Got my new camera yesterday!!!

[alien13]

Oh, I love it! I was in a rush to get to the races, and I really wanted to bring the camera with, but UPS was taking their sweet time, pushing 3-day delivery right up to the end of the day. Well, it got here at ten to six, and I ripped it out of the package and just grabbed what I needed for the night and took off.

Nikon D5000
Nikon 18-55 Lens
Nikon 55-200 Lens
Bell & Howell Z480AF Zoom Flash

Here's the results: http://rides.webshots.com/album/580422511HlFffL?vhost=rides

 

[HPIguy]

Congrats on the new setup alien, there's some great shots in there.

 

[slowngreen]

Ya man congrats! Bet its awesome.

 

[alien13]

Started playing with a few settings today, went outside and snapped a couple pics. I love this thing.

 

[Lessen]

I think we may have a nice discussion here Bill. I just started shooting at the local carpet track. I have a Rebel XT with speedlite and 300mm lens. Having a little difficulty but I only know what I read in the manuals. Ill have to post a link to some shots from last weekend.

 

[alien13]

I think we may have a nice discussion here Bill. I just started shooting at the local carpet track. I have a Rebel XT with speedlite and 300mm lens. Having a little difficulty but I only know what I read in the manuals. Ill have to post a link to some shots from last weekend.

I can't wait to get to the RC track! The first Friday or Sunday that we get a rainout at the 1:1 track, I'll be going to get RC action shots. My Kodak sucked for RC because of the speed, this camera should have no problems!

 

[Lessen]

I find it quite difficult to get really good clear shots. I think because the target is so small and moving so quickly. I ran two classes and managed to snap 390 shots Saturday. 50 of them I would consider worth showing and about half a dozen are actually nice. I was in Av mode the whole day and experimented with and without the speedlite. I now realize that was a mistake. Next time I will shoot in full manual and keep the big flash on fulltime. If you have any tips please share.

 

[alien13]

From a racer's point of view, skip the flash. It's very distracting. And if the lighting is good, you don't need it. Most of the pics in the link I posted are done without the flash. Set your ISO high. Go as high as you can, and start there. That will give you a freeze-frame effect. You can take a picture of a car going 100 mph, and the tires will look like they are stopped. That's how photographers get stunning shots of hummingbirds.

Set your shutter speed to about 1250 for starters also.
Here's a couple examples after I changed some settings:
Bird flying

This car is going about 25-30 mph, look at the rear tire and you can see the brand of the tire clearly

 

[HPIguy]

Some good advice in here. There's a rule in photography known as the 10% rule that basically states, if you take 1000 shots, figure on 100 keepers, or 10%. Lessen the one thing that helped me out more than anything was a lot of the lessons here;

http://www.digital-photography-school.com/

Start here, and work your way through.

http://www.digital-photography-school.com/digital-photography-tips-for-beginners

The best part is, it's all free of charge, and so is shooting for practice since you no longer have to buy film or get it developed. Digital photography is so great, and has opened the door for many that never could have afforded to do it the old fashioned way.

 

[HPI-Killer]

Where do you live, I will run by your house butt nekked and see if it blurs out, I'm so white I might glare with the sun so thats the true test

 

[alien13]

Some good advice in here. There's a rule in photography known as the 10% rule that basically states, if you take 1000 shots, figure on 100 keepers, or 10%. Lessen the one thing that helped me out more than anything was a lot of the lessons here;

http://www.digital-photography-school.com/

Start here, and work your way through.

http://www.digital-photography-school.com/digital-photography-tips-for-beginners

The best part is, it's all free of charge, and so is shooting for practice since you no longer have to buy film or get it developed. Digital photography is so great, and has opened the door for many that never could have afforded to do it the old fashioned way.

10%? Lol, even with my crappy Kodak I did better than that. Went to Iowa for the IMCA SuperNationals in 09, took 1200 shots and deleted 150. Last night I too 400 and deleted 50.

 

[WoodiE]

Nice looking shots in your gallery - those cars remind me of the ones I see at the Figure 8 race up in Speedrome in Indy.

 

[alien13]

Actually, those are pretty close with the exception of the huge wings.

 

[WoodiE]

Actually, those are pretty close with the exception of the huge wings.

Well throw a huge wing on those cars and come up to Indy Sept 10 for the 3 hour endurance Championship!

 

[alien13]

Well throw a huge wing on those cars and come up to Indy Sept 10 for the 3 hour endurance Championship!

Yea, I don't see that happening.

 

[Lessen]

I'm pretty sure most of my "decent" shots were at 1600 ISO. I have to disagree with no flash though. I understand it may be slightly distracting but drivers will just have to get used to it. My best shots were achieved when using the Speedlite. Even though the track is well lit I think you need all the light you can get when shooting cars at speed. Movement across frame seems quite difficult but like I mentioned before I don't believe I was utilizing the camera properly. It seems very difficult to get a crystal shot when you zoom in very very tight, flash or not. But I'm new so I have some figuring out to do.

ISO 1600; Aperture priority; Focal 168mm; No flash (left to right movement)

ISO 1600; Aperture priority; Focal 84mm; Flash (back to front movement)

ISO 1600; Aperture priority; Focal 84mm; No Flash (back to front movement)

ISO 1600; Aperture priority; Focal 168mm; No Flash (back to front movement)

 

[savagefan04]

some nice pics there...

the one thing i noticed with setting a high ISO it will develop 'noise' as you blow up the pics. I'm no pro just some things i noticed.

thanks for the link to the school...i'll have to check that out.

 

[Lessen]

Yep, the manual says that too Gabe. Noise is the side affect of high ISO but there really is no choice that I'm aware of yet.

 

[savagefan04]

i have to admit...after reading this thread i took out my d80 and took a pic of the ceiling fan. 1st shot was fan set on high spaz mode and the camera was set to ISO 1600, stock flash and auto priority. decent shot. 2nd shot was same fan speed and ISO set to H3.0, stock flash and auto priority. very crisp shot, and noise was not that bad until i enlarge past 8x10. i learn something new...

 

[HPIguy]

10%? Lol, even with my crappy Kodak I did better than that. Went to Iowa for the IMCA SuperNationals in 09, took 1200 shots and deleted 150. Last night I too 400 and deleted 50.

Keep in mind that what's a keeper in our book, and what is a keeper for a professional photographer are two different things.

Yep, the manual says that too Gabe. Noise is the side affect of high ISO but there really is no choice that I'm aware of yet.

The choice is to buy really good glass, so the the aperture or F stop stays the same throughout the zoom range. Good glass is really pricey though, way more than the camera body. Hell, really good glass costs more than some cars I've owned. Modern onboard processing engines do such a great job at high ISO settings, most of us will never complain, only the pixel peepers will bitch about it.

Also, sometimes you can use it to your advantage to give the photo and old / aged feel to it. Especially in B&W stuff, I kinda dig it.