Work Flow:

Recommended Gear for Shooting Motorsport Races

To capture motorsport photographs, you need equipment that can handle fast-moving subjects and unpredictable lighting conditions. Here are some equipment recommendations for capturing cars or bikes at a high rate of speed. Again everything here is personal preference, but it is a good starting point.

You will usually be issued a numbered vest/bib, or as it is commonly called, the media vest/bib. This is not an investment that you have to make, because the Media Center will provide this item to you upon checking in and receiving your media credentials.

Different events have different rules for media vests, so you will want to find out about this before you shoot. The vests will be numbered so if you happen to do something that is against the rules of the media center, you can be identified and possibly have your media credentials revoked. Other events will have their own vests that they will issue out, but also allow you to wear your own vest if you so choose. Lastly, I have shot at some places that do not require a vest. For me personally, when I go to a race, my vest is with me and I will either wear my own if I can. I also have my vest imprinted with my logo and the other photographers that I know that have their own will have their logos on their vest. It is an easy way to be recognized and network.

Gear (Specialized Clothing Items)

This section is not about the camera or lenses, that will come later, but this is about some of the other gear you might want to invest in either by choice or requirement.

You may be required to wear a fire-retardant suit/overalls and even a helmet (something like used for skateboard/rock climbing) for shooting in dangerous areas of the track, like the ‘pit-lanes’ where the machines are moving and you are more likely to get hit/injured. I know some photographers who cover these races regularly, so they will spend $200-300 or more on these pieces of safety gear.

I highly suggest having someway to keep hydrated while you are out shooting. A lot of times, you will be on the track for hours on end and usually, it will be hot (middle of summer). I use a 3 liter Camelbak for all my hydration needs. The nice thing about it is that I can stash snacks and some other small extras such as a my phone/batteries in the side pockets.

As for what you want to drink, that is up to you, but water is the best, basic source you can use. Since I hate drinking water, I will add a scoop of Gatorade powder to the mix for taste purposes. I also like my drinks to be ice cold, so when I am prepping my Camelbak, I will either fill the bladder full of ice or even fill it most of the way and freeze it the night before, then add the water. There has only been a couple of times when I finished the day and all the ice has melted, but the water is always still cold.

For me, clothing is another aspect of gear that one should look at before jumping in. I prefer shorts and flip flops when I am around the vendors area and when it is warm, but at the race track, I am sometimes in long pants and hiking boots or at least in cargo shorts and leather sneakers. At some of the circuits that I have shot at, I have had to deal with bugs and prickly vegetation that will cut and poke you. As for shirts, I will usually be in short sleeves unless it is cold. Be careful of the colors of your shirts, if you wear WHITE, RED, YELLOW or GREEN these can confuse the drivers with the marshal’s flags, so try to wear something a bit neutral.

As for other clothing, this is all dependent on what type of racing you are shooting. Some types of racing will be postponed based on the rumor of rain, while other types of racing do not care about the weather. My first race that I shot was 40 degrees and it rained all day. I was prepared, but I was still miserable. It does not matter what the weather forecast is for the off road race I am going to, it has been mostly been spring time here in the High Plains and the weather can change drastically, so I will always have some cold weather gear along with rain gear along. In fact, the last race I shot down in Texas, the forecast called for rain up until the day before the race. I invested in a better rain jacket than what I had at the time. On race day it was 90 degrees and the sun was out.

Camera Gear for Motorsports Photography

Camera

I have absolutely no opinion on camera bodies. Run what you brung. If you have a body that has a semi fast frames per second, the better off you will be; but I started shooting with a Nikon D200. I have moved up to a body that has better fps, but I have seen some awesome images shot with bodies with a whopping 4 frames per second speed, so don’t fret if your body is slow. If you have a body that has a high frames per second rate, then go for it; but please do not think that just because you have a starter level DSLR that you are shut out from shooting. You’ll just need a camera that can shoot in burst mode and has a fast autofocus system. You will see many types of cameras on the track. A high-end DSLR or mirrorless camera is ideal, particularly one with a fantastic autofocus system.

You’ll also want to make sure that your camera has a large buffer system so that it can process a large number of photos taken in a short amount of time via burst mode. I use a Nikon D3s but again, this can vary based on the photographer. Make sure to also have a rain cover for your cameras and lenses, as the weather is unpredictable.

