Photography tips? (1 Viewer)

[Bob]

Joe,

The camera I've got isn't anything all that special. It's like the bottom of the line digital SLR camera Canon still sells. It's 8.1MP, can shoot in JPEG or RAW format plus all sorts of other things I haven't even gotten a chance to try yet. It's major point for me is the compatibility with like 50 different Canon EF lenses.

Buzzz,

Do you think a prime telephoto lens would be a good thing to look at as well? Just trying to think.

Thanks again for all your comments and help y'all.

Bob

 

[dragboatphoto]

Joe,

The camera I've got isn't anything all that special. It's like the bottom of the line digital SLR camera Canon still sells. It's 8.1MP, can shoot in JPEG or RAW format plus all sorts of other things I haven't even gotten a chance to try yet. It's major point for me is the compatibility with like 50 different Canon EF lenses.

Buzzz,

Do you think a prime telephoto lens would be a good thing to look at as well? Just trying to think.

Thanks again for all your comments and help y'all.

Bob

Same one i've got ... the body somewhat becomes useless the lens is the important part. I use a 300 f4 lens sometimes its a little much though and sometimes not enough.

 

[Bob]

Same one i've got ... the body somewhat becomes useless the lens is the important part. I use a 300 f4 lens sometimes its a little much though and sometimes not enough.

Mike,

First off, thanks for the link you posted earlier. I saw some pictures on there that excite me! My brain hurts from all the photography information I've crammed into it this weekend, LOL. I live right next to a US Highway, so I'm thinking I'm going to take the kit lens (EF-S 18-55mm II) and go practice my panning once the weather warms up. Unfortunately, I'm not going to have a lens worth a darn until I get to Atlanta and rent one. I just want to get a feel for shutter speed, aperture, etc before it's showtime. Time to go sleep and see how much of this info soaks in...

 

[Buzzz Miller]

The 70-200 2.8 is the lens! I love it. It is so clear that you can crop the pic and still have a great shot.
All of these pictures were taken with that lens.
2008 NHRA Winternationals
The best purchase that I have made is that camera and that one lens.
These too
Fireturd testing

 

[Toejam]

Them are fightin' words Joe! I will see you in Phoenix!

That lens is a great one. Rental may be a really good idea. Great lens that you can try before you buy. Or just try and not buy. You will find that when you have light, you will get shots that will boggle the mind. With that lens you can shoot as fast as the camera can shutter, and still get great color and depth. When it is so dark that you will have to use a flash, you will find the camera weak on getting a flash all the way to the car to really freeze the car in time. But don't throw away the pictures that don't look great at first. Some of those odd ones come out to be the best because they are unique. Adding some of the needed light in Photoshop can resurrect the worst shots from their darkened state and bring them to life.
Show us your shots and Joe will tell you what you did wrong!

Hey I'm not one to argue with Buzz, he's been doing this a hell of a lot longer than I have. I was just judging from my own experiences, I upgraded from a Nikon D100 to the 200. And most of the upgrades are not related to the shooting quality per say. But the larger LCD, the light for the dark, etc..

 

[T-Bone]

Pre-focus the camera on a spot on the track that you want to take the action shot and follow the cars to that spot with the camera..
I like to be in the middle to the top of the track when I shoot from the stands and I will pre-focus the camera on the farside of the track in front of me. I then pan the to starting line and follow the cars just about the spot and shoot the picture..

Thats exactly what I do as well...although when there's some fathead with a big hat in front of you...it makes for a frustrating day practice practice practice....

T

 

[T-Bone]

The 70-200 2.8 is the lens! I love it. It is so clear that you can crop the pic and still have a great shot.
All of these pictures were taken with that lens.
2008 NHRA Winternationals
The best purchase that I have made is that camera and that one lens.
These too
Fireturd testing

Uhh...Buzz...WOW!! Awesome pics. Now I gotta go practice more...

T

 

[Turtle]

I recently brought myself a Casio 7mp digital camera to take some happy snaps when I am out and about. Now by no means am I a good photographer, but I can get some pretty nice pics during the day. However, when I'm in poor light or at night when the flash is needed, all my pics come out very dark and fuzzy. They only light up whats in the very foreground and make the backround very dark. Can anyone give me some tips on night shots?

 

[Potknot]

How do you guys feel about the olympus E-510?
also do they make a 70-200 or 70-300 lens for this camera?
thanks Joe Goodin
Hopefully someday
CSA Photography

 

[Kevin]

I recently brought myself a Casio 7mp digital camera to take some happy snaps when I am out and about. Now by no means am I a good photographer, but I can get some pretty nice pics during the day. However, when I'm in poor light or at night when the flash is needed, all my pics come out very dark and fuzzy. They only light up whats in the very foreground and make the backround very dark. Can anyone give me some tips on night shots?

Without being familiar with your camera my best guess is you need to shut off the flash. Your camera's CCD still may not be sensitive enough to take good night shots but that should eliminate the illuminated foreground / dark background effect.

 

[.]

The 70-200 2.8 is the lens! I love it. It is so clear that you can crop the pic and still have a great shot.
All of these pictures were taken with that lens.
2008 NHRA Winternationals
The best purchase that I have made is that camera and that one lens.
These too
Fireturd testing

You need to change the compression or resizing program you're using on those pics, they all have jaggies. Just look at the edges or straight lines, they look like tiny little steps. I know it's not the camera causing it, it's something else in your workflow.

