U did great to being first try, also F1 is harder than other types of race cars I would recommend to go slower on the shutter speed 1/30 or so, and In some scenarios like the one where you weren't able to see the cars coming, work with manual focus pre-focusing the floor were the car is going to pass, always go with smaller apertures like F16+ by having the slow shutter the background and foreground will not matter, also you will have all the body of the car in focus and not just a quarter front or back
In shooting photo sport cars I believe they are in speed but get the whole sport cars shows all the details on it plus remove these fencing and add colour but me I love it vivid and plus hellation on these photos and some it only vivid and other is put colour shows all detail of the cars but it is in speed great shoot .but you anthony gugliota you does shoot all these photos like these things I have seen all the same things what I have been tell I believe it need infront of the cars and or it can be left side views or right side views of the sport cars is going fast then the whole sports cars photos shooting too .I just believe these things but you knows I am just copying of shooting of photographer sport cars a very little too I believe it.
From my experience shooting motorsport eventsfor 10 years I can give you some tips: 1. Scouting is everything, always try to look for different angles what lenses you might need and how is the light going to affect the composition. 2.Try paning shots wider than 24mm, there is something special on them 3.Try your static shots with a longer lens (maybe 400mm) the backgrond compression and car details makes the shots more dramatic. 5. Panning takes practice, if you shoot on a 70-200 or longer lens try to grab it by the lens hood with your left hand (you are going to see a lot of pros doing it) when panning is going to give you a more stable base. - Great video by the way, its always cool to try new things, at the end you use what you learn for other type of shoots. - Greetings from Peru
Awesome tips! To build on those when panning get in a comfortable position, elbows in sweep with your hips. Also I’ve found the holding your breath while your sweeping the camera takes away some of the shape.
Tried motorsports photography for the first time ever as a spectator during the 24H of le Mans this year. Lots and lots of misses, but the pure joy of getting a good shot is just amazing ! Great video, showing that it's a mixed bag of struggle and fun !
One tip I have for what you said about focus around 6:36, car racing is very predictable. Cars mostly follow the racing line which is near that barraier on said straight. So you can just set your focus to just before the barrier manually and boom, focus. A remote understanding of racing helps a lot with racing photography.
I saw you there! im the big guy who said your name. I finally had the chance to try my Tamron 50-400 but couldnt do the pan shots, but i enjoyed more the photo experience than the race hahah
rule 1 the closer you are the faster the left to right movement will be so actually shooting at a higher shutter speed can look like a lower shutter speed. rule 2 to get rid of fences in front of you shoot wide open..( think, maybe a nd filter for a certain hr of the day) rule 3, the further you are the smoother the pan but the lower you mus tgo cause the left to right movement it slower than if you was standing in front of the action, this is where putting thing sin your foreground comes to play, rule4 A person tend to pan better with prefocusing especially with things in foreground. in motorsport everything thinks closer is better and its not closer is better for facial expression and teams expressions. Rule 5 the closer you are next time start panning at 1/200 and check results and you will soon realize a sweet spot from 1/200 - 1/60 ( depends on lens ) Rule 6 back button focus the most important thing when prefocusing, practice till you can't live without it, Rule 8 Mos import when a car is coming face on and is at an angle, pick a spot follow the car and take a shot, do not continue to follow the ecar all the way through ( will make sens when you do it ) You came out will lots of great shots, great job. Rule 9 treat every event as a practice session and have fun.
Loved the vid, it's always great to see people trying racing photography. There's one simple piece of advice with panning though. Keep going, and going, and going. Practice, practice, practice. Hell, I've been shooting trackside for years, and work around 30 race events per season (plus testing beside that) and my panning hit rate is not what a lot of non-racing people think it should be, but that's the case with most motorsport photographers. Ego gets in the way of sharing the truth for many of us! Last weekend was a good example, on Sunday alone I went through 8,000 shots across nine races (5,000 being from the headline three races!) There will always be contradicting advice from different pro photographers - try some of it, see if it works, any photographer wanting to turn pro in motor racing photography should keep one thing in mind though. Panning shots do not pay the bills. (And yes, I ramble about motor racing photography a lot on my channel!!)
The learnings you have shared are so valuable. I can say that there’s a lot of similarities in the techniques you had shared for other sports. Cheers to sharing your experiences both good and bad, it will save a lot of effort and time for many.
I have been shooting motorsports for a few years now...every photographer should try to experience a track day/race event for this type of photography...definitely opens your eyes to how you need to adjust/create techniques on the fly to try and get those killer shots to make it feel like you're IN THE ACTION. You did great btw! Shots look really nice for your first time out!
I'm extremely new to photography and found my way onto SCCA rally race this past weekend. It blew my mind at the differences in sharpness photos could be in a series of burst pictures. I was nervous but the other photographers were very helpful and told me to grab a vest and got into the thick of it.
It's funny how your experience was very similar to my first time shooting Formula E in Berlin this year. The problems I ran into and the conclusions I made were just like yours. Now I feel much better about the amount of bad shots I got ;)
For Motorsport presets, I would recommend that you check out Kym Illman’s presets. He is a F1 photographer and also has a lot of good tips on his channel.
Kym Illmann usually copies other creatives in the industry. He didn't learn photography, nor did he learn journalism. He doesn't shoot for teams or media outles. He himself is a media outlet and he pays F1 to be able to shoot for his personal enjoyment. He's also a creeep and regularlly doxes F1 drivers locations or the locations of their significant others. There's way better motorsports photographers out there. People like Jamey Price or Camden Thrasher. Those guys have some insane skill.
@@SebiKoerner I never said he was the best or that he is the most original or anything. I just said that he gives out a lot of helpful tips and advice to people starting out in Motorsport photography in an easy to understand manner.