Lens

A zoom lens for capturing action shots is a must. A 70-200mm lens is a good choice, but you can also use a longer lens, such as a 300mm or 400mm lens, for greater reach on larger tracks. Having a variable zoom lens really gives you an edge because you can adjust your composition on the fly.

Also, be sure to get a fast lens with a wide aperture to take in the most light for an aesthetically pleasing background blur.

I like to use a 100-400, as it gives a nice zoom range for not only shooting motorsports but also other types of sports photography.

Memory Cards

I tend to like smaller capacity cards with good to fast write speeds. Regardless of memory card size, you’ll need memory cards with fast write speeds to keep up with the rapid burst shooting. These will allow a large amount of photos to be written to the card much faster. This is crucial so that you are not waiting for your camera’s buffer to clear. Early on, I read a piece of advice from another photographer who stated that by using several different cards for the same event, if one card goes bad, the event is not an entire loss as there will be more images on other cards. Depending on your body and if you are shooting RAW, JPG or both will dictate the capacity of the card you will want to go with. I shoot RAW exclusively with a 16 megapixel body and I have found that using 16gb cards are perfect for me. I get 500 shots per card. If I am shooting several different classes, I will use one card per class. If it’s a race class with a low number of entries, I will usually drop down to one of my 8gb cards.

Card speed is a big thing to look for when you are selecting what you want to use. The nature of the best that is sports photography, most shooters will shoot numerous times and there will be times that you might lay on the shutter for a 20 shot burst. You really don’t want to bog down the camera’s buffer, but you will. By using a fast card, it will take more to bog it down. My cards range from 45mb/s to 95mb/s. For the most part, the 45mb/s have served me well, but I would consider that a bare minimum.

Glass can be about the most important part of the gear you will need to think about. A lens body with a long reach plays into that safety aspect as it will allow to be take a safe shooting position without putting yourself in harm’s way. While I will not discount a 200mm lens as a viable option, I have used a 80-200mm at every race that I have shot and a lot of my shots have been between 150mm and 200mm. I will not say a wide angle lens has no place at the track. It does, but in a very limited space and I will cover that in another article. In short, if you only have 200mm, you can probably get away with it but I would recommend no less than 300mm for someone shooting their first race.

Now if you do not have any glass that has that sort of reach, you have options. You can always rent a lens from one of the many companies that offer that service, but for the more sadomasochistic yahoos among us, there is possibly a cheaper option, online auctions. Yes, that’s right, online auctions. I can only speak from my experience as a Nikon shooter, but I have been able to find a lot of glass on auctions for pennies on the dollar and my first several races were shot with an old 75-300mm manual lens that I bought for about $35. I have been lucky that all of my cheap lens purchases from auctions have been decent, but there are a couple of things you need to realize before going this route. More than likely, it will be manual focus only. This can possibly drive you up the wall, but once you start using a lens with auto focus at the track, it will not seem like work. The other thing you need to be aware of is the body might be beat up and in my case, the zoom ring was loosey goosey. I was able to get some good shots with that lens, but I missed a lot just by the zoom ring being loose.
So if you can afford it, either rent or buy something with auto focus; but if you are stuck with manual, go ahead and take the leap.

Camera Settings

When it comes to camera settings, such as aperture, shutter speed, white balance and shutter mode, it is good if you have an idea of where you want to start so you will be in the ballpark.

The first thing is RAW vs. JPG. I will just cloud this argument up some more with my opinion, but this is totally up to you. I shoot RAW exclusively, but there are shooters out there where JPG is mandated because they are working with deadlines. This is up to you and while I would recommend shooting RAW, if you do not feel comfortable shooting RAW at this point, do not feel like you have to.

Shutter speed is your key camera setting. With action photography, we want to freeze the action. The same holds true with motor sports, but to add to the degree of difficulty is the fact that you want to freeze the body of the car, the motorcycle, the rider, and the driver while having a slow enough shutter speed that will give blur to the wheels. This allows the viewer of the image to know that the vehicle is in motion, because if you jack up the shutter speed as fast as it will go, the vehicle will look like it is parked and that takes away from the image, unless of course the car is not moving.

