I have decided to break this tutorial down into several parts as it’s too much information to digest in one go.

A lot of the tips and tricks I will highlight are also applicable to other subjects, lighting and composition for example.  Digital cameras have made it cheap and easy to experiment and that’s the key, take as many pictures as possible and try and get something unique!

Part 1 – Motorsport

One of the most exciting places to shoot cars is at a motorsport event, after all, nothing gets the pulse racing (unfortunately you’d better expect lots of this sort of humor) than a car sweeping past under full throttle!  This is where my first tip comes in.   As soon as you arrive, take your camera out of your bag/pocket so you’re ready to take photographs.  If you don’t you’ll probably get caught up in the excitement of the day and miss a lot of opportunities because you’re camera isn’t easily to hand.  Out of sight, out of mind…

Try and imagine you’re covering the event for a magazine, they’d want lots of different shots that capture the whole event and tell a story.  If you keep that in mind you’ll end up with a set of photographs that will be much more interesting for other people.  What kind of shots? Well, a magazine would typically want a wide shot that “sets the scene”, perhaps a view of a portion of the track in the foreground with something interesting in the background, such as the pit area, grandstand, or if appropriate some part of the landscape that helps place the location geographically.  It’s a good idea to get this sort of shot early, so you don’t have to worry about missing the main action.

The next set of photographs to bag would be of the teams getting ready.  Just before the race the pit area is normally a hive of action, if you’re lucky enough to have a pit pass now is the time to use it, if not, make the most of your zoom lens…  You should be able to get a lot of nice shots of the cars and drivers while they’re still clean and dent free (that’s the cars, not the drivers!) as well as some good detail shots of any interesting items or patterns that you may spot, for example tyre treads, toolboxes, pit signs etc.

Remember to leave plenty of time to get in position for the start of the race, some good spots are looking down the straight from the first corner, or from behind the grid/startline so you can get the cars and the starting lights in the shot.  This is probably one of the few opportunities you’ll have to get a lot of cars in the same frame.

Once the racing has begun try and locate the corner that offers the most opportunity for overtaking (normally at the end of a straight).  This will give you a better chance at capturing some interesting action, either a nice shot of the cars side by side, or the resulting carnage if one of the drivers gets too ambitious…  If you’re covering a rally event as opposed to a circuit race, a water splash makes for a great shot as does a crest where the car takes off.

When framing your shots, if the vehicle is moving try and leave some space ahead of it for it to “drive into”.  This may sound a little weird but the composition will work a lot better as it makes more sense to the eye.  Funky angles also work well so try tilting the camera, this generally works best if the car faces downwards as if it’s heading for the bottom left or right corner.

To freeze the action you’ll need a fast shutter speed, typically around 1/500th of a second or more so it makes sense to switch to Shutter Priority mode (if your camera has it) to make sure the shutter speeds stay where you want them.  If it’s a bright sunny day you should have no problem with that, but if it’s dull you may need to bump up your ISO to let you run the higher speeds.

While freezing the action can make for a great shot (especially if a car has a wheel off the ground) another popular technique is called a panning shot.  To pull this off you use a slower shutter speed (try 1/60th of a second to begin with but the slower the better) that would normally result in the car being blurred as it travels across the frame but you compensate for that by panning so as to try and keep the car stationary in the frame as it zooms past which means the car ends up pin sharp while the background is blurred which really gives the impression of speed.  This can be a tricky shot to pull off and trying will feel very unnatural at first, after all normally you try and hold the camera as still as possible right?  To improve your odds try switching your camera to continuous shooting mode and just hold the shutter button down as you pan.

Now, this may seem like Im just stating the obvious, but racing cars move really quickly!  Normally they’re long gone before the camera has a chance to focus, much less let you take a photo.  If possible, switch your camera to manual focus mode and focus on the spot where the cars will be, long before they actually arrive.  If you’re using a compact camera that doesn’t have manual focus just point the camera to the same spot and press the shutter release button down halfway and keep it pressed down to lock the focus.  Now when the car enters the frame press the shutter release the rest of the way and voila, you’ll capture the car.

Motor racing is not just about the cars though, don’t ignore the crowds.   A lot of motorsport fans are very passionate about their favorite driver/team/car and you’ll be able to get some great emotional shots that will help give your set of images some atmosphere.

As I had recently purchased a new lens for my D40X the kit lens was surplus to requirements so I decided to sell my 4 month old Nikon D40X kit along with the spare battery, case and remote and 52mm filter. I put it on Ebay and it sold within the week leaving me just over £100 to find to get the D200 body (I managed to haggle £100 off the asking price for a quick sale!).

The camera itself showed just 100 shutter firings, was in perfect working order and the only mark on the exterior was on top of the flash which had received a slight knock/scrape. Very minor though.

The owner (a friend of mine) decided to keep the charger and strap as he had another D200 (this was a recently acquired second body but as Nikon has just announced the D300 he decided to upgrade) and he had misplaced the box and manual. No problem, a visit to my favourite Nikon dealer and £40 later I had everything bar the box.

