va_connoisseur

Greetings All,

This topic may have been discussed elsewhere but I thought it was good for us novice to have a topic dedicated to this. I just purchased a Nikon D50 and plan on taking photos of the on-road RCs. In my opinion, the off-road stuff is easier to get a sense of motion because of the flying debris, jumps, more frequent pile-ups, etc. So here are my questions are it relates to capturing motion shots for on-road cars:

1. What is the best technique for capturing motion?
2. Do you shoot mostly laying down with a mini-tripod/monopod to capture a more "full sized view"?
3. Does the background blurring effect come from panning with the car (this may be related to question 1)?
4. Cars moving perpendicular to the shooting position appear to give the best results, however should the focus element be the car or the track just under the car?
5. My plans are to shoot 95% outside, so light should not be an issue, for the indoor carpet guy, would the same principles apply?(Probably not but figured I would throw it out there)
6. Any other tips would be helpful.

I plan on going out to the track this weekend and burning off a couple of memory cards full of shots(experience being the best teacher) but I figured any pointer could help me and other novices. Thanks.

Foxy

I'm sure, amongst others, Tiger N Bennie will be along to help you with this, he is a superb photographer. You can see his work in the Buggy Pictures thread in this very forum. Good luck, I look forward to seeing your pics!

EDIT: Sorry, I meant the Buggie pics in the 1/8th buggies forum (wasn't paying attention which forum I was posting in, sorry!).

psiturbo

People use a mini tripod or the typical bean bag (similar to a canvas sox full of beans or sand).

Yes, the blur effect is from panning; its not easy. You have to take the shot almost in advance because the fraction of reaction time to to activate the shutter will make the difference between getting the car at the right spot. I usually practice with one of my kids telling to run or ride the bicycle. its a matter of taking it perfect on a perpendicular spot, think way in advance, many shots will be lost...

Dont set the camera in sport, my Digital Kodak has a settings to control speed, the smaller the aperture the slower the speed and thats what you want. 1/60, 1/125 shutter speeds.

If you are using flash (indoors or even outside) the camera will set the speed to 1/125 or 1/250; its somewhat a standard on the photography world do to the time it takes from the flash to send the light, bounce back and get captured by the lens. If you use zoom, the lens speed will be higher by default, so stay away from zooming. For example a golden rule in SLR is a 500 mm lens will be set to a minimal speed of 1/1500 shutter speed to control the minimal movement unless you have a tripod, but you are planning on going hand held. These are just a few basic rules to go by. I recommend doing a Google search on adction photography how to, basic of sport photography etc.

Good Luck

psiturbo

By the way I found this great link of R/C photography in action.

Its 1/8 and 1/10 On and Off Road action.

[link=http://robspics.com/gallery/album01]Rob's Pics[/link]

va_connoisseur

Thanks for the tips. I went out this weekend and shot some at the local track. Took a few shots but I finally got comfortable shooting. Only issue is I set the shutter too high so the cars look like they are modeled. But practice makes perfect so I will be back out there next weekend.