Advice on Shooting Indoor Go-Karts?

[Queenie]

Hi all,

It's my DH's birthday today and tomorrow he and some friends are going go-karting at a local indoor track. As I'm not allowed to race due to my bump (typical ) I've decided to use the time to practice with my camera.

Can anyone give me any ideas of settings and tricks to use in order to get a least a few decent shots from the hour? I'm using a Canon 300D with the standard kit lens so not the best but not the worst by far. I technically know how to use most of the settings on it, I try to shoot manual as often as possible, but I'm not confident on what to use for different situations and this is completely new to me. I also don't have access to my tripod at the moment although there are some railings I can balance the camera on, plus I'm not too bad at keeping steady without support.

If it helps it's a roughly oval track with strip lights, there's gonna be 4 karts going and I think I'll have to stand by a pretty straight section. It's a pretty bright track to the naked eye, it's in an old warehouse and totally flooded with lights, but it's very low quality light if you know what I mean (clear as mud I think.)

There's also gonna be an "award ceremony" at the end where they get to stand on a little podium and the winner gets a medal. Are there any interesting shots I could do with that setup? I'm mind blanking on everything except the boring 'standing on the podium looking happy' shot.

Many thanks for any suggestions, I'll stop by later tonight as I'm out all day so please don't feel I'm ignoring responses

xxx

 

[YesDear]

My suggestions on where to start.

Set your camera to shutter priority. Probably set it to a minimum of 1/125 of a second. 1/250 would be better. Set the ISO to as high as you can. You mentioned that you would be along a straight away. Try to get to where you are facing the vehicle like at a turn. The blur of motion is less when taken straight on.

What you will get will be dependent on the light available. You may find that you have enough light to turn the ISO down. I would adjust the ISO if you can rather than the shutter speed. If you turn up the ISO yes you will get noise in the image but you may get the image. I would rather have a noisy good image than a blurred clear one.

For the awards ceremony use a flash if you have one.

 

[Frantasmic]

If it's flooded with lights, you should be able to get some decent pictures. Make sure to set your WB to the proper type of light. If they are strip lights, it's probably one of the fluorescent settings. If you have the capability to process RAW, I'd shoot in RAW, especially if you have to use your zoom since you won't get as good f settings in zoom.

 

[JR6ooo4]

If light does turn out to be low, keep the DOF as short as possible to let the most light through the lens.

use a single focus point to insure the intended subject is in focus.

Mikeeee

 

[dmccarty]

Try to take some practice shots before you son rides. I know looking at the LCD is not the best way to view a photo but hopefully it will show if you shutter speed and WB is correct. The lights could be sodium and I'll be danged if I know what the WB setting would be in that case. Might just have to shoot on auto WB and hope for the best.

Shutter speed is going to be key. My guess would be you would need 1/600-800 at a minimum to get non blurred photos. If you have problems with auto focus/lighting go to manual and focus on a fixed point. When the karts get near your focus point snap the photo.

My guess is that the light will require a wide open lens. The bad thing about a wide open lens is that you will have a shallow DOF. The good thing about a wide open lens is that you will have shallow DOF. Focus on the face/eyes.

Blurring will provide a sense of speed so it could be a good thing.

Good Luck.

May The Light Be With You!
Dan

 

[JR6ooo4]

Try to take some practice shots before you son rides. I know looking at the LCD is not the best way to view a photo but hopefully it will show if you shutter speed and WB is correct. The lights could be sodium and I'll be danged if I know what the WB setting would be in that case. Might just have to shoot on auto WB and hope for the best.

Shutter speed is going to be key. My guess would be you would need 1/600-800 at a minimum to get non blurred photos. If you have problems with auto focus/lighting go to manual and focus on a fixed point. When the karts get near your focus point snap the photo.
good point, I forgot about that. Or use auto but still pre-focus on a spot and you can give the camera more time to lock focus before the action gets there. I think on the 300 you can temporarily lock that focus with some button sequence.... but for that, we jsut get back to manual focus. Heheheheheeee

My guess is that the light will require a wide open lens. The bad thing about a wide open lens is that you will have a shallow DOF. The good thing about a wide open lens is that you will have shallow DOF. Focus on the face/eyes.

Blurring will provide a sense of speed so it could be a good thing.

Good Luck.

May The Light Be With You!
Dan

depth of field increases with distance from the subject. When I shoot theater from the side of the house, up to 100 feet away, I get a pretty deep DOF.

and who needs to see anybody that is not up with the leaders! HEhehehehee

I raced about ten years of High performance go karts...
Mikeeee

 

[dmccarty]

depth of field increases with distance from the subject. When I shoot theater from the side of the house, up to 100 feet away, I get a pretty deep DOF.

and who needs to see anybody that is not up with the leaders! HEhehehehee

If Queenie has the space to step back she can get deep DOF. On the other hand there very well could be people in the way of her photo if she puts distance between her subject and camera. And shallow DOF could be a good thing to get as much light as needed for the shutter AND to blur out the following karts.

Later,
Dan

 

[Queenie]

Hi everyone,

Many thanks for your tips, I did my best to take them into consideration as much as possible. I was very limited on where I could stand, just a narrow path alongside the main straightaway.

The track was very bright to the naked eye but the camera really struggled so I ended up cranking my ISO right up to 1600 so I've got a ton of grain however I'd rather that than no pics.

I've uploaded a few of the best that I've edited so far to Flickr. All constructive criticism welcomed Here's my photostream:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/29641450@N08/

 

[JR6ooo4]

Oh, you have my juices flowing. I used to race karts.

They look pretty good. Did he win?

Mikeeee