As someone who's done car photography and motorsports before for something like these type of cars I probably wouldn't go any lower than 1/100 sec for the really fast cars and 1/50 for the slower ones. Most of my motorsports photography iv done has always been off road type stuff though. Last summer I went to Crandon Raceway in Wisconsin USA which is an off road racing type event. All my panning shots were around 1/50 to 1/100 The tricky thing with of road racing though is not only are they moving left to right but they are also going off jumps so you have to pan left and right and up and down with them as they go off jumps. Super challenging but also super fun. In a way this would probably be easier as they are only moving left to right mainly. Id 100% love to try it though. I bet it was a blast. Also use Servo mode and subject tracking with the subject detection mode set to cars/automobile. Great video as always Anthony.
I love that you’re getting out of your comfort zone! Here’s a tip for shooting any kind of sport: Look to tell a story with a series of images. Follow a team around and look for emotions. The most impactful sports photos aren’t the pretty ones, but the ones that show raw emotions.
Really like these recent videos where you pursue different types of action photography and show both the good but also the bad shots that occur in a day. Would love to see e part twos to them with improvements from the first and/or the series to continue with live sports and the challenges that arise indoor versus outdoors!
Nice shots. Shame I missed out leaving the weekend ✈️. I think track location and to keep moving throughout the day is important. Also my first time was with my kit lens and Sony a6400. No ai features but got some great shots last year. So gear doesn’t matter. I wish I had access to the rooftop.
Am following a lot of F1 photographers so what I learned is that they do the editing more extreme to give that punch look. For example a lot of contrast and a lot of clarity to the subject. I tried that editing style on my own photos, rock climbing and they came out amazing.
@@AnthonyGugliotta yes, drop the greenish colors from the color grading and lean more toward blue or red. Try to find some foreground to reflect blue or other colors. Try light trails when raining., reflections etc. F1 photographers are something to admire to, considering how hard is to shoot motosport We are expecting another video✌️
I photographed my second race last weekend. My first was one year ago. I used an R5 and 135. I’d like to try a 70-200 at some point. I can relate to your assessment and learning curve. Pretty spot on!
Thank you again for another great video. As someone that is just getting back into photography after a nearly 30 year break, I am looking for tips and tricks for all atyles of shooting. Oh and it's pretty cool that the drivers got to meet members of the Hip
@@AnthonyGugliottaI may be from the States but I became a Hip fan in the early 90's after seeing them open for a certain harmonica fronted band. I thought that they were better than the headliner.
I love to pan roller coasters!!! If this was your first time panning, don’t knock IS 2 too much from an Indy track! That’s the most extreme panning there is! lol I have a 70-200 mark 1 with IS 2 and it still comes clutch! My Tamron 150-600 G2 I sold did too! Basically anything with IS 2 works a LOT better than not having it. I also think maybe you had issues with is 2 being at an upward angle. I think it’s designed for horizontals. I loved this video, and I loved some of the winners!
One last tip, I'd start at say a speed of 1/320 then once you nail the shot time after time, drop down to the next speed and so on, pointless going straight in at low speeds of less than 1/100 etc and messing up every shot, if you really have to shoot a low speed then photoshop motion blur in after in post, there are Motorsport photographers out there that do that now and again just to make sure they they a clean shot of all the sponsors on the car, they large amounts of money to get there logo seen, not a blury mess.
When I started in motorsport photography, an old tog said 2 things about panning, first your stance try with your feet apart and facing the direction of the vehicle is going, and follow straight thruough the shot don't stop the momment you click the button . As for sutter speed it depends were you are at the track corner/straights etc and of course the weather ! If you have not done motorsport before are planning to go then go to the end of a busy street and practice there, try also on a corner and remember follow through. As for yourself, as you are panning I noticed that you are slightly dropping your lens (slight dipping motion) keep it straight. As for advive of holding the lens hood, well that works for lens like the 300mm f2.8, 400mm f2.8 etc. Also using a monopod on the longer lens will also help the dipping and your arms.
my experience shooting at laguna seca and other track events is my old dinosaur 1dx mk2 on high continuous basically pray and spray (shoot first ask questions later). each time i saw a car or group of cars coming id shoot that entire sequence in case something happened or not. if you're not shooting and something does happen you won't be able to react fast enough. my 1dx2 is set for back button focus using 2 buttons as single and servo and programmed another button to switch off to shutter priority so i can switch from shooting high shutter to slow shutter if i wanna pan. my lens of choice is the 70-200 2.8 mk3 for most of the event and the 35 1.4 mk2.
Also shot my first motorsport event recently! Had 3 days at a Dragracing event. Oh boy, it was a fun challenge to try and do panning shots on the faster classes.
Last year I shot at Petit Le Mans a 10hr IMSA race for my first motorsports event. I was able to attend 2 of the days so day 1 was used for scouting and testing. What I found that worked well for me was to use a small focus point and shift it so that it would be about where the lead tire would be if the car was center framed. An edit style you might want to try it to black and white everything except the car/s.
You very briefly mentioned ND filters, but I feel like they could be an important tool for spectator photographers who have to deal with fences. Even at f/5.6, they can become distracting, so when I was at Silverstone recently, I kept my lens wide open at f/2.8; but even with my iso cranked all the way down to 50, and on an overcast day, my shutter speed was still coming in around the 1/500 mark, never below 1/250 and sometimes as high as 1/1000! It was F1 so it was fast enough to get some half decent (/passable) shots, but far from ideal!
I have been shooting motorsports since 2008 pretty much anything with a engine even lawn mower races lol . I shot a ton motocross and my panning settings would usually be 1/200 or 1/250 between f10 and f12 and iso 400 or close that. I went to the free day on Friday in 2023 never been to Indy car race before and no pass either, it was definitely a challenge but I did get some good shots that I liked. Even a nice shot of the McLaren. Keep trying Anthony give motocross and oval racing or drag racing but don’t remove Lens at drag racing I bricked a 50D when piece of rubber landed on the sensor.
