NOR-CAL General Chat.

[BlackbirdM3]

Not as much grain or distortion as I expected there to be, this is just a raw file from camera to phone, no edit or anything. I wish I could get the TBird pics synced but I'll work on getting them up somewhere tonight, I was impressed with myself for never owning a camera or having any experience with moving object lol

That is sharper and less grainy than I was expecting. Shooting airshows and fast moving planes is far harder than people think. Sure, just about anyone can crank the shutter speed to the moon and fire away, but you end up with no sense of motion or speed. Its like a model hanging there. One way to practice is to slow your shutter speed down and try and take pics of birds in flight. Try starting at say, 1/200 and work down from there. Panning is a bit of a learned motion. You don't just instantly get it. Keeping still while moving takes some practice. The reward for getting good at it is the ability to shoot anything that moves and usually be able to capture the speed, and movement


You are new to it so you have a good start. Keep at it. Give it time.

Will

[CarsonE30]

I went out to Laguna again today for the PWC practice. Took your advice and was shooting at 1/250 at the fastest and set the ISO to 200. Exposure moved throughout the day but it was never lower than -1 or 2 clicks past zero. Thanks for the advice Will, here's the Flickr link with all of the pics from today! https://www.flickr.com/photos/139340533@N05/

[BlackbirdM3]

I went out to Laguna again today for the PWC practice. Took your advice and was shooting at 1/250 at the fastest and set the ISO to 200. Exposure moved throughout the day but it was never lower than -1 or 2 clicks past zero. Thanks for the advice Will, here's the Flickr link with all of the pics from today! https://www.flickr.com/photos/139340533@N05/

Your Thunderbird shots are all way overexposed. Your stuff from Laguna is all a little soft, you had the right idea with this one, and its sharp, except you are missing a bit of the car. You had the right idea however. You got the focus right, and the pan was good, except you didn't quite get the whole car.

This was almost a great shot, but you clipped the spoiler off.

This one is also pretty good, but just a touch soft. Are you using a locked center focus point and manually tracking the car or are you running full auto? There really isn't a right or wrong way, but sometimes the full auto tracking can mess your shot up. (The function is worthless for me. The camera always focuses on what I don't want it to focus on.)

This one is hard to tell if its soft because of distance and not enough resolution of the camera, a lens that goes soft at distance, or if the focus is soft. Its a good shot.

You clipped the spoiler on this one again, but that was a good shot (If it were mine I'd crop it way close so it doesn't look like you clipped the spoiler and were focused on the driver ;) ) Aside from the minor clip of the spoiler, this is a great shot. Well done.

You have a winner here. Nice work. Nothing wrong with it at all. You could leave it as is, or crop it down, either way, great shot.

Looking through your album, you can see how as you kept shooting and repeating the motion, your shots got cleaner, clearer and sharper. You got some good stuff once you found your groove. As you get more comfortable shooting, start walking the shutter speed down. Shoot Shutter priority and let the camera figure out the aperture. There is no harm in screwing up the shot. Its not like you make a living from your pics so just go shoot and experiment. Just remember, the slower shutter speed you shoot, the more light you will have to control, so bring the ISO down. If you start shooting at really high apertures, you can run into other odd issues due to the way light refracts. I really try to stay between F7.1 and F22. This often requires the 2 or 3 stop neutral density filter, but those can be had for pretty cheap (if you don't have a 95mm filter size like I do on the big lens.) Hoya, B&W or Heliopan are my favorite filter manufacturers. Cheap filters can screw up your shots.

The slower the shutter speed, the more motion blur you get...
1/60, F16, 200mm, ISO 100 were my settings for this.

Yes, there is some camera shake in the shot, but its only visible if you look at it in full size.

This shot was at 1/80 sec, but it shows how cars will vibrate at different speeds. Note the front of the car is soft, but as you go back, the decals go from blurry to sharp. This is not uncommon so just because an area of the car is blurry and out of focus, doesn't mean the whole shot is. My guess is that I was tracking a little slow and the focus locked on the back of the car rather than the middle where I was trying to aim. Some people will call it a junk shot, others will be blown away by it. I think it shows just how intense driving the car is.


Keep at it, you are learning fast. Most importantly, have fun. Don't get frustrated if you go out and shoot a bunch of crap, just understand what you were doing that didn't work, so you can adjust whatever it was.

Will

[Thizzelle]

Have you tried a little silicone spray or graphite in the tumbler. It might just need to be lubed. It could also be that the pins are worn to the point that the key doesn't quite fit correctly.

Will

I tried that but sitting there looking at it, I realized I'm being a noob.
I'm going to take tumbler from good car and stick in the M3 and check it. Atleast I will be able to eliminate if it's the tumbler or not. If it still does it then I know it's something to do with the shaft/steering lock.

[CarsonE30]

Dear Eric, your car is fucking gorgeous and sounds really good.

Sincerely, a r3v bystander at Canepa today.

[CarsonE30]

Will, I took more of your advice and did A LOT of trial and error today but I think got it pretty figured out by the end of the day. Never moved past 1/160, never put the ISO over 200, got some fantastic shots. Thanks a ton, looking forward to shooting more and more!

https://www.flickr.com/photos/undefi...57671526377484

[Toodaloo]

Vroom Vroom. The car is back on the road!

[BlackbirdM3]

Will, I took more of your advice and did A LOT of trial and error today but I think got it pretty figured out by the end of the day. Never moved past 1/160, never put the ISO over 200, got some fantastic shots. Thanks a ton, looking forward to shooting more and more!

https://www.flickr.com/photos/undefi...57671526377484

Dude! Nice shot. I really like the shadows. You nailed it.

I looked through them all. Very nice work. I mean seriously, if you picked it up that fast, keep going lower for the shutter speed. That was all good stuff you posted. The shadows are kinda tough for some, but as far as framing the shot and getting the sense of movement and speed, well done. :coolphoto:

Will

[BlackbirdM3]

Vroom Vroom. The car is back on the road!

Sweet, sounds like it was an easy quick fix. Lets go for a spin.

Will

[jpod999]

Congrats Andrei!

Anyone interested in buying my M42/G240 with all accessories minus the AC compressor? 262K on it when I pulled it and it ran great. I was thinking $500 for the lot.

[Toodaloo]

Sweet, sounds like it was an easy quick fix. Lets go for a spin.

Will

Ended up being the clutch disk. My friend and I installed it backwards...

Congrats Andrei!

Thanks!!!

[BlackbirdM3]

Ended up being the clutch disk. My friend and I installed it backwards...

That will do it every time. Doh! The good news is that will be the last time you do that wrong.

Will

[CarsonE30]

Thanks Will! I felt like I had some good ones but obviously, the tiny camera screen lies sometimes. I was super excited when I pulled them up on my computer! Seriously, thank you for your wisdom, (I feel like I say that a lot), but it really is appreciated!

[oliver.r]

gonna be out in Charlotte this week. anyone been? i wonder if there are any cars and coffee over the weekend

[kronus]

I was there a few weeks ago. seems nice.