Shooting WRL @ VIR

Shooting at VIR is just as challenging as it is rewarding... All of the grass & trees give everything a very prominent green tint, and (at least every time I've been there) the weather is fairly unpredictable. Being able to combat these, either while shooting, or in post production, can result in some really cool shots, especially if you have brightly colored cars that contrast the greenery. My settings for this shot were:

ISO 400

Shutter 1/3,000

Aperture f3.5

Shot from turn 3

With partially cloudy weather, I found that a shutter speed around 1/45 was the sweet spot for panning shots. My settings for this shot were:

ISO 50

Shutter 1/45

Aperture f11

As a rule of thumb, I generally shoot in shutter priority, ISO set to 50, and let the camera adjust aperture as needed based on available lighting. This lets me get different angles from the same spot, without over/under exposing one or the other or having to adjust settings in between cars.

Shot from turn 12

T12 is another spot where you can get several different shots/angles from one spot. My settings for this shot were:

ISO 50

Shutter 1/30

Aperture f9.5

This was shot in the afternoon with much more available light, which is why my aperture is a little more open, despite my shutter also being slower.

This was shot from the exact same spot. My settings were:

ISO 1250

Aperture f3.5

Shutter 1/6000

In this instance, I swapped from panning settings to a higher shutter speed, and cranked my ISO up way too high without realizing it.

While I like to leave my camera at ISO 50 for panning shots, I usually increase it to ISO 400 for higher shutter speed shots, because this allows me to freeze motion while keeping a clean, well exposed image.

This was my first attempt at any sort of blog post or anything, but I thought it'd be cool to share my settings and thoughts from each race/event/track... Both to reflect on my own photos and share my experiences with y'all :)