Street circuits are tough to shoot as you say you’re right up against a fence. Recently I went Brands Hatch with my R7 and 100-400ii and had a blast. I find you don’t need a fast lens for panning and as you say you probably need a NB. I just had a regular spectator ticket but brands hatch as lovely places to take pics from about 70% around the track, high vantage above food kiosks, track side too & next to bridges for long over the crest shots. Glad you had fun and next time get your eye glued to the viewfinder and IS mode 3 would have been your friend if 2 wasn’t working. Odd manual focus would have been fine but I think the R6 lacks the vehicle tracking, which is a cheat code lol. Peace
I use a Canon M50 for my car page and haven't been lucky enough to shoot anything as fast as indy cars but one thing that stood out to me is that being so close to the track was also kind of a disadvantage. Panning when the cars are further away would have definitely made panning easier. Also because I don't have fancy vehicle tracking I usually set a centre autofocus. plant my feet shoulder width apart and rotate at the waist at the speed of the car..seem to make it easier to track the cars.
I've went to two motorsports event this year. I was using canon R6 with 24-70mm 2.8 and I learned a lot how to shoot panning shots. Also I love the shot you took on a winning driver 🔥🔥
Had VERY similar experience a few weeks ago at the Singapore Grand Prix. I’m not a pro, so didn’t have the awesome “you get to shoot through this hole” access. I had to shoot through the fence. Ended up shooting nearly all of the time with my Sigma 18-50 as my Tamron 70-200 was just too close and I couldn’t pan that fast. Never got a tack-sharp photo, but got some that were OK enough for my first try.
The one good thing you did.. you went to as many different spots for the variety during the one important race. We were on a mission 🤙🏼 My only thing, get close to a fence, use a vnd, and shot more open. No fence will get in the way and you’ll separate the car better. *Sony A7RV also has car AF so I’m bless lol Plus, I was taking cleaaaan panning photos with my video rig and no one could teeeelllll😏🤪
Besides camera settings, you also have to put your lens IS in the panning mode, usually its the second mode. And what I found out it works best for me(or if you have only one body with you) make a custom mode just for panning shots(I customized the C1 mode) and kept the M mode for static shots.
Manual focusing with Motorsport is pretty easy to be there, with pros like these you know there going be millimetre perfect lap in lap out, so just watch for a couple of laps, see where they are and then get focused, its the best way to get sharp images at speeds lower than 1/100 especially when shooting through a crowd of people etc. as good as modern day autofocus is it just cant get focus that quick with fast moving cars/bikes especially when your close to the action as they pass through the frame so quick. It's just practice practice practice.
I think you would get better pictures if they were framed tighter, especially the panned shots. We don't really need to see that much tarmac "under" the car unless it's a creative choice. If you think you are close enough, get closer. Take the picture @15:36, crop it where the tarmac changes colour under and leave about half a car length at the front and at the back and about 2/3 on top and you'd get a pretty nice shot with the red, yellow and blue! To practice, go near a highway and shoot the cars, try at around 1/250 and when all pictures are sharp, go slower and slower until you get more missed shots than good ones. That will draw the line to where you can comfortably shot without problems. Good luck and thank you for all you great videos!
As a pro Motorsport photographer for over twenty years I absolutely hate when people spray and pray. Practice and get your timing sorted, it will give you much better results and cut way down on the number of shots you have to proof.
"the autofocus might have missed a bit" i get way worse af misses on stationary objects on a tripod, just the fact that you were able to get af this close is incomprehensible to me
Hiya, would love to know how the Accreditation process works. Would love to know cause i go to motorsports events all the time and pictures from the tribunes are always difficult to frame right and the angle is most of the time terrible...
My key takeaway from the video is that you need more time than originally scheduled for such a shoot, especially if it is not your home turf. But I like the insight and the experience … good stuff ❤
Honda Indy will accept you if you have an assignment or a certain amount of Instagram followers. I linked my TH-cam and Instagram and I'm guessing that's what got me approved.
Aww, I missed the Indy. I just learned and remembered that my R7 has pre-burst RAW. I don't think the R5 has this, but that probably would have been useful here. I went out on a nature qalk to catch birds in flight and found it was extremely useful on my R7 to get birds in action, like a redtail hawk taking off, a nuthatch jumping off the side of a tree, or terns diving for their breakfast.
@AnthonyGugliotta That's actually how I was reminded about it in my R7. It was through a review video of the R5ii that it was mentioned "RAW PreBurst, just like the R6ii and R7" Me;...WAIT, WHAT? [Goes to check]...OMG how did I forgrt this function? Though, it is a bit of a pain to unpack the shot you want only within the camera. It would be nice if Canon could have an app via the phone or desktop that can do it for me instead. At least the R5ii does away with that and just puts them into your memory card as it's own file. But this will mean needing to scrub through more pictures.
Well interesting video. I went last year to my first Formula One and they are very fast cars unfortunately I wasn't in the position to go anywhere near trackside so taking photos was very difficult. Got a couple but not to my satisfaction. Went to a Ferrari day a couple of weeks ago on a different track slower but still difficult to pan it is all about practice. I took over 5000 photos so far I've deleted about 4000 of them. One thing you didn't mention in your video was you using back button focus of use this for years now and wouldn't go back to normal the other thing I was surprised that you wasn't using the high speed shutter release to start with just give yourself more of a chance to get what you wanted. But now you've opened the door, I'm sure you won't want to close it for sometime enjoy yourself.
@@AnthonyGugliotta I have the same cameras and I forgot they added that in a firmware update for the R5! In my experience, the R6II has much snappier autofocus.
O and don't use stabilization if at 1/100 or lower, it actually works against what your doing, personally I just don't use it, makes you a better photographer in the end.
Not bad for a first try of all the sports that I have shot auto racing is the friendliest I am a member of the Porsche Club and Roger Penske came a hung out with club members for a hour he was at that time the richest man in United States auto ASA is greatest thing in photography shooting thru the fence forget it no one is going to buy the picture the car crossing the line was perfect thanks for the video
I shot a skateboarding contest for fun but I was stuck in 1 position behind the fence shoulder to shoulder and I missed so many good shots and I was upset but then watching this I realize that lots of photographers miss shots.
My pro tip is to NEVER use the AI Focus mode. This has been around for over a decade , even on the DSLR cams, and basically you are letting the cam pick One Shot or Servo on the fly. It's "meh" at best. You are far better off using Servo all the time for sports. In fact I'd rather use Servo for on the fly portraits over AI Focus because you know how the camera is going to behave.
