Speedster's Gallery // July-October

[Moglet]

OMG a 6R4!

Once again, wonderful shots. They seem a tad overexposed in places (some of the lighter areas are blown out a little) but I guess that's the trouble with light cars! Can't wait to see the next update! 👍

 

[Speedster502]

OMG a 6R4!

Once again, wonderful shots. They seem a tad overexposed in places (some of the lighter areas are blown out a little) but I guess that's the trouble with light cars! Can't wait to see the next update! 👍

You should of heard the thing! As well as the other Metro 6R4 which had been converted to have a V8 in the back!

Thanks for your comment! I agree on the Quattro shots especially the whites have been blown out a wee bit, it was a probelm I found with most of the fairly bright cars, luckily not too much detail has been lost. Anyway, thanks again for your comment!

Anyway, I think I've planned it out update wise the next one will be the modern cars of the rally (Minus the Impreza '08) then finally a mixture of some statics and some more modern rally cars.

 

[Speedster502]

Any more comments?

 

[Speedster502]

Right, since you guys seem to be bored of the rally photographs I'm going to give them a break and show you something I took today whilst I was doing some homework (supposdly). For some reason the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight decided to take off today and cause clogged up roads across my home village! Seeming we couldn't get anywhere we went home and I thought I'd play with my new lens a bit and see if I could get a decent shot of the Spitfires in formation. This picture isn't brilliant due to the 55-250mm still being a bit lacking in zoom, someone with a much better lens (Yes, I'm looking at you Giles! Especially after that new purchase) could have made a brilliant shot out of my okay-ish one. The composition isn't quite right in my opinion, but I'll leave that for you guys to decide on!

Canon EOS 350D ISO100 1/320s at f/9

Enjoy

 

[Beerz]

You have a bigger version of it, Adam? Can't see much of the plane's details with that size.

I think it looks good; as far as composition goes, a crop on the right side would work best (imo). It would make the photo appear 'fuller', and not having the planes so close to the center of the frame.

 

[Speedster502]

You have a bigger version of it, Adam? Can't see much of the plane's details with that size.

I think it looks good; as far as composition goes, a crop on the right side would work best (imo). It would make the photo appear 'fuller', and not having the planes so close to the center of the frame.

Yeah sure.

Click Here For a Larger Size

 

[GilesGuthrie]

Very nice, although true aviation shooters will say the props aren't sufficiently blurred, and that you should have used a slower shutter. Still, I like the shot, and there's little you could have done to make it much better (except the slower shutter).

Because I'm not on an aviation photography web site, I can 'fess up to having done some prop blur in post-production before, but it never really looks as good.

 

[Speedster502]

Very nice, although true aviation shooters will say the props aren't sufficiently blurred, and that you should have used a slower shutter. Still, I like the shot, and there's little you could have done to make it much better (except the slower shutter).

Because I'm not on an aviation photography web site, I can 'fess up to having done some prop blur in post-production before, but it never really looks as good.

Thanks, I'll certainly give a go with the lower shutter speeds, it's not like the Spitfires, Lancaster, occassional Hurricane and Dakota are hard to catch. Infact, I could probably use my intitive and go down to the end of the runway (Not the spotters car park though!) and get a little bit closer to the action. That photo there was taken by looking through my window (It was open!) so I hardly made a effort to move anywhere. Anyway, thanks for the comment! I'll try a slower shutter speed next time!

 

[Speedster502]

Another photograph I took on the same day as the Spitfire photograph. It was a lovely sky across the lands of Lincolnshire on Sunday night, and how could I resist the temptation to go out and shoot it?

Also forgot to mention, the first post has been updated to look more presentable and hopefully more inviting!


Click For Full Size

Canon EOS 350D ISO100 1/40s at f/8

Enjoy, and feel free to comment on any of the previous updates as well. :tup

C&C Welcome.

 

[Cano]

Nice shots of the cars, could have been more movement sensation, more speed, more blur, but they’re pretty good, that Geo is freaking sick… drop your speed to about 125-100 and set the aperture to 11 or something like that, maybe even 8 or 9 with that sunlight, and the wheels will be much more blurred, anything above 160 wont look too blurred at all, so try next time with 100-120… if you have a really good pulse, 80 will make them look like they’re going 150 mph. Good composition on most, and I know the cornering pics are meant to look still, but the ones where the cars are running could be so much more dramatic.

And who the heck peeks out of his window and sees vintage Spitfires? WTF dude?

