Farmington Dragstrip 10/18/07

[sexy6chick]

gotchya..but you still didn't answer my question about who's Z that is

[HKYStormFront]

that belongs to a guy named lee (no joke) that works with us at MDI...

[Fishy_Frontier]

Nice pics Patrick, regardless of the blurriness. What kind of camera were you using? Did you have autofocus on?

[HKYStormFront]

canon D30 that i just got from Irongrave, 50mil canon AF lens, the AF was good for some of the further away shots like the bikes on the track and the burnout pics because of all the movement. a lot of the bike and car stills i did manually, it's got a little switch on the body of the lens to go back and forth. i was triggering with my right index, steadying with both hands and focusing with my ring finger which worked pretty good... i need a good ~25-105 lens. i've found a couple but i've got to get other bills paid off first, may end up a christmas present or something... thanks for the compliments tho!

edit: for the last two i simply set the camera down on the ground, aimed at the cars and held the lens open for ~20 seconds

[Phil'sFrontier]

Wow, some awesome shots in there man!
Wondering what ISO you were shooting at?
Also you said you focus with your ring finger...does your lens not autofocus?

In low light like that boosting your ISO(basically how sensitive your camera's sensor is to light) will increase your shutter speed. The downside is increased digital noise, but as long as you get the exposure good, that isn't too big of a problem...especially if post photos on the web(this hides imperfections well ) Also you may want to switch to spot metering when shooting into bright lights with a dark background, or least go down to center weighted.

I like the one of that Dragster!

[HKYStormFront]

Originally Posted by Phil'sFrontier

Wow, some awesome shots in there man!
Wondering what ISO you were shooting at?
Also you said you focus with your ring finger...does your lens not autofocus?

I like the one of that Dragster!

yeah it is autofocus, it's the one you told me to buy! sometimes it would take forever to focus on it's own (a downside i found was common on this lens from the customer reviews on the site i bought it from) so i was doing some manually of still shots and AF of the cars on the track since they were almost always moving. i was messing with the ISO some, and Av as well. this is my first SLR camera and i've had it for less than 3 weeks now so i'm definitely just getting used to it. the pics will only get better... i really wish that one of the 350z from the rear on the interstate was more in focus on the car that would have made a really sweet shot with the blurred background...

[Phil'sFrontier]

Lol, it's a good lens Im sure, but heck it's a Canon so who knows...kidding! I love my 50mm f/1.8 lens but it's a Nikkor(Nikon) and they make the best glass
I see you picked up on one thing this lens will do well, thats the blurred background. Set the Aperture to f/2.8...f2...f1.8 and you get creamy smooth backgrounds which helps isolate your subject.

[HKYStormFront]

Originally Posted by Phil'sFrontier

Lol, it's a good lens Im sure, but heck it's a Canon so who knows...kidding! I love my 50mm f/1.8 lens but it's a Nikkor(Nikon) and they make the best glass
I see you picked up on one thing this lens will do well, thats the blurred background. Set the Aperture to f/2.8...f2...f1.8 and you get creamy smooth backgrounds which helps isolate your subject.

yup the one of the helmet shows that well, the only problem with the 50 mil lens is that it's "zoomed in" so much most of the things i shoot pics of (vehicles) is out of focus cause i have to be so far away to get it all in the shot... make sense? is there something i can do differently to help it get more in focus?

[Phil'sFrontier]

Originally Posted by HKYStormFront

yup the one of the helmet shows that well, the only problem with the 50 mil lens is that it's "zoomed in" so much most of the things i shoot pics of (vehicles) is out of focus cause i have to be so far away to get it all in the shot... make sense? is there something i can do differently to help it get more in focus?

Actually for those type of shots a longer lens would help, that way you can get in tight, while being back a little.
Also you don't really want to shoot cars with a wide angle lens, that will cause a lot of distortion.
When you say out of focus, do you mean like a blurry picture, this will get better with time. ALso it is hard to focus on something that is smaller than the camera's focus sensor on the screen. That 50mm lens will be among the sharpest lenses you can find.
Here's one I took with my 50mm, this is back when it was warm enough here to sustain plants...lol

[HKYStormFront]

jeez that almost looks computerized 3D!!! true.dat on the lens, i've just got to get used to it... i'm used to my P&S where i push the button a little and it focuses...