Many years before dogs and animals I tried to take pictures of cars and I had the same problems as you, but with the Canon EOS 80D. The one minute you say Sony.... I feel like you, my heart belongs to Canon, I love Canon Gear
I’ve been shooting Motorsports for a while and to put it simplest, it just makes a dynamic and interesting photo. Racetracks have messy and chaotic backgrounds. When the cars are horizontal to you its best to have a slow shutter speed. I was at a race in January and i found myself getting the mega shots at 1/15 or even 1/10. When the cars are staring on facing towards you it hard to get the camera to focus fast and get a good cris shot at a slow speed so that would be the scenario where you would use 1/500 or even 1/1000.
@AnthonyGugliotta I have an R3, keep it 15 frames a sec, the 30 can be too much, unless you just have to get that shot. I just was at an event in St. Louis, took around 8000+ haha. of course most are not keepers, but yeah panning and freezing the action at those frames a sec adds up quick.
You shot 1800 photos. One thousand eight hundred photos. Wow. Were you bragging or complaining. My issue with digital since I began my photography journey in the 70s with a Minolta SRT 101 film camera. I slowly made the move to DSLR and mirrorless while still shooting film. So lets say I am the editor and you emailed me from your hotel room at the end of the day. I tell you that you have until the next evening by 5pm your local time to get me say 50 images of which I will chose two maybe three for immediate publication. Your next assignment hinges on the 50 images. Keep in mind many of those teams that fielded a car have copyrights on their vehicles and those images cannot be used without written permission. Do you know which ones? Remember you still need to send me 50 images. You need to make sure that of those 50 you don't send me any images unless you have express written permission to use them. How in the world are you going to sift through 1,800 images to meet the requirements state above, make software corrections and get them to me by 5pm the next day? I can assure you that you will NOT be able to do this because you shot way too many images. Unless you found out way before the event which teams may or may not allow you to use images of their cars you have just hosed yourself. That is the issue with digital cameras. Just because you can shoot 1800+ images at a given event doesn't mean you should. I've know of newbie wedding photographers who shot images as fast as a machine gun can fire bullets. At the end of the event she had hundreds and hundreds of images to sift though and correct maybe because she expected the camera to do the work for her. She has the bride and her family asking for those images sooner than the agreed upon date. She's under the gun to get those images edited and sent to the customer evaluation and on top of that she has another wedding booked the next weekend. Do you think she is going to have time to choose the best images and make corrections AND scout the venue for her next assignment? if you think she can show up on the day of the event without first taking a few test photos, talking to the venue owner/manager to know what you can and cannot do, where you can and cannot set up lighting, where you can and cannot use flash all the while. There was no need for you to burn through 1800 images. I can guarantee it will never make you a better photographer. And if you had to look down at the screen after each and every shot think of the ones you missed because your eye was not on the ball. Film photography makes you slow down. It forces you to do the work because your camera can only do what you ask of it. I suggest to all of you 'pros' to buy a solid film camera. I have the Nikon FM2 Black. I don't use the on board metering I use a hand held Sekonic L-358 that goes everywhere I go. When I shoot digital I use a gray card. No way you can shoot 1800 images but the ones you do shoot will keep them asking for your services again and again.
There's a lot to unpack here, but the copyright thing? Is that for the US market? It certainly doesn't apply to Europe, or Australia and Asia. I shot 16,000 across last weekend, does that make me an amateur in your eyes?
Did I miss anything? Share your favorite motorsports photography tips below.
U did great to being first try, also F1 is harder than other types of race cars I would recommend to go slower on the shutter speed 1/30 or so, and In some scenarios like the one where you weren't able to see the cars coming, work with manual focus pre-focusing the floor were the car is going to pass, always go with smaller apertures like F16+ by having the slow shutter the background and foreground will not matter, also you will have all the body of the car in focus and not just a quarter front or back
My favorite is the shutter speed one
Just like the winning driver crossing finishing line that you took
How can I get the credentials
@@Patrickmahomie15 The easiest way is to get an assignment from a team looking to hire a photographer, or be sent by a media outlet.
In shooting photo sport cars I believe they are in speed but get the whole sport cars shows all the details on it plus remove these fencing and add colour but me I love it vivid and plus hellation on these photos and some it only vivid and other is put colour shows all detail of the cars but it is in speed great shoot .but you anthony gugliota you does shoot all these photos like these things I have seen all the same things what I have been tell I believe it need infront of the cars and or it can be left side views or right side views of the sport cars is going fast then the whole sports cars photos shooting too .I just believe these things but you knows I am just copying of shooting of photographer sport cars a very little too I believe it.
From my experience shooting motorsport eventsfor 10 years I can give you some tips: 1. Scouting is everything, always try to look for different angles what lenses you might need and how is the light going to affect the composition. 2.Try paning shots wider than 24mm, there is something special on them 3.Try your static shots with a longer lens (maybe 400mm) the backgrond compression and car details makes the shots more dramatic. 5. Panning takes practice, if you shoot on a 70-200 or longer lens try to grab it by the lens hood with your left hand (you are going to see a lot of pros doing it) when panning is going to give you a more stable base. - Great video by the way, its always cool to try new things, at the end you use what you learn for other type of shoots. - Greetings from Peru
Solids tips! I really want to try getting in tighter on the driver!
Awesome tips! To build on those when panning get in a comfortable position, elbows in sweep with your hips. Also I’ve found the holding your breath while your sweeping the camera takes away some of the shape.
@@Eric_492real
Tried motorsports photography for the first time ever as a spectator during the 24H of le Mans this year. Lots and lots of misses, but the pure joy of getting a good shot is just amazing !
Great video, showing that it's a mixed bag of struggle and fun !
One tip I have for what you said about focus around 6:36, car racing is very predictable. Cars mostly follow the racing line which is near that barraier on said straight. So you can just set your focus to just before the barrier manually and boom, focus. A remote understanding of racing helps a lot with racing photography.
