Photos from the 2014 Daytona Rolex 24 Hours
- Thread starter RSO 34
- Start date
Brilliant shots! These two are my personal favorites though and are truly stunning!
Great Pic! Any more of the 64 or the 158 from the CTSCC race?
I'm still processing the pics, Billy. Had a software issue while down there and didn't get it fixed until Monday night but will post a few more that I did finish shortly.
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Awesome! Can I get high res copies and use those on my website?
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Absolutely. Please pm me your email address. Will send when i get out of court later today. I just ask that you list my name as the copyright owner in case anyone tries to lift them from your site
Very cool seeing you out there Billy!
Bob your night shots are amazing.
Bob your night shots are amazing.
Terrific pictures! Even better now that we know the 2 drivers involved in the horrific crash will be OK.
Billy - I hope you "blog" for us here what that experience was like from a driver's perspective. I'm sure many, especially myself, would love to read that.
Heres a writeup i did on MotoIQ on what its like to drive every class car in Grand-Am:
http://www.motoiq.com/MagazineArticles/ID/2416/Whats-it-Like-to-Drive-Every-Car-in-Grand-Am.aspx
http://www.motoiq.com/MagazineArticles/ID/2416/Whats-it-Like-to-Drive-Every-Car-in-Grand-Am.aspx
The Delta Wing was "glitchy" all week. Not out much during practices and was having various mechanical issues during the race. It had gearbox issues early on and then Gabby Chaves wrecked it on the first lap of his first stint at 7pm. They replaced the nose but it still had some issues two hours after when a connector between the headers and turbo broke.
RSO 34, fantastic pictures.
I am very new to DSLR (Canon Rebel T3i). May I inquire f-stop, ISO, shutter speeds on your night shots? I love the pics of the fireworks (which I missed; we must have been at dinner - what time were they?!?!?).
I took some night shots but I was shooting in the dark (HA! I made a funny!) with respect to settings. I ended up leaving it a pretty quick shutter speed so I could keep the cars in focus at speed (even panning it was tough) and medium f-stop, but I had to set the ISO to 6400 (max for that camera) to get anything even halfway decently exposed.
I am not experienced at all; when I used an SLR 30 years ago it was with ISO 100 and 400 film, so I'm really behind on technique.
I am very new to DSLR (Canon Rebel T3i). May I inquire f-stop, ISO, shutter speeds on your night shots? I love the pics of the fireworks (which I missed; we must have been at dinner - what time were they?!?!?).
I took some night shots but I was shooting in the dark (HA! I made a funny!) with respect to settings. I ended up leaving it a pretty quick shutter speed so I could keep the cars in focus at speed (even panning it was tough) and medium f-stop, but I had to set the ISO to 6400 (max for that camera) to get anything even halfway decently exposed.
I am not experienced at all; when I used an SLR 30 years ago it was with ISO 100 and 400 film, so I'm really behind on technique.
David was smart this year. He was working the bus stop and lollipop stations at 7 so I wasn't able to catch him asleep......again. That is the one part of the track that is inaccessible.
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First of all, thank you for the kind words.
The fireworks start at 8:57 pm. I use ISO 100, F5, 1.5 seconds
The night car shots I use ISO 3200, F 2.8, 1/250th second
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Ah, I see. On the night car shots I was at 6400 ISO, played with f stops around double yours and 1/60th. Next time I'll try larger f-stop opening. I didn't want to go too open since I was worried about depth of field and focus.
Another question for you, if you don't mind. Were you using auto or manual focus? I am a little disappointed in the autofocus on the camera (with either 18x55 or 75x300 lens), since even bright sunlight pictures have not been as I expected when using the "sport" mode on the camera. I might have to start doing things with more manual settings. As I said, just starting to learn the camera. SO much to learn!!! I guess it's like track driving, need seat time, or in this case, "lens time". :biggrin:
Thanks so much for sharing your expertise. Sorry to highjack the thread but at least it's loosely relevant.