 

[Gutter Brain]

Help...
On my way to the March Meet, I think I lost my digital camera. I had a Sony Cybershot. It did the job pretty good. There was some blurriness sometimes.
I mainly use my camera for trips to the zoo or whatever with my son, who turns 7 on Sunday. So, I am hoping for something that will take some great pics of kids at soccer, stills, etc. I am looking for something somewhat small. I want to be able to take a lot of posed shots of my son, friends, etc. Hopefully I can take some good action shots too. I do not need the super shots Joe and Buzz and others can take far away at the races. That would be an added bonus.
One that I was looking at was the Kodak Z1275. I have see this about $185. That is about the range, maybe high side, of what I am looking to spend. Does anyone have thoughts on this camera? Recommendations?

 

[HEMI6point1]

Don't go by Megapixels.

If you want a sub $200 digicam, go with this: Canon PowerShot A720 IS

The Canon has an image stabilizer, which you don't know how hugely useful it is until you've had it.

 

[Gutter Brain]

Thanks, Sam. I honestly don't know enough about this stuff. There are some great features there too.
Is that what you use?

 

[Ranger]

Help...
On my way to the March Meet, I think I lost my digital camera. I had a Sony Cybershot. It did the job pretty good. There was some blurriness sometimes.
I mainly use my camera for trips to the zoo or whatever with my son, who turns 7 on Sunday. So, I am hoping for something that will take some great pics of kids at soccer, stills, etc. I am looking for something somewhat small. I want to be able to take a lot of posed shots of my son, friends, etc. Hopefully I can take some good action shots too. I do not need the super shots Joe and Buzz and others can take far away at the races. That would be an added bonus.
One that I was looking at was the Kodak Z1275. I have see this about $185. That is about the range, maybe high side, of what I am looking to spend. Does anyone have thoughts on this camera? Recommendations?

Eric,
I like the Fuji cameras. S-5000, S-5200, up through the S-8000. They all have a great zoom lense and are pretty easy to learn to use. The S-5500 is what I have now and it will get you out there and stop a car at the far end of the track. They use xd cards and you can get a gig card for under $30. The camera will set you back around $250.

 

[Devilbrad]

I have the Canon Rebel XTI myself and was amazed at how many people had them at the March Meet!! One thing I've learned is to shoot the images in the largest file size your camera allows (min is 3888X2592, or roughly 3 foot wid and 2 foot tall, LOL), get Photoshop, and resize or crop from there. Also, DONT lose the originals. When altering them, "save as" with a different file name, as you cant recover the original quality. As someone else said, dont discard the "bad" pics, theres hidden treasure in some of them, case in point. Sorry for huge pic, changed it to link. Disclaimer: I am an amateur, LOL

Before. Horrible pic, car out of center, guy in the way, blurry, etc etc.

http://www.devilbrad.com/images/RandomPics/IMG_0549.JPG

After. Cropped way down just to the engine. I feel it emphasizes the ground pounding of a nitromethane engine. Again, I am an amatuer!

 

["Dr. Dirt"]

You need to change the compression or resizing program you're using on those pics, they all have jaggies. Just look at the edges or straight lines, they look like tiny little steps. I know it's not the camera causing it, it's something else in your workflow.

Brent, you kill me! He's a mere amateur, yet his photos have been on the cover of multiple magazines. He's had his images used worldwide by the very principals he shoots and is quite often requested to do custom work. One Pro Stock racer uses his launch shots to determine what chassis adjustments to make to continue to move forward successfully. His photos are hanging everywhere and many here request the right to use them for their wallpaper yet they are not good enough for you? You're actually worried about the manipulation of the very shots everyone else praises him for? What's that tell you? I can tell you what it tells me.
Buzzz is an amateur photographer. Nothing more-nothing less. Take his work for what it is. Now, if you want to question his expertise in land sales, I want to sit in on that debate. He's already sold more land this year than most professionals will ever sell in a lifetime. Now, that's an area of his expertise, why don't you hold your criticism to that area. FYI, he's established expertise in many other areas and he's become quite a perfectionist when it comes to quality. You recently received your National Dragster in the mail with one of his paint jobs on the front cover and he's admittedly not a painter. The last car he painted for this friend won best appearing car in Sonoma a couple years ago, but he's not a professional painter-just a guy who takes pride in his work just like his photography. I believe you would do best to pick on someone else's work-but, there again, that's just my opinion. I doubt Buzzz really cares what you say.

 

[Harry Mannback]

If you want to take better photos, take this class:

Learn from the best

Dan

 

[.]

Brent, you kill me!

Did you actually look at the pictures to see what I was talking about? Go ahead, look at the edges, they're filled with jaggies from over compression or resizing artifacts. I don't care if he's a novice or a professional, that's beside the point, on the edge of every object in those pics it looks like miniature stairsteps because of resizing/compression artifacts. They're great shots but the processing made them look much worse than they should. Every straight edge in those pics reminds me of the old 8 bit Atari video games of the 80's.

 

[Rusty]

I'm late on the post and been out for awhile, but you know with Baytown looming I'd be bound to show back up. Just a few quick comments...the better your knowlege of photography the better your drag racing images will be.

Learn to pan with the action. It's like a golf swing and the follow through and gently squeezing the shutter release takessome practice. I would not recommend opening the lens up to 2.8 . Shallower depth of field means it's more likely the car will not be in the zone of sharpness when you take the image. It also freezes the background which takes away from the sense of motion as has already been discussed. Lenses also will be less sharp at 2.8 than other openings as well.

Move around...nothing's more boring than 100 shots of different cars on the smae position on the track. Shoot high and low in the stands, but be considerate of others and watch out for the standers. Most importantly have fun.

Pit Gopher