I saw you there! im the big guy who said your name. I finally had the chance to try my Tamron 50-400 but couldnt do the pan shots, but i enjoyed more the photo experience than the race hahah
Ha! I remember seeing you walking the other way! :) Glad you enjoyed it!
rule 1 the closer you are the faster the left to right movement will be so actually shooting at a higher shutter speed can look like a lower shutter speed. rule 2 to get rid of fences in front of you shoot wide open..( think, maybe a nd filter for a certain hr of the day) rule 3, the further you are the smoother the pan but the lower you mus tgo cause the left to right movement it slower than if you was standing in front of the action, this is where putting thing sin your foreground comes to play, rule4 A person tend to pan better with prefocusing especially with things in foreground. in motorsport everything thinks closer is better and its not closer is better for facial expression and teams expressions. Rule 5 the closer you are next time start panning at 1/200 and check results and you will soon realize a sweet spot from 1/200 - 1/60 ( depends on lens ) Rule 6 back button focus the most important thing when prefocusing, practice till you can't live without it, Rule 8 Mos import when a car is coming face on and is at an angle, pick a spot follow the car and take a shot, do not continue to follow the ecar all the way through ( will make sens when you do it ) You came out will lots of great shots, great job. Rule 9 treat every event as a practice session and have fun.
As someone who just started shooting motorsports thank you for showing how difficult it can be and the reality of it
Loved the vid, it's always great to see people trying racing photography. There's one simple piece of advice with panning though. Keep going, and going, and going.
Practice, practice, practice.
Hell, I've been shooting trackside for years, and work around 30 race events per season (plus testing beside that) and my panning hit rate is not what a lot of non-racing people think it should be, but that's the case with most motorsport photographers. Ego gets in the way of sharing the truth for many of us!
Last weekend was a good example, on Sunday alone I went through 8,000 shots across nine races (5,000 being from the headline three races!)
There will always be contradicting advice from different pro photographers - try some of it, see if it works, any photographer wanting to turn pro in motor racing photography should keep one thing in mind though. Panning shots do not pay the bills.
(And yes, I ramble about motor racing photography a lot on my channel!!)
The learnings you have shared are so valuable. I can say that there’s a lot of similarities in the techniques you had shared for other sports. Cheers to sharing your experiences both good and bad, it will save a lot of effort and time for many.
I have been shooting motorsports for a few years now...every photographer should try to experience a track day/race event for this type of photography...definitely opens your eyes to how you need to adjust/create techniques on the fly to try and get those killer shots to make it feel like you're IN THE ACTION. You did great btw! Shots look really nice for your first time out!
So cool to see how new people approach motorsports, especially pros from other disciplines. Mega work mate 🙌👏
For me, the best way shooting fast moving object is through viewfinder. It is easier to follow the car.
I'm extremely new to photography and found my way onto SCCA rally race this past weekend. It blew my mind at the differences in sharpness photos could be in a series of burst pictures. I was nervous but the other photographers were very helpful and told me to grab a vest and got into the thick of it.
love these types of videos and your thought process behind every photo when you're taking photos
It's funny how your experience was very similar to my first time shooting Formula E in Berlin this year. The problems I ran into and the conclusions I made were just like yours. Now I feel much better about the amount of bad shots I got ;)
For Motorsport presets, I would recommend that you check out Kym Illman’s presets. He is a F1 photographer and also has a lot of good tips on his channel.
Kym Illmann usually copies other creatives in the industry. He didn't learn photography, nor did he learn journalism. He doesn't shoot for teams or media outles. He himself is a media outlet and he pays F1 to be able to shoot for his personal enjoyment. He's also a creeep and regularlly doxes F1 drivers locations or the locations of their significant others. There's way better motorsports photographers out there. People like Jamey Price or Camden Thrasher. Those guys have some insane skill.
@@SebiKoerner I never said he was the best or that he is the most original or anything. I just said that he gives out a lot of helpful tips and advice to people starting out in Motorsport photography in an easy to understand manner.
@@SebiKoerner Camden Thrasher is amazing
As someone who's done car photography and motorsports before for something like these type of cars I probably wouldn't go any lower than 1/100 sec for the really fast cars and 1/50 for the slower ones. Most of my motorsports photography iv done has always been off road type stuff though. Last summer I went to Crandon Raceway in Wisconsin USA which is an off road racing type event. All my panning shots were around 1/50 to 1/100 The tricky thing with of road racing though is not only are they moving left to right but they are also going off jumps so you have to pan left and right and up and down with them as they go off jumps. Super challenging but also super fun. In a way this would probably be easier as they are only moving left to right mainly. Id 100% love to try it though. I bet it was a blast. Also use Servo mode and subject tracking with the subject detection mode set to cars/automobile. Great video as always Anthony.
This makes sense especially for offroad. I imagine the tracks and jumps offroad make things more bumpy and not a smooth as city tracks?
I love that you’re getting out of your comfort zone! Here’s a tip for shooting any kind of sport:
Look to tell a story with a series of images. Follow a team around and look for emotions. The most impactful sports photos aren’t the pretty ones, but the ones that show raw emotions.
Really like these recent videos where you pursue different types of action photography and show both the good but also the bad shots that occur in a day. Would love to see e part twos to them with improvements from the first and/or the series to continue with live sports and the challenges that arise indoor versus outdoors!
I might be doing more track photos in September! It would definitely be fun to do a follow up!
Nice shots. Shame I missed out leaving the weekend ✈️. I think track location and to keep moving throughout the day is important. Also my first time was with my kit lens and Sony a6400. No ai features but got some great shots last year. So gear doesn’t matter. I wish I had access to the rooftop.
Am following a lot of F1 photographers so what I learned is that they do the editing more extreme to give that punch look. For example a lot of contrast and a lot of clarity to the subject. I tried that editing style on my own photos, rock climbing and they came out amazing.
Might need to try that.