 

[Speedster502]

Nice shots of the cars, could have been more movement sensation, more speed, more blur, but they’re pretty good, that Geo is freaking sick… drop your speed to about 125-100 and set the aperture to 11 or something like that, maybe even 8 or 9 with that sunlight, and the wheels will be much more blurred, anything above 160 wont look too blurred at all, so try next time with 100-120… if you have a really good pulse, 80 will make them look like they’re going 150 mph. Good composition on most, and I know the cornering pics are meant to look still, but the ones where the cars are running could be so much more dramatic.

And who the heck peeks out of his window and sees vintage Spitfires? WTF dude?

Yeah I do agree, when I was processing the shots before they came onto GTP I thought the shutter speed was far to fast. What do you mean by Geo? I'll work on what you said, hopefully I'm going to attend more racing events next year with Cadwell Park being only 20-30 minutes drive away. All I need is a intresting event to attend.

Oh, and the reason why I can do the Spitfire trick is that I live near a RAF base which are the home to the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight which has the only flying Lancaster bomber in the world, then about 5 Spitfires, 3 Hurricanes and a Dakota. Sadly, that was their last flight of the season (thus the formations) but they will be back to fly again in Spring. Most people think its intresting but it tends to get boring after living here for almost 14 years and putting up with them almost 2/3rds of the year, every year.

You can either take that answer or that fact I'm actually living in a parrell world where I'm in the 1940's.

 

[Cano]

I'll take 1940s. And I tought the yellow thing was a Geo Metro, not an MG Metro, but I think they are the same, just Geo in North america and MG everywhere else? that yellow car, gotdammit!

 

[Speedster502]

I'll take 1940s. And I tought the yellow thing was a Geo Metro, not an MG Metro, but I think they are the same, just Geo in North america and MG everywhere else? that yellow car, gotdammit!

Hehe. The "Yellow Car" as we shalt now call it, is fairly well known as the MG Metro 6R4 due to its 6 Cylinder Engine and 4 Wheel drive, it was also part of the world famous Group B Rally Car Era. The normal version of that car is a MG Metro and the even less intresting version of that is the Rover Metro, probably the Geo example your talking about. Hope that explains it.

Moving on, been a bit slow recently, nothing new to photograph so I happily took up the opportunity to go for a walk and take a couple of photos, out of the whole hours walk I only got one fairly decent photo! Oh well.

Swan
Canon EOS 350D ISO100 1/1000s at f/5.6

Then I needed to take some photographs for my Art coursework using close crops of some cars so whilst I was at it I decided to play around with lighting.

Porsche With Lighting
Canon EOS 350D ISO200 1/50s at f/5.6

Hope you enjoy.

 

[Speedster502]

Any comments on this? Recently it seems as though there has been a lack of comments on non-car related pictures. I know this is a Gran Turismo forum which people join up to because they like cars (Primarily) doesn't mean that people can't comment on these pictures. If I were to photograph cars all the time don't you think it would get boring?

Anyway I hope I can squeeze some comments on this update.

 

[Pebb]

I like the last shot a lot.

 

[Speedster502]

I like the last shot a lot.

Thanks TVR&FF.

 

[bergauk]

I like that swan shot. Birds are fascinating. I used to have 2 pet ducks back when I was younger and I loved watching them move around.

 

[tait]

Nice lighting on the Porsche.

 

[Speedster502]

I like that swan shot. Birds are fascinating. I used to have 2 pet ducks back when I was younger and I loved watching them move around.

Thanks, and a intresting story too! Thanks for your comment.

Nice lighting on the Porsche.

Cheers, I was pleased with the lighting I might experiment a bit more.

 

[Syntax error]

I think both shots are great. The swan one is probably one that has been done a billion times but having said that, it is a really nice shot. Good framing, nice colour, it's aesthetically pleasing. You might have lost a little too much detail on the bird itself, but that’s pretty hard considering how white swans are and also possibly the limitations on the sensor in a 350D.

The Porsche shot is great as well. If I hadn’t seen some of your previous shots, I would at a cursory glance believe it to be a real car.

 

[Speedster502]

I think both shots are great. The swan one is probably one that has been done a billion times but having said that, it is a really nice shot. Good framing, nice colour, it's aesthetically pleasing. You might have lost a little too much detail on the bird itself, but that’s pretty hard considering how white swans are and also possibly the limitations on the sensor in a 350D.

The Porsche shot is great as well. If I hadn’t seen some of your previous shots, I would at a cursory glance believe it to be a real car.

