Moto Photography tips!

Post up some of your current photos and I can give you a few tips.

Wasn't there a thread/forum that Buckley or someone was giving pointers in?


Me personally, I can only tell you how to take blurry, grainy photos.

I don't know anything about a 600D, but you will want to shoot at 1/800 and up to get good sharp pics. Depends on whether you want to stop the wheels from spinning and how much light you have. The faster you go the less light you let come in, this is another reason you need the big F/Stop. Outdoors you can get by with a higher F/Stop but indoors you will need to get a good F2.8 lens (70-200mm) or big prime lens (300mm). I shoot in Shutter or Manual mode and almost always shoot RAW so I can do whatever processing I need to in Lightroom. Find whoever shoots at your local tracks and talk to them, the only way to learn is by trial and error and through the words of wisdom you can pick up from talking to the pros at the track. Being a rider might give you some insight to places on the track that you think will make a great shot as well.

A lot of info in this thread

http://www.vitalmx.com/forums/Photo-and-Video,23/Anyone-got-any-photo-q…

^^^

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Check out
MR-images.com
I'm not sure what he uses for settings but really admire his work.
KC

Here are some pics from this past weekend in Atlanta, I am no pro but you can see my camera settings for each pick take to get an idea of the basic setup I use. You want to try and fill the frame, I hardly ever crop any pic.

Atlanta SX 250cc Gallery

I second everything Chad says. You have also got to get good at editing IMHO - everything from cropping to boosting colour as needed is important... I have sometimes edited a pic back from deletion into one that is worth selling !

FYI. I'm just a 50+ long retired rider. with medium level gear but every lens I have is f2.8 which seem to be sharper and allow you to shoot at higher speeds when you need.

Not saying I am great but some of my stuff is at: https://www.facebook.com/heelerphotography/

try going to manual mode, use the zoom lens to get some depth.

A few tips:
the lower your F stop(apature), the more shallow the depth will be. Meaning the background will be out of focus giving you separation from the rider. This looks great but also harder to focus... for example:



wide angle shots are cool also, just need to get close to fill up the frame:



Also lighting is a major component. Shoot early morning or afternoon when the sun isn't so high in the sky. That makes a major difference. See this first photo was most likely around 1pm and the shots below were sunset. Really makes the image pop.

My first camera 5 year ago was the 600D as well. The 18-55 kit lens is pretty useless if you want great looking shots (high aperture, chromatic abbreviation, slow af.) The 50mm lens is a little better for soft backgrounds but the auto-focus on the 600D pared with this lens is a little slow for motocross, so you'll have to get good with manual focus.

As for shooting itself, you will have to learn what shutter speed, ISO and aperture means and how to combine those three elements. There are a lot of tutorials on YouTube that go in depth.

Im not familiar with the Tamron lens but a lens above 70 mm will give you a nice soft background. Just beware that you have to be real steady if it doesn't have stabilisation.

Search videos on YouTube for in depth tutorials regarding sports photography!