@@AnthonyGugliotta yes, drop the greenish colors from the color grading and lean more toward blue or red. Try to find some foreground to reflect blue or other colors. Try light trails when raining., reflections etc. F1 photographers are something to admire to, considering how hard is to shoot motosport
We are expecting another video✌️
I photographed my second race last weekend. My first was one year ago. I used an R5 and 135. I’d like to try a 70-200 at some point. I can relate to your assessment and learning curve. Pretty spot on!
Thank you again for another great video. As someone that is just getting back into photography after a nearly 30 year break, I am looking for tips and tricks for all atyles of shooting. Oh and it's pretty cool that the drivers got to meet members of the Hip
You noticed that! 😉
@@AnthonyGugliottaI may be from the States but I became a Hip fan in the early 90's after seeing them open for a certain harmonica fronted band. I thought that they were better than the headliner.
I love to pan roller coasters!!!
If this was your first time panning, don’t knock IS 2 too much from an Indy track! That’s the most extreme panning there is! lol
I have a 70-200 mark 1 with IS 2 and it still comes clutch! My Tamron 150-600 G2 I sold did too! Basically anything with IS 2 works a LOT better than not having it.
I also think maybe you had issues with is 2 being at an upward angle. I think it’s designed for horizontals.
I loved this video, and I loved some of the winners!
One last tip, I'd start at say a speed of 1/320 then once you nail the shot time after time, drop down to the next speed and so on, pointless going straight in at low speeds of less than 1/100 etc and messing up every shot, if you really have to shoot a low speed then photoshop motion blur in after in post, there are Motorsport photographers out there that do that now and again just to make sure they they a clean shot of all the sponsors on the car, they large amounts of money to get there logo seen, not a blury mess.
This video is very good and helpful, and so are many of the comments. I hope you make a few more races and share your experiences.
I haven't done any motorsports but I found this video very entertaining!
A popfilter would up your mic game by a lot ^^
Awesome video I've learned a lot thanks !
When I started in motorsport photography, an old tog said 2 things about panning, first your stance try with your feet apart and facing the direction of the vehicle is going, and follow straight thruough the shot don't stop the momment you click the button . As for sutter speed it depends were you are at the track corner/straights etc and of course the weather !
If you have not done motorsport before are planning to go then go to the end of a busy street and practice there, try also on a corner and remember follow through.
As for yourself, as you are panning I noticed that you are slightly dropping your lens (slight dipping motion) keep it straight. As for advive of holding the lens hood, well that works for lens like the 300mm f2.8, 400mm f2.8 etc. Also using a monopod on the longer lens will also help the dipping and your arms.
That's good advice! I never thought about practicing on a busy city street!
my experience shooting at laguna seca and other track events is my old dinosaur 1dx mk2 on high continuous basically pray and spray (shoot first ask questions later).
each time i saw a car or group of cars coming id shoot that entire sequence in case something happened or not. if you're not shooting and something does happen you won't be able to react fast enough. my 1dx2 is set for back button focus using 2 buttons as single and servo and programmed another button to switch off to shutter priority so i can switch from shooting high shutter to slow shutter if i wanna pan. my lens of choice is the 70-200 2.8 mk3 for most of the event and the 35 1.4 mk2.
That´s great, I always try some panning from the stands as I am just a fan. 90% turn out garbage, but the other 10% are great.
Awesome capture’s taking pictures at the Indy car series
Also shot my first motorsport event recently! Had 3 days at a Dragracing event. Oh boy, it was a fun challenge to try and do panning shots on the faster classes.
Last year I shot at Petit Le Mans a 10hr IMSA race for my first motorsports event. I was able to attend 2 of the days so day 1 was used for scouting and testing. What I found that worked well for me was to use a small focus point and shift it so that it would be about where the lead tire would be if the car was center framed.
An edit style you might want to try it to black and white everything except the car/s.
You very briefly mentioned ND filters, but I feel like they could be an important tool for spectator photographers who have to deal with fences. Even at f/5.6, they can become distracting, so when I was at Silverstone recently, I kept my lens wide open at f/2.8; but even with my iso cranked all the way down to 50, and on an overcast day, my shutter speed was still coming in around the 1/500 mark, never below 1/250 and sometimes as high as 1/1000! It was F1 so it was fast enough to get some half decent (/passable) shots, but far from ideal!
awesome video! great job man.
Great experience and knowledge that you share, thank you!
I have been shooting motorsports since 2008 pretty much anything with a engine even lawn mower races lol . I shot a ton motocross and my panning settings would usually be 1/200 or 1/250 between f10 and f12 and iso 400 or close that.
I went to the free day on Friday in 2023 never been to Indy car race before and no pass either, it was definitely a challenge but I did get some good shots that I liked. Even a nice shot of the McLaren.
Keep trying Anthony give motocross and oval racing or drag racing but don’t remove Lens at drag racing I bricked a 50D when piece of rubber landed on the sensor.
Street circuits are tough to shoot as you say you’re right up against a fence. Recently I went Brands Hatch with my R7 and 100-400ii and had a blast. I find you don’t need a fast lens for panning and as you say you probably need a NB. I just had a regular spectator ticket but brands hatch as lovely places to take pics from about 70% around the track, high vantage above food kiosks, track side too & next to bridges for long over the crest shots. Glad you had fun and next time get your eye glued to the viewfinder and IS mode 3 would have been your friend if 2 wasn’t working. Odd manual focus would have been fine but I think the R6 lacks the vehicle tracking, which is a cheat code lol. Peace
I use a Canon M50 for my car page and haven't been lucky enough to shoot anything as fast as indy cars but one thing that stood out to me is that being so close to the track was also kind of a disadvantage. Panning when the cars are further away would have definitely made panning easier. Also because I don't have fancy vehicle tracking I usually set a centre autofocus. plant my feet shoulder width apart and rotate at the waist at the speed of the car..seem to make it easier to track the cars.
point or expanded point AF is key!