Thanks, I noticed that the birds main body had lost a lot of detail due to the camera either over-exposing it or as you say the sensor not being good enough to capture it. Either way I suppose it doesn't look too bad. Thanks for the comment on the Porsche too! When I take pictures of the models my aim is to try and make them look as much like the real things as possible so when they appear to look like the real deal it means I've done well! So thanks very much for your comment!

 

[exigeracer]

I like the Porsche shot. Usually exaggerated tilt bothers me, but you seem to have found a composition that sits very well, even with the angle.

I bet it makes you wonder how fun it would be to shoot a car in a full softbox, it certainly makes me!

 

[Speedster502]

I like the Porsche shot. Usually exaggerated tilt bothers me, but you seem to have found a composition that sits very well, even with the angle.

I bet it makes you wonder how fun it would be to shoot a car in a full softbox, it certainly makes me!

Cheers Exigeracer, I'd love to shoot a full size car in a soft box, although I might like to shoot just in general a full sized car first, instead of all these models all the time! Thanks for dropping by!

 

[Speedster502]

I needed to update my gallery, and had bought a new model last weekend from the MPH08 show (Expect photographs from that soon!) so I took some photos to show you all. I know there not fantastic, especially compared to the previous Porsche 911 GT3 RS model shots. I don't feel as though the tilt on the shots has helped in this instance and just makes the model look more silly, rather than agressive.

Canon EOS 350D ISO 200 1/40s at f/5

Canon EOS 350D ISO 200 1/50s at f/5

Canon EOS 350D ISO 200 1/20s at f/5

Canon EOS 350D ISO 200 1/15s at f/5

 

[SPhilli911]

Looked through all the pages. Great work! Keep it up!

 

[Speedster502]

Looked through all the pages. Great work! Keep it up!

Cheers, it means a lot to me!

__________________________________

MPH08 & TopGear Live

As I said, I wanted to sort through some of these first and I still haven't got through all of them. This is the first kind of update, including the pictures of the Live Show.

I will quite happily admit, there not perfect. But as a person who has never shot (with a D-SLR anyway) in these kind of lighting conditions. So I ended up being a wimp and bumping up the ISO so high it was through the roof. As you can probably see in a couple of shots, they are far, far, too noisy. Also, even with the ISO being so high, I didn't change the shutter speed to capture the stuff more sharply. Whether this was due to me being ill, or not noticing I don't know. But you can certainly tell, that something wasn't quite right.

I hope you guys can give some constructive criticism so hopefully next time I'm in low light conditions, I can be ready for it. We'll start with the cars, then look at the presenters, and some other stuff.

Canon EOS 350D ISO1600 1/200s at f/5

Canon EOS 350D ISO1600 1/200s at f/5

Canon EOS 350D ISO1600 1/200s at f/5.6

Canon EOS 350D ISO1600 1/200s at f/5.6

Canon EOS 350D ISO1600 1/200s at f/5.6

Canon EOS 350D ISO1600 1/200s at f/5.6

Canon EOS 350D ISO1600 1/200s at f/5.6

Enjoy.

 

[Speedster502]

Anything?

 

[bergauk]

Great shots!
While I can't comment on how to make them batter as I know nothing about taking pictures with nice cameras. I can say they look great to my eye. What is that blue thing? And whats the funny thing shooting fire?

 

[Speedster502]

Great shots!
While I can't comment on how to make them batter as I know nothing about taking pictures with nice cameras. I can say they look great to my eye. What is that blue thing? And whats the funny thing shooting fire?

Thanks, don't worry about not being able to help make them better, a comment is a comment at the end of the day isn' it? Anyway, thanks for the comment it's nice to know that people with a lesser understanding of photography still see the pictures as looking good!

Right time to explain, the blue thing is a Gumpert Apollo, it's known as being the fastest car around the Top Gear Test Track, with a amazing 1:17.1. The funny thing shooting fire, is a robotic monster created for the Stig (seen in other pictures) to fight. Anyway, hope that kind of explains it to you!

 

[Moglet]

Oh my god that Gumpert is amazing!

Anyway on a more technical note, I'm very impressed with what you've managed to capture given the conditions. The 350 seems to cope very well at ISO1600, the noise has been kept to a minimum and the shots seem very 'alive'.

The car shots have been frozen perfectly, and the shots of the presenters, although they lack a real target or composition, work well in capturing their expressions. I love how the Stig is just sat there calm as anything with a bike on the roof

Just out of interest, did you try any slower shutter speeds on the cars at all? I've tried it in the past at indoor car shows and couldn't quite get the shutter speed or panning right. Also, did you take any full shots of the action, such as a picture where you can fully see the bike on top of Stig's buggy thing? Those would look very cool.