can potentially slow you down and would make action photography that much more difficult ... but not impossible.
Mark Richard said:
rustedborg said:
Great shots, Mark.

I imagine it was pretty hard to compose your shots when trying to
compensate for fast moving objects and the shutter lag on the 995.
You did an excellent job. If these were the "blurred" shots you
were concerned about earlier, don't worry. If you use too high a
shutter speed it will look like nothing is moving ... which is
worse for action shots.

You "might" want to try lowering the contrast setting in your 995
on bright days like this ... it will help prevent clipped
highlights ... but it may also require a little brightening in PS
to restore perfect exposure.

In general, I'd say all these shots need is some basic PS work:
levels, curves, maybe some noise reduction (if desired), and then
finally some sharpening.
Click to expand...
You're right about them being hard to compose. That's what I love
about digital though - "film" is cheap so I can try shots that I
probably would bother wasting convential film on. These are the
better shots, although the blurry ones typically weren't that
different. You're probably right about not wanting them too crisp
though - I don't want them to look staged.

I never knew that lowering contrast can help clipped highlights -
which I've suffered from on more than one occasion.

Do you have any good suggestions for noise reduction in PS?
Perhaps I should ask the same question in the retouching forum.
Click to expand...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Keyboard shortcuts

f
Forum
m
My threads
Mobile site
About
Editorial content
Cameras & Lenses
Community
All content, design, and layout are Copyright © 1998–2025 Digital Photography Review All Rights Reserved.
Reproduction in whole or part in any form or medium without specific written permission is prohibited.
When you use DPReview links to buy products, the site may earn a commission.
©GPS Media - Guides, Products, Services.
Back
Top