I love racing, there is so much action going on, the sound of a car going 200+ miles per hour 30 feet from you its just indescribable, your heart drops to the asphalt and you can feel the car vibrate inside you making your hear beat double. I often go to the Sonoma Raceway in California (formerly Sears Point Raceway and Infineon Raceway) to watch the races, indi cars, nascar, or drag cars, I love them all.
So how do you take a photo of a car blazing by and give it that feel of movement? Its not as hard as you might think but it does take a bit of practice.
Here are a few simple tips to get you started out at the race track (or on the streets).
Camera settings: When you are looking for an action shot such as this you need to have a slow shutter speed, you can achieve this in Manual (M) Mode or in Shutter Priority Mode (the S dial on your Nikon or Tv on your Canon Camera)
The shutter speed should be anywhere from 1/40 of a second to 1/80 of a second. This will create the blur effect in the back ground making the car feel like its going really fast in the photo.
1. Find a secure spot to take the photos.
First thing you need to do is find a secure spot where you can stand and where you are able to move around. By that I mean you need to make sure there is no one (or nothing) next to you (you need about 2-3 feet of space to be comfortable when learning) who you are going to bump with your camera every time you rotate. When you take this kind of photograph you have to follow the car with your lens and take it at a slow shutter speed, not run after the car but rotate with it as it passes you.
2. Observe the cars going by, try to get used to the speed and follow the subject with your eyes. Do this a few times before doing it with your camera. If you are on the streets, get used to the traffic and how its circulating.
3. Do it with your camera. Gain focus, rotate with the car and take the shot.
When the car is approaching you have to gain focus on it, so follow it from the far and the closer it gets thats when you want to gain focus. You can achieve this by pressing the shutter button (the button you use to take a picture) in your camera half way down, this will get the car in focus, then you start rotating with the car and when you feel right you snap the shot. Now remember this all happens very fast and it takes practice, so give it a few tries and don’t get frustrated its going to take a few fails before you get the killer shot. Be persistent and you will get it.
4. Repeat 1 and 2.
5. Remember to have fun, if you can’t get it walk away for a few and come back and try again, its really not that hard. Practice makes perfect.
Thats it, thats how you take a photo of a moving car giving it that motion feel, but what if you want to do the complete opposite and freeze the entire frame?? Well let me tell you thats even easier.
Here is a photo of a 4×4 race I shot in Costa Rica. I wanted to get the feel of the race and the mud and the environment so I wanted to freeze everything in my frame specially the mud flying all over the place.
How did I achieve this?
Thats easy, all you have to do is shoot this at a fast shutter speed, so instead of 1/40 of a second you have to be at about 1/200 of a second or more, this will ensure that everything on the photo gets captured perfectly still.
Camera settings for this particular shot:
Shutter speed 1/1250 of a second f/5.6 ISO 160
Thank you so much for dropping in guys, if you have any questions or suggestions please leave them in the comments below. Don’t forget to pick up your free Video below.
Here are some tips on how to make a beautiful Black and White photograph. I live by this when shooting Black and White.
1. When shooting B&W photography it’s important that you learn to see in black and white. Remember you don’t have color to draw the eye when shooting B&W photography, so you have to find shapes and tones to compose your photo. Study the colors and study the your environment picture all the gray tones and picture everything in B&W. I will keep it short and sweet. If you have any others please share on the comments below.
2. Always shoot in color, it is important that you always shoot in color. Most cameras out there have a B&W setting DO NOT USE IT. If you shoot everything in color you will have more control of the gray scale in post production once you convert it.
The Man In White
3. Always use the lowest ISO setting possible. This will get rid of the noise in the photograph and you will end up with a great clear photograph. If you are looking for noise do it in post production. I like to add noise to (some) B&W but I always do it in post production that way I still have a very high resolution high quality photo.
4. Always shoot RAW, most DSLRS shoot in RAW (and any camera now a days), again this gives you more control of the image in post production thus making a better B&W photograph. If you don’t have this setting on your camera, don’t worry, you can still make an amazing B&W photograph shooting JPEG.
5. Contrast is very important when shooting B&W photography, it sets the mood it, it defines your lines, it brings out shapes and shadows you would never be able to see in color photography. Play around with it and make it work for you.
Did I miss any? Please leave them in the comments below.
Always remember that practice makes perfect, and always have fun out there.
How to create the starburst effect on your photographs.
I get lots of questions about how to create the starburst effect on photographs, some people think I do this in post production but the truth is I do it all in the camera in the field, and you can too.
