# Motor Sports Photography Tips



## S-X-I (Sep 6, 2006)

Next weekend I will be heading up to Knockhill for the British Touring Car Championship and it will be the first time using my new camera, a Fujifilm FinePix S9600.

Does anyone have any advice or tips on what settings to use for capturing the cars on track and also some paddock pictures?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.


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## icedub (Nov 11, 2005)

I'm not really familliar with that model of camera, but the principles will remain the same regardless.

For the paddock shots it will not really matter too much, you could leave it in full auto or programmable auto and let the camera take care of itself. Alternatively for more creative shots, I would use the aperture priority setting, as this would give you far more control over depth of field. The higher the f number f5.6/ 8/ 11 will give you sharper results from foreground to background, the lower the f number will allow you to pich your focus point and blur forground/ background as you wish. The camera will then set the shutter speed for you for correct exposure.

For the track shots, you will require a different set up. If the camera has it you may want to use the 'sport' mode, this mode usually automatically sets itself up for higher shutter speeds and ISO thus setting the apature to suit.
If not then you will probably have to use shutter priority setting, you will let you set the shutter speed you require (most shots will probably be at the long end of the lens, so a good minimun speed for sharp shots at 300mm would be approx 300th/sec as a rough guide) and the camera will set the corresponding aperture to achieve correct exposure. If this cannot be achieved you may have to increase the ISO to make faster shutter speeds possible, please note though higher ISO settings can lead to more noise in the image. It really is a case of balancing settings to get the best result.

Also it is worth mentioning shooting in RAW if possible, it will take up more card space but with post processing software (RAW converters), you may be able to play with he image to a far greater extent. Handy if you really want to rescue a shot that is too dark, ect. Photoshop CS2/ CS3 have good RAW convertors built in.

I hope this has helped out a bit fella.


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## james_RScos (Mar 13, 2006)

Have a read of this.

http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=135409

written by a great.


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## mkv (Jun 12, 2008)

Hey,
i should be there too...dont if to take camera or not.....full corporate hospitality!


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## S-X-I (Sep 6, 2006)

Great help so far guys, its a lot of info to take in but i'm sure the results will be worth it.

Keep the tips coming!


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## John-R- (Feb 4, 2007)

One quick tip, I used to use when I was doing M/Sport stuff with "film"

Select your focus point on the track and set your camera to that point, then pan into there when your tracking the car you want to photo, that way at least you get the main area in focus.

John


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## skynet2029 (Mar 18, 2008)

Some camera's can be selected to have a continuous focus as opposed to spot so that you half press and hold the shutter and follow the subject which can lead to great shots of motion and give good impressions of speed, shutter speed will be the judge of how they turn out though.


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## S-X-I (Sep 6, 2006)

Thanks again for the tips guys.

I have both auto focus and continuous focus on the camera so i'll give both techniques a try.


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## S-X-I (Sep 6, 2006)

Thanks for all the above help guys.

The results can be found here,

http://www.detailingworld.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=82462


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