photographing bikes

A mate of mine is heading to Eastern Creek for a open day there of riding.
He has asked me to come and get some photos of him, has anybody here done
this kind of thing?
My camera can use a shutter speed of 15seconds--->1/2000th of a second, and
was hoping to find somebody who has a nice speed for getting the background
blurred but hopefully the rider not-so blurred for a speed looking effect

Cheers

 

2000th, if the aperture will handle it. Pan with the bike, easier done
exiting slow turns.

 

The only time I've played with this type of photography I used around
1/250th. I did a few with faster shutter speeds but the bike looked
stationary, with everything that should be blurred (like the wheel
spokes) non-blurred.
To get the background blurred you could play with the depth of field,
either with the zoom or aperture. But what I did was to use the zoom
to frame the picture and then pan with the bike. that way I found the
bike was relatively non-blurred and the background had a kind of
moving blur. It took a few goes and I wasted a fair few shots but the
ones that turned out looked great.
__


Cheers
The Happy Drunk
K100RT

 

er... going from 1/2000 to 1/250 will give you a bigger aperture (smaller
number) and less depth of field.
But it should get the required effect if you can pan nicely.

Moike

 

Depending on who is running the day, you may well be limited to what you
can see from the pit area or the stand.

Most of the operators won't allow "casual" photographers out into more
interesting areas, but have pros doing the picture taking.

regards,
CrazyCam

 

Having done quite a bit of such photography I'd suggest, as per vinyl
(eventually), about 1/250th to 1/125th.. no higher ideally... MOST
important is to learn how to pan the camera smoothly. To do this
practice moving your camera in smooth arcs across the frame of
reference. then when you take the actual shots be REAL smooth on the
shutter button.. or you'll jerk the camera.
Its your panning that will make the background blurry and a smooth
shutter release that will make your shot sharp.

paulh

 

You're right of course, Mike, you always are.
I've gotta stop posting sober - it just doesn't work.

--
Conehead
"Your credibilty along with all the other people arguing in this thread has
been totally distroyed... I am copying this thread and will send it... but
I'll send it not to the parents, but to a couple of magazines I know..."
kiwipete in a hissy-fit

 

Hang on....I was right after all. Damn you Moike, you had me doubting my
infallibility, you....you....god your a photographic fuckwit mike

--
Conehead
"Your credibilty along with all the other people arguing in this thread has
been totally distroyed... I am copying this thread and will send it... but
I'll send it not to the parents, but to a couple of magazines I know..."
kiwipete in a hissy-fit

 

mumble mumble fuckin overeducated dimwits named moike mumble

--
Conehead
"Your credibilty along with all the other people arguing in this thread has
been totally distroyed... I am copying this thread and will send it... but
I'll send it not to the parents, but to a couple of magazines I know..."
kiwipete in a hissy-fit

 

If only you could delete posts

 

Heh....you know how it happens, smack, you think someone is not a complete
idiot, and is therfore smarter than one's self......
--
Conehead
"Your credibilty along with all the other people arguing in this thread has
been totally distroyed... I am copying this thread and will send it... but
I'll send it not to the parents, but to a couple of magazines I know..."
kiwipete in a hissy-fit

 

Use a good telephoto lens. They have a very narrow point of focus, and
the background will blur awesomely.
- sanbar

 

yeah, but Moike is college edumacated

 

I never understood why the button is where it is. Surely a remote shutter
button would be the go?

 

But then you would need someone to hold the camera for you.

--
Conehead
"Your credibilty along with all the other people arguing in this thread has
been totally distroyed... I am copying this thread and will send it... but
I'll send it not to the parents, but to a couple of magazines I know..."
kiwipete in a hissy-fit

 

"Uncle Bully" wrote

It's had to pan without holding the camera. I have a remote shutter
button for my camera. A tiny little TV type remote with four buttons.
Even operates the zoom.

Theo

 

Yeah unfortunatly I dont have any add on lenses yet, its only a basic camera
(canon a70) but do have full manual control over apertures/shutter speeds
etc so will have to try and "fake" the narrow point of focus by using a
large aperture.
I do have a tripod that should help with the panning also hopefully.
Anybody got some tips on what spare parts for the bike we should be taking
with us to the track?

 

Sorry, but no pointers on the photography side of things, as I'm usually
behind a video camera, however, there are two decent points on the track
that you can get close to the bikes, whilst they are turning corners. They
are: Turn two: Long 180 degree sweeper with the bikes turning from your
right (approaching), across your left side toward you and out the right in
front of you. Then there's the last turn before the front straight, where
you can see the riders coming off the hill behind the pits, along a small
straight toward you then a right hander and two left handers before the
front straight. You've got a while to get things right here as you can
follow 'em for a while, but probably not as good photography-wise as turn
two.

Hope this helps.

Adam

 

I have the Canon Powershot A40 (the model superseded by the A70) and **** all
experience with cameras. At the superbikes last year I took some snaps of
bikes coming out of Siberia. Used only the Full Auto mode (no way I can set
it up to take a picture better than it can do itself). One point worth
noting, because the camera focus is automatic (I don't think you can focus
manually with this camera even in full manual mode) you'll need to focus
before you want to take the pic or else it'll end up focussing at the wrong
object (like the horizon). I found that aiming at the ground at the near side
of the track, pressing the button half way to focus on that, then keeping that
focus till the bike comes past and you're ready to take the photo did a
reasonable job of keeping the bikes in focus.

Nev..
'02 CBR1100XX #2

 

Two sample pics I took at turn 12 at the creek:

http://www.dogmatic.org/images/IMG_0022.JPG
http://www.dogmatic.org/images/IMG_0032.JPG

Using a Canon Powershot s400 with stock settings on both.
The second one I got a reverse blurred effect with the background in
focus and the rider blurred.

I got varying results when I made changes to the camera.

D