I like to start at a baseline of 1/500^th for my shutter speed. This will depend on exactly what you are shooting. The slower classes may need a slower shutter speed to keep that wheel blur, while the faster winged sprints, unlimited off road cars will need a faster shutter speed. Your best bet is to make it to the track during practice and take some practice shots using different shutter speeds.

I started shooting manual. By doing this, it allowed me to get a firm grasp on the exposure triangle and if you are a new shooter, I would recommend shooting in manual. If you have a good understanding on exposure, then switch that mode dial over to shutter priority and go from there. Let the camera do the work for you when it comes to aperture.

I set ISO manually.  From the beginning of my photography journey, it was ingrained into me to keep the ISO as low as possible and from what little I have seen from my particular camera body, if I allow it to control ISO, it is going to adjust the ISO to a lot higher number than what is really needed for the scene.

I used to shoot in manual white balance also, but I got to the point where I let the camera make that decision for me. Is it always spot on? Nope, but it is always close enough that a lot times, I cannot tell that it needs adjustment. Just like shooting mode, if you are a new shooter, use manual white balance so you can learn about it, but after awhile, turn it over to AWB and let the camera do the work.

Shooting Positions for Motorsports Photography

The next to last thing you need to know is how to pick a good shooting position. The top priority when choosing a place is safety. Your safety and the safety of the participants. This is why you need glass with reach because it is not safe, and in many cases you will not be able to get close enough to use that 18-55 kit lens to shoot. This is where familiarity with the track will help you out. There will be spots that might look good on first glance, but if you are there during practice, watch a couple of cars go by it first. When I first shot circle track, I found a place that looked great and I was imagining what kind of shots I could get. The problem was the spot also caught a lot of roost coming off the tires and there was no way I would have been able to shoot there, so I had to pass it up.

So here are the key points you need to look for:
Do you have access to that spot and can you safely shoot from there?
The uniqueness of the view from that spot?
Will you be impeding track crew, race crew or the cars themselves?

Just like with media vests, some promoters have rules regarding where the photographers can go. Depending on the promoter, these rules will be enforced to the letter, the promoter might just not care, or the situation will be assessed on its own merits. NOTE:  I do not condone violating the rules of the promoter/track ever.  If you are new to the sport, the venue, and/or promoter and find yourself crossways with the rules, you can have your credentials revoked and you will lose out.

Get To Know The Organizer and the Teams/Racers

More than likely, the first contact you will have in this venture will be the race promoter. You will not be starting out shooting a huge series, but it will be at the local circle, motocross tracks or if you are near off road racing, it can be there. In many cases in regards to the smaller promotions, the first contact you will have will be the track owner/promoter. When you show up at the track, if you can, track that person down and introduce yourself if you already do not know them. The promoter might ask you for some shots from the race. That is up to you, but in my case, if the promoter welcomes the coverage with open arms, I do not have a problem letting them have some shots.

Get to know the racers. In my case, my first race was as a member of a team and from that point, every off road race I have shot since, minus one, my first priority was shots for that team. The off road world is very tight knit and when they are not racing against each other, they are working on each other’s cars and it is a very family oriented community. Making these connections has allowed me to cover the cost of gas/lodging at times, and it has opened up some opportunities for me if I did not have those connections.

In the last section, I covered some of the gear such as safety vests and lens; basic camera settings and other tips for anyone thinking about heading down to the track to shoot a race. In this part, I am going to cover some basic prep work that I do and the type of shots that I look to capture.

Have A Plan

I shot my first race back in 2012. It was a wet and cold affair.  Just a month later, I was back on the track and then it was almost a year later before I returned. After that third race, I was not happy. I was not happy with the work the shots I was capturing, so I started down a path to become a better motorsports shooter. Listening to some podcasts and studying the work of other photographers, I finally reached a point where I felt like I was ready to make some serious strides.

One of the things that I did was I started going to the races with a game plan. My intentions by having a game plan was to make the day easier and less stressful, but to come away with better shots. I do not write the plan down, I just make a mental note of it. Depending on if I have been at the track before will determine how in depth the plan will be. If I am familiar with the track, then I will have a list of locations that I will shoot from and will probably include what type of shots I plan on getting at each location. Of course, if I have never been to the track before, then I have to adjust on the fly depending on the location, but it is not that big of a deal. While I will adhere to the plan pretty much to the letter, I keep my mind open. That is I will always be looking for different spots, even at the tracks that I have been at before.  Especially with off road racing, I might have to change things up due to the wind. While I have seen some photographers sit on a corner eating tons of dust just because that might be a prime shooting location, if the breeze is blowing the dirt where I want to be, I will move. I appreciate the benefits of standing upwind.