Getting this effect is not nearly as hard as you think it is. I recently did an article with Nikon about this particular topic. You can see the full article here.
Star Noir
A dark night in a city that knows how to keep its secrets. But one man is still trying to find ideal places to shoot night images. He’s Edin Chavez, and the starburst effect is his intention—but so is getting the reflections and heightened textures of Central Park in the rain.
The cold, windblown rain falling right after sunset that December day drove tourists from the benches and the roadway to give Edin a picture-perfect scene for his D800 and AF-S FX Zoom-NIKKOR 14-24mm f/2.8 lens. “But with the wind, no really long exposures were possible,” he says. “I set 2.5 seconds and had to bump up my ISO to 1250 to shoot at f/10 for the starburst and for the depth of field to make the leading lines work to [the] best advantage.”
Edin shoots a good number of starbursts, so he was confident of his settings. “I knew that between f/8 and f/16 I’d get a pretty decent light burst and a decent depth of field for the whole cold, wet feel of the park.” Manual exposure and Matrix metering completed the setup. “I did a three-bracket series using exposure compensation,” he adds, “but for this photo, which was the best one I got, there was no exposure comp. I just checked the LCD.”
Edin’s general advice for both cityscape and countryside starburst images: “Experiment until you’re comfortable enough to know what you’re doing and what you’re likely to get, and then confirm it on the back of the camera. Generally, the smaller the aperture, the better the result. On a nice day, maybe f/32, but not on that day in the park.”
I have been to hundreds of temples, churches, and cathedrals all around the world, but none have impressed me as much as Saint John’s Cathedral. The Cathedral is located in Valletta Malta, and it’s straightforward to find just ask anyone you see, and they will point you in the right direction.
Every corner of this place is covered with something, from the floors to the ceiling there is not an empty spot.
All the gold you see is gold leaf done by hand. In fact, while I was there, an artist was working on restoring a wall. I remember thinking while watching her, It must take months to do a small piece.
I walked around inside for about an hr, and I couldn’t get enough, I was mesmerized by its beauty.
Saint John’s Cathedral
The interior of Saint John’s Cathedral, in sharp contrast with the facade, is extraordinarily ornate and decorated in the height of the Baroque period. The interior was decorated mainly by Mattia Preti, the Calabrian artist, and Knight. Preti designed the intricately carved stone walls and painted the vaulted ceiling and side altars with scenes from the life of St John.. Wikipedia
Getting here is not hard, just ask around if you get lost but when you walk in if your jaw is not on the floor, you are in the wrong place.
About the photos:
I used a wide angle lens to get the job done. I did not use flash and shot everything handheld. Here are the settings: f2.8 ISO 1600 14-24 mm lens. The shutter speed varies from 1/40 of a second to 1/120 of a second. All shot with my Nikon D800e
I edit all my images with my Lightroom Presets download them and give them a try.
Have you ever been? Drop me a line, I’d love to hear your thoughts on this masterpiece, I always wonder why we don’t build things like this anymore.
I shot this a few weeks back from South Pointe Park here in Miami Beach. I often come here to watch the sunset and watch the ships leave the port of Miami. Its an spectacular site to see, not only the massive ships leaving but also the amazing sunsets you get to see from this park. This sail boat was coming into port as this ship was leaving and it looked like they were going to crash.
I made a video to show you how to edit photos like this one and get colors out of your images. Thats why its very important to always shoot RAW. (I made a video on this, its somewhere on my channel)
Camera settings: 1/200 of a second F2.8 ISO 500 I shot this with a 70-200mm lens my Aperture was wide open and my ISO was high because I didn’t have a tripod and had to shoot this handheld, shooting the photograph this way prevented any blur or fuzziness on my photograph.
Please drop me a line below or any questions you might have. Subscribe to my Youtube Channel to get updates on new training videos and some funky behind the scenes.
If you fly as often as I do then you will know exactly what I am talking about. This is all out of personal experience and happens to me in just about every flight. In fact I’m typing this in a plane do to some inspiring people in here. This is all common sense but some people lack that and they lack that in numbers.
I will start form the beginning of the flight and end at the baggage claim. Safe travels everyone. Read on.
1.When you enter the plane and have a massive back pack on, (for some reason you need your entire bedroom for a weekend trip in your back pack) do not turn on the aisle, every time you do that you hit someone in the face (someone sitting in an aisle seat) with your 60 pound bag, if you need to put your other 100 pond carry on on top take, your back pack off first, place it on your seat then continue to put your 2nd home on the compartment above your seat.