I use only autofocus unless I need to use a 2x extender which results in af being unavailable. Check where your camera is set up as the AF point. I just switched from my Canon 5d Mark II to a 5d Mark III and there was a vast difference (but improvement) in AF points and I needed to get out of my old habit and program the zone I wanted to lock in as an AF. Yours might not be set up dead center which is what I would recommend you use so you will always be consistent.
Depth of Field is always a trade off with low light shooting but as long as you capture the lead car then the shot should work. Even in daylight I would encourage you to experiment with DOF settings since sometimes the soft focus of cars in the background could add to the illusion of speed. In a 24 hour race there is plenty of time to shoot multiple looks so that is a great time to experiment.
And don't forget that even though the inner workings of most canon dslrs are "consistent" throughout the line, the finished product is affected most by the quality of the glass you are using. I shoot only L series lenses but I did start with 75-300 you have.
Finally, shoot only RAW images and using processing software such as Lightroom and ultimately Photoshop.
Depth of Field is always a trade off with low light shooting but as long as you capture the lead car then the shot should work. Even in daylight I would encourage you to experiment with DOF settings since sometimes the soft focus of cars in the background could add to the illusion of speed. In a 24 hour race there is plenty of time to shoot multiple looks so that is a great time to experiment.
And don't forget that even though the inner workings of most canon dslrs are "consistent" throughout the line, the finished product is affected most by the quality of the glass you are using. I shoot only L series lenses but I did start with 75-300 you have.
Finally, shoot only RAW images and using processing software such as Lightroom and ultimately Photoshop.
Thank you, thank you, thank you for taking the time to respond again.
Yes, my autofocus is set to use the center of the image. I played with that setting at one point but I always set it back to center.
I am using the lenses that came with the camera. I will extend the motorsports metaphor by saying that until I am as good as the camera I will use it as is. I went back and looked again at the pictures I took last weekend at Cavalino Classic and at the Rolex 24. Some pics were focused quite well, others not so much. I will do a better job of recording what settings I was using so when I do forensics on what worked and what didn't I'll have a better frame of reference.
Haven't yet tried raw. I have an audiophile, racing and camera buddy who has the same camera as do I and he is encouraging me to shoot in raw. I have Lightroom already (I edited a b/w landscape that I did a 16x20 print on, which is hanging in my living room, and I am most pleased with it), so I guess next step is to shoot raw. But again, I need to be more consistent with my camera technique first before I start relying on editing. Yes, I do understand the benefits of raw but if I am not shooting optimally I am starting with a sub-optimal shot. Again, thanks for the comments.
Don't be so fast to walk away from "sub-optimal shots". If you shoot raw, you have a lot more to work with that may be corrected in Lightroom. Processing an image that the camera has already turned into a jpeg is "wasting" a lot of opportunities for correction. Plus, you should always save your raw "keepers" in the raw format in addition to the post-processed jpegs in case you want to work with them later.
I have had many shots that were totally unsatisfactory out of the camera but as long as the composition and focus were acceptable, I was able to turn them into keepers.
Unlike when I started as a kid using film and couldn't afford to shoot that much and then had to wait until they were developed to find out my settings were off, with digital you get instant "feedback" and can correct errors on the spot.
There was a race? It is sad how endurance racing is a fringe sport now. I didn't even realize the race was last weekend until the Sunday evening news showed Gidley's crash.
Between the Indy/Cart divorce and the IMSA / NASCAR split, both disciplines are almost dead. I hope that endurance racing can figure out a way to get back on mainstream TV, or even advertise a bit for those of us who are fans, but because of life's demands, are not quite as focused.
Miner
Between the Indy/Cart divorce and the IMSA / NASCAR split, both disciplines are almost dead. I hope that endurance racing can figure out a way to get back on mainstream TV, or even advertise a bit for those of us who are fans, but because of life's demands, are not quite as focused.
Miner