Be Expecting The Unexpected

In the last article, I wrote about safety in shooting motorsports and it is a no-brainer on why. There’s going to be crashes, spins, rollovers and a number of other calamities that could befall a racer. Here’s a little story to illustrate being ready.

In 2012, I was lucky enough to be able to shoot the Suzuka “Coke-Cola Zero” 8 Hours race at Suzuka Circuit. The race was on my bucket list of races to shoot and I got hooked up with the company that creates the race movie. On the first day of qualifications, I was not really feeling much of the qualification course, so I hung out near the start finish line for the actual race, but I was a little ways away from the qualification finish line. The last stretch of the qualification run required the racers to come speeding down the straightaway and the finish line was at end of grandstand.

I was just hanging out, catching shots of racers here and there and chatting with a spectator who made the trip to the race all the way from England. I was not really paying attention to the bikes speeding past until I caught a glimpse of a bike that just about lost it coming through the straight away. It was at that point I began tracking the bikes coming through. It was not long after when I started tracking the riders when I not only caught my first race wreck on camera, but it will probably go down as the most spectacular (unless I make it to a F1 race) and out of the 200 some odd credentialed media members with the promotion, I had the best angle and as far as I know, only 1 of 2 that got shots of the crash. One of the choppers caught it on video.

Truth be told though, I had started to pull off the bike at the finish line when I noticed through the viewfinder the rider getting a little sketchy, so I got back on it and that was when it happened. I was able to get about 20 frames from the crash.

As luck would have it, my next race some months later, I caught my second wreck while I was catching shots at the finish line of the race. Going back to the last section of this article, I always make “finish line shots” an entry on my list.

So be ready for the small one, the big one and the ones in between. So here is my list of shots that I look to get at a race.

Slow It Down and Go Wide

Again, I need to reiterate that you need to think this out before jumping in. I have listed what you need to think about before using a wide angle lens at the race track, so I will skip that. Up your game and add the wide angle lens to the slow shutter speed technique. Check out the results and decide if you like them or not. Personally, I love the results, but it’s a subjective thing.

Slow Down The Shutter

Slowing down the shutter speed to obnoxious speeds will add pop to the image. You might have seen those awesome shots of a NASCAR car going down the track and the only thing that is sharp is the car itself, everything else is one big blur. Shots like this are awesome.

There are a couple of things you need to do to pull this type of shot off, which are also commonly called panning shots.

The first thing you should do is pick your spot. I prefer a straight away section of the track. The next thing you need to think about is focal length. I have found these types of shots are easier with a long lens. It can be done with wide angle, but I will go into that shortly.

Once you have found the spot you want to shoot from, the next thing is to visualize a zone on the track. I will mentally label three points, A, B and C. A will be where I begin shooting. B will be the spot that I prefocused on and this is where I will get the money maker and C will be where I terminate shooting.

Once I have that, I will pick out my shutter speed. I usually start somewhere around 1/45^th. After this, I will go back to my zone and prefocus on Point B. At this point, I am ready.

I will look down the track before Point A and wait. Once I have a target coming, I will track the target through the viewfinder. Once the target reaches Point A, I push down the shutter and I follow through until the target reaches Point C and then I will stop shooting.

Now when the target is coming through and you are shooting, you track the target keeping the camera level throughout the motion. I have seen different recommendations on how one should hold the camera while doing this. My advice is to do what works with you. You’re not worried about focus, you’re only worried about tracking the car through while keeping the camera level. The one thing that I do recommend is as long as you are tracking the target and shooting, keep your feet planted and rotate your body from the waist up.

After I am done with that first target, I then review the images, particularly the shot that is where the target crosses Point B. I look for sharpness of the body. Do not let the LCD screen fool you though, zoom in on the image and look at several different parts of the target to see if everything is in focus and sharp.

Normally, that first series of shots will be off. My shutter speed and my body rotation did not match the speed of the target, so I will turn up the shutter speed a little bit. I am usually on the mark at this point and will shoot my series of slow shutter speed shots and then I am off to something else.