The camera is excellent, as you would expect for £900 for the body only (ie no lens!).

It’s a lot heavier than my D40X due to the rugged, rubberised magnesium alloy chassis (as opposed to plastic), it’s also slightly bigger.
It feels really nice in the hand, the D40X seemed a little small to me and tended to be very front heavy with a decent lens attached. The D200 feels a lot better balanced and I find that the extra weight helps dampen the slight kick you get when a camera shutter fires.

So apart from build quality what have I gained?
(D40X in brackets)

• 11 autofocus points (3)
• Nikons highly acclaimed 1,005 point matrix meter (420 points)
• 5fps continuous shooting (3fps)
• Support for all Nikons old lenses (AFS lenses only)
• Depth of field preview (not available)
• Exposure bracketing (not available)
• Support for pro accessories such as GPS, portrait grip, wi-fi etc etc (remote control and flash units only)
• Direct access switches for continuous shooting modes, white balance, quality, metering mode etc (access through menu system only)
• Larger, brighter viewfinder
• Gasketed construction for improved weather sealing

So in short its a significant upgrade from basically Nikons entry level consumer SLR to Nikons entry level professional SLR range, quite the step up…
I’ve used it on 2 occasions so far, once at a wedding reception and prior to that the stag weekend for said wedding.
The 5fps shooting was very useful for the clay pigeon shooting during the stag weekend and the metering system is top notch, it only gets fooled by very small, strongly backlit subjects and even then that’s too be expected as digital cameras don’t see like our eyes do so you either get the subject correctly exposed or the background. The D40X meter sometimes needed dialing down as it would resort to idiot proof mode which is to ensure the subject is well exposed at the expense of blowing out any highlights or light areas in the background.
The viewfinder contains more information than the one on the D40, it’s very useful to see the ISO rating for example, and the numerous quick access switches make it quicker and easier to switch between focus and metering modes.

I’m hugely impressed with this camera and now that I’ve put about 2,000 shots through it I know I will only ever consider the top end SLRs in future. Don’t misunderstand, the D40X is an excellent camera and it isn’t fair to compare a £420 body and lens combo to one costing 3 times as much. But I have noticed that I quickly outgrew the D40X really. Something to think about if you take your photography seriously although at the end budget will dictate so stick to the time honoured tradition of buying the best you can afford…

So why should you care?  Well, do you share your photos by uploading them online?  If you’ve darkened down your photo because you thought it was too bright someone with a properly calibrated monitor will see it as being too dark.

Do you print your pictures?  Ever wonder why the colour and brightness doesn’t match what you see on your screen?

Calibrating your monitor is worth doing to ensure what you’re seeing is correct, and it’s virtually essential if you make your living as a designer or photographer.

There are 2 ways of calibrating your screen:

1) If you have a Mac you can go to system Preferences -> Displays, select the colour tab and click calibrate. This takes you through a step by step process where you make simple adjustments based on what the utility shows you on the screen. It’s fiddly time consuming and not especially accurate unless you have a really good eye for this stuff.

2) You can buy a gadget that attaches to the front of your monitor and by using special software it will look at your screen output and make the adjustments for you quickly and accurately. The bad news is that these gadgets cost the wrong side of £200.

Well not any more!

Pantone have released a new monitor calibration tool called the “Huey”. It’s available in 2 versions, the basic Huey and the Huey Pro. Both calibrate your monitor but the Huey Pro can handle multiple monitors and gives you greater control over the process. The Huey costs around £69 whereas the Huey Pro costs around £99. There is a software upgrade you can buy to get the Pro functionality at a later date.

I run a dual monitor system so I purchased the Huey Pro as I only have one monitor and I have no real need for the additional manual adjustments available with the Pro version.

The package contains a CD-ROM which use you to install the software, the USB Huey stick (and USB extension lead) and a desk stand. They also thoughtfully include a couple of moist screen wipes for you to clean your monitor before you begin. The Huey works on LCD screens and old fashioned CRT’s.

Simply install the software and run it. You will be prompted to connect the Huey to a spare USB port and place it on the desktop stand. You must ensure the LED’s on the Huey are pointing away from your monitor towards you, this is so that it can take a reading of the ambient room light. The software will then instruct you to attach the Huey to the centre of your monitor using the built in suction cups. Once you’ve done that click “next” and the software will begin the calibration process. Less than a minute later it’s all done and you can flick between the uncalibrated settings and the new calibrated settings so that you can see the difference. Then you just tell the software what you will be doing with your computer (eg Web and Photo work or Print Design). Job done!

As our perception of colour changes with the light around us you can leave the Huey on the desk stand (LED’s facing you) and it will constantly adjust your monitors output based on the lighting in the room, for example to compensate for the light fading in the evening.

The Huey is easy to use and compared to calibration hardware of the past it’s cheap.
I was surprised to find my iMacs display was off by a fair bit being too bright and very warm in appearance before calibration and then much cooler (bluish) afterwards but once I got used to it the new settings do look better and no-one else finds it bluish so it’s obviously just me being used to the warmer settings of old.

Everyone should have a calibrated screen…