2. That brings me to #2. I know you are the only person in the planet that matters, but unfortunately for you we all paid to be in this plane and we all have the right to store our bags, so place the carry on bags wheels first on the overhead compartment to make more room for everyone else’s bag, don’t be an asshole and take a whole compartment by your self then close it. WTF is that? Douchebag
3. If you are that jerk off that puts your knees on the seat in front of you, be happy you haven’t done this to me, I will get up and embarrass you in front of the entire plane. I mean come on, every time you move the guy in front of you can feel it, yes even if you are extra careful, how old are you 6 that you cant keep your body parts to your self? This goes for the the ones that use my arm rests as foot rests, don’t put your feet near me.
4. If you are one of this people that takes your shoes off, remember this, nobody wants to smell your stinky feet, I know I know its a long flight and you want to be comfortable, guess what asshole, buy a private jet. Besides do you know how filthy this plane carpets are? Do you know what happens in a guys bathroom in front of a urinal? Yes its full of piss and guys step on it and guess what its all over that carpet. Keep your shoes on!
5. Ahh the food trey, remember that the food trey is attached to the seat in front of you, that being said, be courteous when you open it and close it. Don’t be a jerk and slam it open or close, the guy in front can feel it and its not pleasant.
6. This brings me to #6 if you have to go to the bathroom and often, there is nothing wrong with that (Im one of this guys) but please don’t grab my seat to get up and jerk it back , unless you are a 70 plus year old man or woman, you are full capable of getting up without disrupting everyone around you.
7. The aisle asshole. Yes I said it, if you like to walk back and forth in the aisle there is no reason for you to touch anyones seat, just walk, and don’t bother people by graving their seats using them as hand rails, some people are sleeping and some are working the last thing they need is a thump on their head just because some asshole cant sit still. There is no reason for you to touch anyones seat while standing unless there is horrible turbulence, in wish case you should not be walking around to begin with.
8. The pig, I know I know you only get a drink and a napkin, why can you get more? I have news for you, you can in first class, that being said it shouldn’t be hard for you to keep track of your napkin right? So why does it always end up on the floor? Is this how you are at home? You just throw shit on the floor? The flight attendants often walk up and down the aisle with trash bags, put your trash in there. Don’t leave it on the floor or stuff it on the back of the seat. Have some manners, if you want to be a pig buy a private jet and destroy that.
9. Hey asshole I have news for you, nobody cares what you are listening to, watching, playing or looking at on your cellphone, iPad or laptop, so mute it or put some headphones on. Douchebag.
10.You might not like this one but it has to be said, if you are massive and over weight, thats ok, nobody is judging you but you need to buy 2 seats, why should I get squished and be uncomfortable just because you don’t fit in a normal seat? Its not fair to me and its not fair to you. You take up a seat an a half and unfortunately I get screwed with half a seat, and I paid full price??? Shouldn’t you pay for half my seat??? Think about it.
11. The parents, most parents are really good and kids are kids I get that but I did have a terrible experience once and I have to mention it. Do not change your kids dippers next to me, its extremely rude not only to me but everyone else. You think we like to smell baby shit? If you haven’t noticed the bathrooms are equipped with some incredible tables you can put down and clean your kid on. USE THEM!
12. The seat swapper, are you this guy? guess what if you ask me to swap seats Im gonna tell you to f-off, its a 2 hr flight and you can handle it. Unless you are offering a better seat I’m not giving up mine so you can sit next to your wife (or husband) for 2 hrs and I can sit in the middle of a 2 massive people, besides you need a break from her (or him) wasn’t this vacation long enough? Plan better next time.
13. The cougher, cover your mouth!!!
14. When the plane lands and the seatbelt light goes off, stay put, it exits by rows, you will eventually leave. Don’t be the asshole that tries to run down the aisle to get off first. A. you look like a complete asshole and B. You will only get 2 people ahead. If you want to get off first, buy a first class ticket or a private jet. Jerk!
15. You made it, well almost, if you need to get your bag at the carousel, don’t push people out of the way, or don’t pull carts up to the carrousel, we all want our bags and we are all going to get them, be polite about it. If someone needs to get front of you because their bags are coming, let them in.
Sometimes I wonder wtf is wrong with people, this is nothing but common sense and common curtesy, I’m convinced that if we all had a little bit more common courtesy this world would be a better place. Be kind and respectful to each other, traveling is hard enough as it is don’t make it harder on yourself and other people. We are all adults.
Did I miss any? Leave me a comment below as I would love to hear your thoughts.