You might struggle at first using this technique, but go for it. We get nowhere if we do not challenge ourselves.

Go Wide

Before I write about using wide angles at races and I will break this down a little bit, I must reiterate the safety aspect. Using a wide angle lens might require the shooter to be real close and when I say real close, you might find yourself in the danger zone if you are not paying attention.

I like to get shots with my 28-70 dialed back to 28mm. The look can really make an image stand out from the rest of the gallery. To take shots with this particular lens, I will find a spot that will accommodate using it. The two best places I ever found was in the pit area where the cars are slow (more on this in the next section) and on top of a service road that put me about 10 feet above the course.

Another reason to go wide is to create an image of the environment that the race is being held at and you might not need a traditional wide angle lens to do this. Even with the typical 70-200 or 70-300, you might be able to frame a shot with a car or cars along with a gaggle of spectators, or the desert that plays a big part of the race.

Candids

Candid shots are shots that can set your work apart. Many times, I will come across a gallery of race images and the gallery will follow a set formula. Racers at Point A, Racers at Point B and Racers at Point C. That is the entire gallery and none of the images really stand out. Candids though can stop a viewer’s eyes in their tracks. Close up shots of drivers sitting in their cars waiting for the start, race officials at the drivers’ meeting, pit crew turning wrenches, the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat. Candid shots can break the surface and draw the viewer into the story of the race.

Slinging Dirt

Of course, this will not pertain to shooting on asphalt, but if you are shooting racing on dirt, especially dirt bikes and off road; these shots manifest themselves to the viewer. The best place to setup for these shots are on turns. When the dirt bike or car bombs into the turn and the driver twists the throttle or hammers the gas pedal, there will be a roost of dirt shot up into the air by the rear tires that add so much to the image. On these shots, your best bet is to turn up your shutter speed and forget it. Freeze the dirt. You will have clods of dirt sharp as a tack.

Chasing the Light

As photographers, chasing the light is what we do. We focus on times in the day when the sun is going to be in that magic position to offer the best light and with motorsports, this is no different. Most of the time, I have been in positions where I could not play with the sun while low in the horizon, but when I have had the chance, I have tried my best to add it as an element to the image. When a car churns up the dirt into the air and the low hanging sun bounces it’s magical light off those clouds

There is so much you can do with the golden light and motorsports. At the annual Suzuka 8 Hours race at Suzuka, the bikes are staged at noon of the main race. By later parts of the race, the bikes and people are facing west, so a photographer can get out in front of them and pop off all kinds of awesome, golden light candid shots.

Get Creative and Think Outside of the Box

The only limit on how creative you can get with your photography at the track is your mind.   It will cost you nothing to experiment except for some minuscule space on your memory card.  One of the most creative sports photographers that I know right now has a special type of shot that I have yet to figure out how he shots those shots and it’s very, very rare to come across something similar.   One thing I like to do, but have gotten to do very little of is light trails.  I did this awhile back at a race after it went dark and the cars had their lights on.  It was a two shot composite of just some light trails bouncing around the Oklahoma countryside and no cars.

Workflow and Post Processing

When I get home, I upload all of the images to my hard drive.  Then I will usually rename the files that will include the race promotion and location, so it will read something like “dirt-riot-coppermines-####” and then I import them into Lightroom.  Once in Lightroom, I will batch keyword the files and then put them into their own folder.  From there, I will go through and select the keepers using the star system in Lightroom.  While I am in selection mode, I will also flag those images that I want to use on social media and/or for a little more “creative love.”  Once I am done with selection, I will then apply a preset that I develop that can be applied to all of the images that I have selected.  The preset is pretty basic.  A touch of contrast, clarity, color correction with the HSL module, noise reduction and lens correction.  The final post processing step is cropping.  It is during this time when I will narrow down the selections even more.    At that point, except for the images that I have selected for the “creative love” touch, I am done.

Epilogue

I would like to thank everyone who has taken their time to read this series. Although my work has been concentrated at Suzuka Circuit and D1 Grand Prix Drifting series, I have applied this knowledge to all types of motorsports that I have shot and it has been my goal to place all of the information that I have learned into one place that will help photographers around the world who are thinking about heading out to a motorsport race for the first time.  I appreciate any feedback to the information that I have presented. Thank you!!!