I've went to two motorsports event this year. I was using canon R6 with 24-70mm 2.8 and I learned a lot how to shoot panning shots. Also I love the shot you took on a winning driver 🔥🔥
Had VERY similar experience a few weeks ago at the Singapore Grand Prix. I’m not a pro, so didn’t have the awesome “you get to shoot through this hole” access. I had to shoot through the fence. Ended up shooting nearly all of the time with my Sigma 18-50 as my Tamron 70-200 was just too close and I couldn’t pan that fast. Never got a tack-sharp photo, but got some that were OK enough for my first try.
The one good thing you did.. you went to as many different spots for the variety during the one important race. We were on a mission 🤙🏼
My only thing, get close to a fence, use a vnd, and shot more open. No fence will get in the way and you’ll separate the car better. *Sony A7RV also has car AF so I’m bless lol
Plus, I was taking cleaaaan panning photos with my video rig and no one could teeeelllll😏🤪
Need to try some f2.8
Great insight mate
As a fellow media person there it was really cool meeting you and craming in together in turn 1 😂
Amazing video, my tips is one lense for the day 24-200 for me
Besides camera settings, you also have to put your lens IS in the panning mode, usually its the second mode.
And what I found out it works best for me(or if you have only one body with you) make a custom mode just for panning shots(I customized the C1 mode) and kept the M mode for static shots.
Custom modes are a great way to speed things up for different shooting scenarios! 👍
For me it's a lot easier to pan using a back screen, because it allows to move camera much more smoother and with a one speed
My hit rate would drop to zero if I did that.
Manual focusing with Motorsport is pretty easy to be there, with pros like these you know there going be millimetre perfect lap in lap out, so just watch for a couple of laps, see where they are and then get focused, its the best way to get sharp images at speeds lower than 1/100 especially when shooting through a crowd of people etc. as good as modern day autofocus is it just cant get focus that quick with fast moving cars/bikes especially when your close to the action as they pass through the frame so quick. It's just practice practice practice.
Hey Anthony! I would like to know more about how were you allowed to shoot near the barrier without photographer credentials?
I think you would get better pictures if they were framed tighter, especially the panned shots. We don't really need to see that much tarmac "under" the car unless it's a creative choice. If you think you are close enough, get closer. Take the picture @15:36, crop it where the tarmac changes colour under and leave about half a car length at the front and at the back and about 2/3 on top and you'd get a pretty nice shot with the red, yellow and blue! To practice, go near a highway and shoot the cars, try at around 1/250 and when all pictures are sharp, go slower and slower until you get more missed shots than good ones. That will draw the line to where you can comfortably shot without problems. Good luck and thank you for all you great videos!
What a great experience!
Did you use Vehicle subject tracking? Would have sorted your focus issue.
Such a cool thing to do, I want to go to the track and photograph some cars.
Ooh nc! I like the thunderbird & Atlantic 🤙 im more photograph motorcycle sports
As a pro Motorsport photographer for over twenty years I absolutely hate when people spray and pray. Practice and get your timing sorted, it will give you much better results and cut way down on the number of shots you have to proof.
For someone that shoots motorsports regularly at all types of events how did you get credits? Driver, team, magazine, or from online status?
"the autofocus might have missed a bit"
i get way worse af misses on stationary objects on a tripod, just the fact that you were able to get af this close is incomprehensible to me
good content, thanks 👍
Hiya, would love to know how the Accreditation process works. Would love to know cause i go to motorsports events all the time and pictures from the tribunes are always difficult to frame right and the angle is most of the time terrible...
My key takeaway from the video is that you need more time than originally scheduled for such a shoot, especially if it is not your home turf. But I like the insight and the experience … good stuff ❤
There's never enough time for photos!
Great video! How did you go about getting credentials?
How were you able to get the accreditations for the event? Close contacts or just applied with your portfolio?
Honda Indy will accept you if you have an assignment or a certain amount of Instagram followers. I linked my TH-cam and Instagram and I'm guessing that's what got me approved.
Aww, I missed the Indy.
I just learned and remembered that my R7 has pre-burst RAW. I don't think the R5 has this, but that probably would have been useful here. I went out on a nature qalk to catch birds in flight and found it was extremely useful on my R7 to get birds in action, like a redtail hawk taking off, a nuthatch jumping off the side of a tree, or terns diving for their breakfast.
No Pre-burst on the R5, but it's coming on the new R5ii so I'm excited to test that!
@AnthonyGugliotta
That's actually how I was reminded about it in my R7. It was through a review video of the R5ii that it was mentioned "RAW PreBurst, just like the R6ii and R7"
Me;...WAIT, WHAT? [Goes to check]...OMG how did I forgrt this function?
Though, it is a bit of a pain to unpack the shot you want only within the camera. It would be nice if Canon could have an app via the phone or desktop that can do it for me instead. At least the R5ii does away with that and just puts them into your memory card as it's own file. But this will mean needing to scrub through more pictures.
I had the same "speed" problem when trying to shoot a pair of Peregrine Falcons, the fastest birds on the planet😆
Well interesting video. I went last year to my first Formula One and they are very fast cars unfortunately I wasn't in the position to go anywhere near trackside so taking photos was very difficult. Got a couple but not to my satisfaction. Went to a Ferrari day a couple of weeks ago on a different track slower but still difficult to pan it is all about practice. I took over 5000 photos so far I've deleted about 4000 of them. One thing you didn't mention in your video was you using back button focus of use this for years now and wouldn't go back to normal the other thing I was surprised that you wasn't using the high speed shutter release to start with just give yourself more of a chance to get what you wanted. But now you've opened the door, I'm sure you won't want to close it for sometime enjoy yourself.
Be sure to check out Jamie Price & Larry Chen
Was able to text a bit with Jamey this past week! Love his content
Anthony, why not use the R6II for photos since it has vehicle detection & record video with the R5? Just curious
The R5 also has vehicle AF! :)
@@AnthonyGugliotta I have the same cameras and I forgot they added that in a firmware update for the R5! In my experience, the R6II has much snappier autofocus.
so cool!
O and don't use stabilization if at 1/100 or lower, it actually works against what your doing, personally I just don't use it, makes you a better photographer in the end.
Helo are you still using your canon r6mii as you backup?
