Passion is what drives people towards a bright future. And racing photography is done by those kinds of photographers who are literally a lot passionate about racing. There can be different kinds of racing photography a photographer would want to do with excellence. It can be motorcycle racing, car racing, horse racing or even drag racing photography that the photographer is passionate about. Photographers who are beginners would want some helpful racing photography tips to improve their photography and increase their growth in this industry of photography. To be honest it is very easy to earn from photography as a career if you are passionate about it.
To help you out I will share some cool racing photography tips taken from the professional photographers around the globe. Hopefully these tips will help you capture some amazing photos of cars, bikes, horses, racers, etc just like a pro photographer.
So without further adieu, let’s start!
Plan Beforehand
Planning is important before you start capturing any kind of photography. In most of the motorcycle racing photography tips I have seen so far from professional photographers. They have suggested making a plan of the types of photos you want to click. These photographers told us that every photographer should make a plan about the position, framing, equipments, and time, place, etc so that they can work according to it and come up with a photograph that amazes everyone.
Take Essential Equipment
Racing photography is fun. You can capture loads of pictures from different places. If you want to photograph the best moments, you have to bring the best equipment’s with you. You’ll find an opportunity to use the most of lenses in your bag. You’ll need 200mm lens at minimum and 300mm or more for better capturing. Equipment’s also depend on weather. If it’s sunny day, you don’t need to shoot wide open but some shots demands the fastest shutter speed. A 300mm f2.8 with image stabilization is perfect. Carrying a tripod is not essential but mono pod is a must for any lens longer than 200mm. For shooting in the pits, 70-200mm plus a wide angle lens will allow you to get the most of the shots you want.
Right Camera Setting
Racing photography is pretty much a fast type of photography. Whether its horse racing photography tips or car racing photography tips every articles I’ve read so far from the blogs of professional racing photographers they all have suggested to use this following camera setting – The shutter speed should be fast, the ISO should be around 100 to 300 if daylight, the aperture should be on auto or aperture priority mode and the white balance should be auto. If you use this setting then the photograph will be perfect. I suggest you to use burst mode for continuous captures.
Select Right Location
A proper location is something you should find first when you reach the racing ground. A good location will help you take a good frame of the scene and will help you to capture some amazing racing photography shots. Make sure the location is closer to the point where the main action of the race may take place. This will help you take decisive shots.
Focus Correctly
Racing photography is one of the toughest in sports. It’s totally fast moving and its quiet tough to capture the expected moments. So, having the best moments to capture it’s must to be focused. Every point is not necessary to photograph perfectly. Use AF servo mode to ensure continuous focus as the cars or bikes move towards or away from you. Sometimes your camera’s auto focus will have a hard time keeping up with the pace of the vehicles. So, it’ll be good to switch to manual mode and focus on your point of interest on the track. Then simply lock the focus and you can be sure you’ll churn out pin sharp images all day long.
Shoot from Different Angles
A race is taken with a lot of spaces. A wide space is covered in a race. While you are doing racing photography, you need to think about the variations you can deliver through your racing photography. You cannot just click photos with a straight angle all the times. But play with the angles and shoot from various angles to get some creative photography composition. When you will shoot photos from different angles, you will get some photos with different perspectives which matters in getting creative photography. Roam around here and there with the camera and keep clicking photos from different angles. You will get some great angles in a place of racing. So try shooting racing photography from various angles.
Show Motion
When you see a race, you like it see moving. In these racing photography tips of mine, I want to give one of the most effective racing photography tips which are show the motion out of the racing picture. But it is not easy to show the motion out of racingphotography. Camera setting plays a vital role to get motion photo in racing photography. As you need to capture the pace, speed and details, you need to set the camera correctly. Contingent upon the measure of light accessible either take an inside weighted meter perusing or set the camera to Tv or S (screen need) and select a shade speed of 1/250s, and place your camera on a tripod for your photographs. With racing, it merits concentrating on the vehicle as it gets ready for the race so it is focal in your focal point at that point snapping your picture the minute it dispatches.
Shoot in Wide Angle
A race happens covering a wide area. The racing track, the audiences, the place, the racing subjects etc. are include in a racing show. You need to cover the whole area of that race. Shooting in wide angle would be the best option for you to cover up everything. You can shoot from high or low so that you can get the entire area. A wide angle focal length would be very helpful to shoot photos like that. Events like those are having too many of the participants and you need to cover all the participants racing in one frame. That will give you a great racing photograph. So shooting in wide angle is one of the best racing photography tips in my opinion.
Capture the Crowd/Audience
Most of the sports draw a large crowds. These racing games too. There are a huge fans who love racing game and these race fans are great to capture. A good image to capture is when the race begins. You can capture every moments from the gallery. When you’re too much focus, you can get the unexpected moments from crowd. That will make the photograph more attractive. So, while capturing the game it’s also necessary to capture the crowds too.
Photo Editing
For every type of photography, it is very important to go for photo editing/post processing of the photographs. As we are talking about racing photography, you can sometimes make some faults such as shaking the camera, not getting correct lighting, insufficient colors etc. which can be fixed by the help of photo editing. You can apply different photo editing methods or can take the help from photo editing companies. Applying different photo editing methods like clipping path service, photo retouching and many more in the racing photos will hide all the flaws and you will get some smashing photographs. So do go with photo editing and make your racing photography looks like professional.
Conclusion
So these are the best racing photography tips I could find for you. Hopefully using these tips in your photography you can also capture some cool race photos of car racing, horse racing, motor bike racing and other types of racing. You can also become a professional if you keep practicing them and experiment with these tips. So best of luck and have a good race in your photography career!
