Motor racing again

[rawill]

I am looking for comments on this photo:


Taken at Levels circuit, Timaru, NZ.
Round 1 South Island Formula Ford 2015 championship.

Speed 125, and panned, always a challenge for me to get the image sharp.
A bit OOF I know.
Pity the sheen on the track was not a bit bigger to get the whole car into the reflection!
But you take what you can get when they are doing 150+kph.
We have talked about it here before, but just interested in any comments on this photo.

robin



My attempt at some changes after reading the below comments

[Shadowman]

Nice panning, good reflection. Could use a bit of contrast/sharpening in certain areas to help emphasize the speed.

[rawill]

Thank you John.

[Donald]

What about going tighter on the crop and taking out that bit of grass verge at the bottom. It's not contributing anything to the image, in my opinion.

[rawill]

Thank-you Donald. I did wonder about that. I left it in to indicate the edge of the track. Maybe it is a distraction.

[Dave Humphries]

Hi Robin,

Good feedback above from Donald and John.

It could also be made a bit brighter, although - as you have it now, it certainly imparts how dreadful the weather was.

[rawill]

Hi Robin,

Good feedback above from Donald and John.

It could also be made a bit brighter, although - as you have it now, it certainly imparts how dreadful the weather was.

Very true Dave. The weather was not too bright! I will have a try with it to make some of the above changes.

[Manfred M]

Ethan - what strikes me about this image from a technical standpoint is that it is rather underexposed.

When I look at it, I see values that should be close to pure blacks and pure whites, but the shot is quite muddy looking. Ideally, the place to nail the exposure is in-camera. but setting the black point, white point and gamma in PP would clean up this shot a lot.

[rawill]

Manfred, thank you.
So what will I be looking to change in the camera,
I am guessing making sure the white balance is correct.
Sad to say something I have never touched.

[Stagecoach]

I am looking for comments on this photo

I think you have done well Robin and a very good pan shot.

As the others have said it could do with a bit more contrast to it but you need to be careful not to reduce the 'wet spray' effect. I opened in ACR, made very minor exposure,highlights, black point and shadows adjustments then applied 25% noise reduction. Opened up in my editing software and applied selective localised sharpening and contrast enhancement to just some areas. Not sure I should have removed the track edge, but it gives an idea.



PS. Your focus was not out.

[jcuknz]

I don't think the white balance is particularly off but adjusting black [ a small amount] and white point [a considerable amount]
What editor are you using for your PP?
Finally a good bit of sharpening helps to recover from the OOF you mention ... it is not serious so sharpening is possible

It certainly captures the apauling conditions both you and the drivers had to put up with, rather different to the sunny day shot you last posted?

[rawill]

I think you have done well Robin and a very good pan shot.

As the others have said it could do with a bit more contrast to it but you need to be careful not to reduce the 'wet spray' effect. I opened in ACR, made very minor exposure,highlights, black point and shadows adjustments then applied 25% noise reduction. Opened up in my editing software and applied selective localised sharpening and contrast enhancement to just some areas. Not sure I should have removed the track edge, but it gives an idea.



PS. Your focus was not out.

I am so glad I put the photo up. Thank you all for the feedback. I like what has happened to it in the latest edition. My original had no extra work other than a crop.

[rawill]

I have Gimp and NX2, and some other lower end editors.
I used NX2 to crop it, and I might have mislead above, I may have played with the curves.
I did another photo at the same time.

Robin

[jcuknz]

Presentation is part of the job and large white boirders are a NO NO with digital presentation and degrades the image in this case with its glare ... peak white 255 URRRGGH!
It is acceptable when viewing by ambient light ... you never view slides with 'peak white' borders or let the projector show white following the last slide if you are any sort of projectionist.

[jcuknz]

I have Gimp and NX2, and some other lower end editors.
I used NX2 to crop it, and I might have mislead above, I may have played with the curves.
I did another photo at the same time.

Robin

Curves tool as an adustment layer is what I used and my editor [PSPx6] gives me a representation of the image on the tonal scale so it is easy to bring the bottom and top of the line inwards to match the representation.
This is a rough drawing of what I see with the black indicating what your shot showed me with the red line being how I adjusted things.

[rawill]

Many thanks.

[Stagecoach]

Presentation is part of the job and large white boirders are a NO NO with digital presentation and degrades the image in this case with its glare ... peak white 255 URRRGGH!

You can always turn the brightness down on your monitor John

[Almedia]

Hi Rawill,

Just a tip about panning you might find useful. When planning to pan, place your feet where you intend to end the pan NOT at the begining of it. Turn your upper body to the begining of the pan like a golfer before he swings it might seem a bit awkward but when you unwind at the point you shoot, your body will be more stable.

[rawill]

Never thought of that. Thank you, so obvious when I think about it. Think I might do it a little, but now I will put it into practice more deliberately.

[Dave Humphries]

Hi Alan, Robin,

When planning to pan, place your feet where you intend to end the pan NOT at the beginning of it. Turn your upper body to the beginning of the pan like a golfer before he swings it might seem a bit awkward but when you unwind at the point you shoot, your body will be more stable.

I would actually suggest that advice be modified slightly in as much as the pan should be continued somewhat after the shutter is tripped (or held, then released, if shooting in burst mode).

Stand to face the point where you intend to shoot (perhaps opposite an area with cleanest background), then 'wind up' by twisting body to start pan as vehicle (aeroplane, whatever) approaches, trip shutter at appropriate point, but continue pan (body twist) after 'hitting the ball'.

This technique will certainly improve upon panning results achieved when;

a) stood facing the approaching vehicle and being uncomfortably twisted by the time you get to the best angle, or
b) shuffling from foot to foot to rotate, or
c) unconsciously pre-empting the end of pan and slowing down just as you are shooting

Yup, I've done all those things in my time!

Alan - welcome to the CiC forums from me.

Cheers, Dave