Well, I'm a fan of the angled view, but, I find these to have too much angle to them ... it's distracting.

on reflection what should have been an alternative view kind of took over. some basic horizontal panning shots to break the set up would have helped.

the extremity of the angle is supposed to accentuate the sideways dynamic of the cars involved in the racing but if that doesn't come through then it is a moot point.

thanks for taking the time to look and comment CP Fleck.

Whoo, First one, the angle is too much for the shot. I do like the panning.
#2, the Focus is off. or it looks like it. I see 14 is in focus and the rest blurs away.
#3, I Really really like this one. I personally like the hard angle, you nailed the panning on this shot. I would of liked a little wider shot to see more smoke and move the car into the lower right a bit more.
#3 is my pick of the 3.

I think the shots are nice but the tilts are quite annoying to me (but some people like that)...

I like the stop action on the first and third shots. The angle is a bit too much for me to fully appreciate the pic but I think that's what experimenting is for. :)

I realy like a good tilt with motorsports images, but the tilt in these is too strong for my tastes. That aside, these are all good images, and #3 is great!

As well I love the shots BUT the angles are a bit overdone. The angles DO work but too much can be bothersome and you don't want that.

I am not a pro at action shots but just my opinion of course :)

I LOVE the last image though, the angle is still a little more then I'd like to see but it is still very well executed and as was already stated, you nailed the panning!

You did a better job then I could have done so I hope no offense is taken :)
Less angle but keep doing what you are doing!

Great images otherwise from what I can see (middle photo has some focus issues but then again action shots can sometimes even get away with that to show the motion)

Yep, angles overdone. Looks good though, but overkill.

thanks so much everyone for the comments, not a lot i'd disagree with!!

i made notes of what and how i wanted to shoot on the day but kind of lost my way under the poor conditions. next time i will still go with some extreme angles but by and large perhaps stick to a more standard approach.

one quick note about the second shot on the thread, vincent - WPK mentioned only the 14 was in focus, well that shot was an attempt at zoom panning , so only a very small part of the car will be identifiable if at all - i was trying to give the effect of both forward motion and the dynamic action of a drifting car racing. it could have been better but i've only tried the technique once before - very difficult but awesome sense of speed.

it is priceless to get objective opinion and comment like this and it will help me learn enormoussly, so can i just thank all of you that have taken the time and effort to do so.

The tilts are disconcerting and the images themselves lack pop. You might try curves and color saturation adjustment layers followed by high pass sharpening.

Amazing, a poster asks for critique, does'nt get the "OMG it's beautiful" comments, and accepts the critique in the intent it is given. Big tick from me already.

Indeed, you can only learn from the negative feedback given. I'm sorry if I ask for critique I want you to be hard, as I need to improve. Derrick you've assisted me imensly in the past - thanks ;O)

Hi tom hills

You've got real talent. Excellent work and i like your angles style too.

I do like the zoom-pan effect in #2. Tom Hills says this was in an effort to portray the feel of drifting, and for me it succeds in doing just that. Still, it needs more of an anchor. If you could see the driver (even if it was just the side of a helmet) that might to it, I don't know.

Liza11 made a very, very helpful comment last night and as such i actually reprocessed the whole batch from the RAW files. i hadn't discovered the high pass filter until it was mentioned and did some reading and experimenting and i think the is an improvement.

sadly the only one i've uploaded to flickr isn't the sharpest of the bunch but i'll post a before and after so you can see what i've done.

before:


after:


any thoughts???

Hmm interesting. I want to go home and try this effect.

great panning, I'm not keen on the angles,

I really like the No14 car but the shot for me is the No13 car smoking!! the sense of speed with both shots is great.

and the after shot has more punch

Don't get too cought up in what you can do in the computer, just go out there and take great pictures. That said, knowing how to use your software can make a big diference, as I do indeed like the second version better.

Like alot of people said the angles really distract from the picture.

Too much angle.

i replaced the original uploaded pics with my re-processed shots on my photostream, so the images you now see at the top of the page and quite a few others, are as a result of some fantastic advice from all of you who have helped me.

the rest of what i've learnt is all upstairs, ready to put in to action at the next opportunity.

sadly i can't do much about the angle of these ones!!!

hello again, i was trackside again yesterday and although i'm still getting used to the D300 and it's 3-D tracking AF system but managed to get a few keepers.



thanks to you lot and your advice i think i've done some better work, still many mistakes but a little progress. i've got more to post up yet but feel free to comment, critique and advise me if you can.
sorry if this comes across as spamming the group, just looking for a bit of feedback.

thanks, Tom.

You've got too look more at your composition - in some cases it is fine to crop or angle your horizon, but just doing it for the sake of doing it, just does'nt work with the pictures you are shooting.

Perhaps next event, every single time before you raise the camera to your eye, say to yourself "clean backgrounds".

appreciate the comment Derrick, do you mean i should avoid the distractions, colour etc or that a more shallow DOF would achieve the clear backgrounds you speak about?

i didn't even notice the angle on this one until you mentioned it, i was actually trying to avoid repeating that deliberately, or as extremely as last time out.
if you look through the set you will see that it is not a feature of the day, my favourite of the day is this:



it was composed with a load of gravel at the bottom and a dead sky above, the width you see is the full frame though, no crop.

i went with only 200mm of reach, having never been to silverstone before i had no idea just how far away from the track i'd be. the fact they hold the formula1 grand prix there should have set alarm bells ringing but again i'll learn from it.

What I'm trying to say is look for the clean background - above is a good example. Good action, nice pan - but the red box top right is distracting. How would I fix it?

I'd either use an even slower shutter to bleed the red sign across the length of the top of the frame, or shoot from a little higher up so just grass is background.

... ditto Derrick. The trackside wall and signage in the earlier post works as a background and delivers context to the image.

Now this is a helpful thread! Good suggestions and feedback...
with respect!!!!

thanks for that Derrick, i'll take it on board and try and work on it for next weekend.
your help, comments and criticism are priceless to me and very much appreciated.

i shot an evening football (soccer) match last night which i found very hard going but i won't bore you all with my dumb questions on that front. not yet, anyway.......

cheers, Tom.

Hello
Well, I know that's difficult to work on mecanic sport's, but I believe than you better get closer for the green car, the white one is the best picture for me, the run two car's good in technic but wrong in the composition, to finish I do believe than it's would be better to work without zoom, chose your place, your distance, your light informations, and do the composition...

Hi Tom,
Only a few photos are showing for me now. You're doing a good job as far as I can tell and your humble teachable attitude is refreshing

On the jaunty angle ones, it can work even better to have the car drifting down the frame.