Criticism required. Constructive or otherwise. Do your worst!

I’ve been playing with a new 7D for a few months now and yesterday I was at the Tour of Hamsterley. It’s the first time I’ve been to a rally and I’m still at the stage where I’m learning something new every time I use the camera.

I think I did alright considering how long I spent lost in the middle of nowhere looking for good spots. There’s things I’d do differently but I’ll keep them to myself and see if anyone mentions the same things.

More pics HERE

p.s. You’re also allowed to say nice things if necessary

If I owned GNO 187H, I’d pay you good money for that one!

If I owned GNO 187H, I’d pay you good money for that one!

Yeah you picked my favourite!

Pics 6, 8, 9, 10, 13 & 14 are excellent (IMHO), well done.

Filling the frame, low angles, corners, and panning (which you’ve obviously got the knack of) maketh the good rally pic (again, IMHO).

I’d say no.9 is your best there.

Things that stands out to me are the distracting foreground foilage and people in the backgrounds, some off putting angles too. Also need to work on the panning a bit, you can still suggest motion, but get the subject sharper against a blurred background

Sorry if that seems harsh, but you did ask for critique

You got me at GNO 187H. Fantastic shot.

need more escorts going sideways. Otherwise tres bien!

Yeah – 1st, 2nd and 4th are the weakest pics for obvious reasons I guess.

The 2nd one (mini) would have been good had the car not just gone past.

The rest are great though, you’ve done a good job of fitting the cars into the frame without being too large or too small.

Nice range of different viewpoints too. Nice one….

Some lovely cars in there, some good shots a well. That Cortina is very shiny 😆

Great photos – proper rally cars

I think you’ve got some professional quality pictures that you could sell for good money if you wanted to.

I love the pictures that contain a single car on a blurred but simple background.

Best picture; Blue/White Mk1 Escort going sideways in the rain is superb. Or perhaps the Black/Yellow Mk1. The cars are sharp with good detail and the background doesn’t distract you.

Seems i’m in a minority, very hard to judge sharpness with web sized images. Not dissimilar to how the shots always look good on the rear LCD.

Going to stand by my original comments and would like to know what the OP feels he could improve upon

First few in built up area are not to my taste, last two a bit static looking, but the rest are great and certainly give the impression of movement. Panning is generally well done and some apply angles and diagonals which is always nice. Leave a little more space in front of the car to avoid the central subject on some of them. I don’t mind parts of the cars being a little blurred as it creates a feeling of rapid movement. Also a couple of shots going in closer and not including the whole car would add variety to a panel of pictures. If I was confronted with 10 images, printed to high quality, of this calibre I would be happy to award a merit or even a distinction to Level 2 City and Guilds in Image Capture provided the documentation is up to standard (the boring bit).

Sorry, I’ve just come home from a teaching session 😉

Of the City ones, I think the Mini works as it is a relatively plain background with some nice texture – the rest are just too cluttered taking the focus away from the cars.

I don’t like full-frame car shots

but then I’m not a photographer

no akshun shots of the cortina – criminal 🙁

Think you should have included this one

Its the ones with the “You know that’s going full bore” that captures the eye IMO.

Blue and white mk1 is a great photo. As above the driver would have that in his collection in a heart beat.

Best shot is car 161 IMHO. It just needs the distracting highlight in the foliage cloning out (upper left third line) the first few all need some space around the car but you have the panning knack pretty down by the look of these web jpegs.

Being picky:
I would also crop a little tighter/wider on gno187h and get rid of some sky. Try to bring out more rain in Photoshop if possible.
The last shot – of the Focus is also great in terms of mood and composition but it lacks any action which kills the shot. I’d cheat and photoshop in some gravel spray from the front wheels but I guess most wouldn’t.

Being fundamental:
You need to include the drivers next time. They will pay you, not the car. Well directed and judged flash is the only way and it makes something already hard to do, really really hard to do. See Strobist and more importantly, Dave Black for details.

On the whole, I wish I’d taken most of those, they are excellent.

Don’t like to be negative but you asked for it. Please feel free to have a go back on my Flickr photostream:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ricdiggle/

Look pretty damn good to me. Have you been on photography-on-the-net at all? It’s a Canon forum that covers all types of photography including motor sports. You can get a lot of advice off there…

I like em, looks like a good day out and a I bet you felt even better when you got home to see them on a big screen.

Wow thanks a lot for the mostly kind words.

Seems i’m in a minority

We’ll there’s always one isn’t there 😉 No hard feelings.

need more escorts going sideways

I agree! I have learned that the Hamsterley stages are characterised by their extremely high speed straights and long swoopy corners. I hiked around a 7 mile stage and the only good corner I found are the ones above with the rain in them.

The last shot – of the Focus is also great in terms of mood and composition but it lacks any action which kills the shot.

Also agree. As above, real lack of ‘features’ on the course. This was the only part I found that was out of the woods but it was a pretty tame kink in a long, fast straight.

I think you’ve got some professional quality pictures that you could sell for good money if you wanted to

I need to learn where I can sell stuff like this!

Have you been on photography-on-the-net at all?

I haven’t but I just checked it out. Looks excellent, thanks for that.

All in all I would have liked to get a better variety of shots. There really isn’t much in the way of scenery at Hamsterley as you’re usually deep in the woods and there was only a few spots where you could stand back from the track and get a nice fast looking panning shot instead of turning on the spot as the car flies past and have only part of it in focus. Before I went I imagined some nice landscape shots with a car streaking through the scenery and I just didn’t find anything like that.

I also need a medium lens. I have a 17-55 and a 70-200 and I always find myself wanting something in between.

A pretty fun and educational day out with a nice photo album to show for it. I plan to do a lot more stuff like this. The photography bug is back and I’m really enjoying it.

Thanks for looking.

Nice shots. My father-in-law to be is Media Officer for the R.A.C. Championship. I’ve sent him a link to this page so he can take a look.

Nice shots. My father-in-law to be is Media Officer for the R.A.C. Championship. I’ve sent him a link to this page so he can take a look.

Wow thanks for that, I got a bit of a shock when I saw an email from the RAC Rally! I’ve given him permission to use whatever he needs for the website, facebook etc..

Who’d have thunk putting some pics up on a bike forum would get them in front of the RAC’s Media Officer?

Who’d have thunk putting some pics up on a bike forum would get them in front of the RAC’s Media Officer?

welcome to the wonder of the singletrack forum 🙂

The frame filling ones are too close imo. There’s no context. IMHO car shots like this, you need to see up or down the road a bit, to draw your eye to where it’s come from or is going to, which gives a sense of space and speed.

I like the last two the best. The yellow escort and the one after it (Chevette?) could be parked up.