The fastest UK production race series arrived at Brands Hatch for the final round of the 2022 season and provide a great opportunity for any photographer to practise their art.
Motorsport images – you don’t need to latest and greatest cameras or lenses to create artistic motorsport images, but time to invest is certainly a requirement. Me personally, I like to see images that portray a sense of speed, so a moderately slow shutter speed, something around 1/125th of a second by contrast suggests a reasonably deep depth of field, something like f/5.6 on a dull overcast day to f/11 or deeper on a bright sunny day, and a focal length 70mm to 100mm helps open this upto just about anyone with a camera with manual controls, and the drive to be creative. Pre-focusing on a part of the track where the racers will pass, the better the series the more accurate they will be, with riders hitting virtual markers with the accuracy of a snipper! Set your camera, testing and correcting with aperture or ISO for correct exposure, then pick a subject and start panning and shooting. If like me in the early days you'll count yourself lucky to have 1 or 2 useable images, and remember that’s just the start, the more time behind the camera the better you will be. Then it’s time to look for the better spots! I find practice days are best!