Digital Motorsports photography

Type of camera
An SLR camera (film or digital) is essential for motorsports photography. I shoot solely in digital with an Olympus C2100UZ 2.1 mega-pixel camera. It has a 10x zoom lens (38-380mm equivalent in 35mm) and when this is lacking in zoom I attach the Olympus B300 1.7x teleconvertor to increase to 600mm. A long telephoto is a major factor in taking good motorsport photos as you have to get in close to the action and fill the frame with the subject.

You also need to be able to control the shutter speed using an shutter-priority mode. Your subject, more often than not, will be travelling at high speed therefore a fast shutter speed is required to freeze the action without getting blurred photos. Generally I use anywhere from 1/400sec to 1/1000sec depending on the available light. If the light is poor, you can change the camera s auto ISO rating from ISO100 to ISO400 to allow a fast shutter speed. The downside of using ISO400 is that there is noticeably more noise (similar to grain) in the photos. An external flashgun could be used on this Olympus, but most motorcycle races prohibit the use of flash.

Eddie Allingham at Aghadowey race circuit riding an Aprillia RSV1000.
1/500sec, f/5, ISO100, spot metering.

David O'Rourke at Colonial one on Kirkistown race circuit, riding Yamaha R6.
1/400sec, f/3.5, ISO100, centre-weighted metering.

I found that the older centre-weighted metering is ideal for this sort of photography as the subject is usually correctly exposed along with the surrounding trackside. I rarely need to use any other mode, except when shooting into the light, in which case I would switch to spot metering but this can sometimes leaves the background washed out or over exposed.

Take plenty of photographs
You can always delete bad ones at the computer, but the computer wont let you add any new photos so shoot plenty. While at the track only delete shots where you have completely messed up, the rest of the photos can be judged more critically on the computer screen later.

When I transfer photos from my camera to my computer, I delete all the poor ones. The important thing is to learn from your mistakes. Analyse your bad photos. See what makes them bad, and don't make those same mistakes again at the next event you photograph. A few subtle tweaks in Adobe Photoshop will transform some of the photos. I adjust the levels, add some contrast and if required add a bit more colour saturation. Then I burn all the keepers to CD-ROM for storage.

Jamie Patterson, at colonial one on Kirkistown race circuit riding a Suzuki GSXR1000.
1/500sec, f/3.2, ISO100, centre weighted metering.

• Use an SLR camera
• Use a lens with a good zoom (300mm minimum)
• Select a fast shutter speed
• Select centre-weighted metering
• Pan with the subject
• Try to fill the frame with the subject
• Take as many shots as possible
• Practise, practise, practise

Marc Cooper, riding a Yamaha R1 at colonial one on Kirkistown race circuit.
1/500sec, f/3.2, ISO100, centre weighted metering.

William Dunlop at the hairpin, Aghadowey race circuit, riding a Honda RS125.
1/500sec, f/6.3, ISO100, spot metering.

About the author
Derek Clegg is an amateur photographer from Ireland with a great eye for motorsports. To view more of his motorsports photography visit http://www.dcdigital.clara.co.uk