Not bad for a first try of all the sports that I have shot auto racing is the friendliest I am a member of the Porsche Club and Roger Penske came a hung out with club members for a hour he was at that time the richest man in United States auto ASA is greatest thing in photography shooting thru the fence forget it no one is going to buy the picture the car crossing the line was perfect thanks for the video
Personally I avoid Canon's AI Focus, I always set AI Servo / Servo for sports.
2 minutes ago is insane
I shot a skateboarding contest for fun but I was stuck in 1 position behind the fence shoulder to shoulder and I missed so many good shots and I was upset but then watching this I realize that lots of photographers miss shots.
Sometimes Instagram can be misleading! For every 1 good photo there are 100 bad ones! 🥲
@@AnthonyGugliotta I took 1300 photos at the event and walked away with 30 good enough to post ones
How does one gain access to these events if you are not media?
I suggest you fit a pop filter on that mic
We should have hit more corners, next time I’ll show you some other cool spots
More corners next time! I really liked doing the corner pans at 24mm and 35mm!
Its a lot easier on a real action camera. Sony a1/a9iii for example :) I dont even bother on my A7rv 10 frames is not enough
Shooting motor sports is one of the hardest things to accomplish in photography. Having a fence in your way does't help.
My pro tip is to NEVER use the AI Focus mode. This has been around for over a decade , even on the DSLR cams, and basically you are letting the cam pick One Shot or Servo on the fly. It's "meh" at best. You are far better off using Servo all the time for sports. In fact I'd rather use Servo for on the fly portraits over AI Focus because you know how the camera is going to behave.
Good to know. Since I shot with the R5 it doesn't have AI Focus, it only has Servo which was what I shot in all day!
Many years before dogs and animals I tried to take pictures of cars and I had the same problems as you, but with the Canon EOS 80D. The one minute you say Sony.... I feel like you, my heart belongs to Canon, I love Canon Gear
why are you shooting at 1/50 for racing? are you looking for motion blur? at least use 1/500
I’ve been shooting Motorsports for a while and to put it simplest, it just makes a dynamic and interesting photo. Racetracks have messy and chaotic backgrounds. When the cars are horizontal to you its best to have a slow shutter speed. I was at a race in January and i found myself getting the mega shots at 1/15 or even 1/10. When the cars are staring on facing towards you it hard to get the camera to focus fast and get a good cris shot at a slow speed so that would be the scenario where you would use 1/500 or even 1/1000.
It feels like you just didn’t get to shoot from a good location. Kind of a big problem with street tracks
I just shot the indycar race yesterday!
I just posted some of my better pictures
I shoot motorsports and I never have my shutter speed that low when panning I only go as slow a 1/100
Hit me if you want some tips :D
I had full credentials and pit pass and then didn’t even make it - this vid is great but depressing the F outta me 😂
1,800 photos🤣 I came home with 14,000 after my last race
1800... those are rookie numbers ha
One of the news media photographers was rocking dual R3's.... I can only imagine how many photos he shot!
@AnthonyGugliotta I have an R3, keep it 15 frames a sec, the 30 can be too much, unless you just have to get that shot. I just was at an event in St. Louis, took around 8000+ haha. of course most are not keepers, but yeah panning and freezing the action at those frames a sec adds up quick.
@@erikarnold6853 shhh, you'll upset the purists who'll tell you film is coming back and you're killing the art!
Only 1800
You shot 1800 photos. One thousand eight hundred photos. Wow. Were you bragging or complaining. My issue with digital since I began my photography journey in the 70s with a Minolta SRT 101 film camera. I slowly made the move to DSLR and mirrorless while still shooting film.
So lets say I am the editor and you emailed me from your hotel room at the end of the day. I tell you that you have until the next evening by 5pm your local time to get me say 50 images of which I will chose two maybe three for immediate publication. Your next assignment hinges on the 50 images. Keep in mind many of those teams that fielded a car have copyrights on their vehicles and those images cannot be used without written permission. Do you know which ones? Remember you still need to send me 50 images. You need to make sure that of those 50 you don't send me any images unless you have express written permission to use them.
How in the world are you going to sift through 1,800 images to meet the requirements state above, make software corrections and get them to me by 5pm the next day? I can assure you that you will NOT be able to do this because you shot way too many images. Unless you found out way before the event which teams may or may not allow you to use images of their cars you have just hosed yourself.
That is the issue with digital cameras. Just because you can shoot 1800+ images at a given event doesn't mean you should.
I've know of newbie wedding photographers who shot images as fast as a machine gun can fire bullets. At the end of the event she had hundreds and hundreds of images to sift though and correct maybe because she expected the camera to do the work for her. She has the bride and her family asking for those images sooner than the agreed upon date.
She's under the gun to get those images edited and sent to the customer evaluation and on top of that she has another wedding booked the next weekend. Do you think she is going to have time to choose the best images and make corrections AND scout the venue for her next assignment? if you think she can show up on the day of the event without first taking a few test photos, talking to the venue owner/manager to know what you can and cannot do, where you can and cannot set up lighting, where you can and cannot use flash all the while.
There was no need for you to burn through 1800 images. I can guarantee it will never make you a better photographer. And if you had to look down at the screen after each and every shot think of the ones you missed because your eye was not on the ball.
Film photography makes you slow down. It forces you to do the work because your camera can only do what you ask of it.
I suggest to all of you 'pros' to buy a solid film camera. I have the Nikon FM2 Black. I don't use the on board metering I use a hand held Sekonic L-358 that goes everywhere I go. When I shoot digital I use a gray card. No way you can shoot 1800 images but the ones you do shoot will keep them asking for your services again and again.
It took me an hour to pick 50 photos.
There's a lot to unpack here, but the copyright thing? Is that for the US market? It certainly doesn't apply to Europe, or Australia and Asia.
I shot 16,000 across last weekend, does that make me an amateur in your eyes?
Try astrophotography (hard)😉
The hard part is staying up late for good Milkyway shots :)
SUELLIO
I’m not even pro and these pics are mid