New Camera

[HomeRacingWorld]

It was an accident! :)

Now I'm in for it.

[ElSecundo]

[waaytoomuchintothis]

El Sadisto, you are a sick, sick man. That was her hairbrush.

[GENERAL MY WAY]

Kurt

We won't tell him but that was his toothbrush :lol:

[ElSecundo]

NA

[ElSecundo]

El Sadisto -- I like it! :)

Cindy, I figured you'd be one step ahead of me. If war/family feud/food fight ever breaks out, I want to make sure we're on the same side. :)

[RichD]

The joy of digital photography is that you spend all of your money on the camera, there are no film, developing or printing costs, so you should take a lot of pictures. I have watched professional photographers work on several occasions. People assume that they are so talented and experienced that they only need to take a few shots to get a great picture, but in reality that is seldom the case. The guys that I watched took hundreds of shots. Don't be afraid to experiment with your new camera. Try out the various picture modes for a start, then fiddle around with the manual settings. Remember that good lighting is important. You might consider taking an evening course in digital photography if there is one available in your area.
As far as movies go you would be better off in most cases editing a series of short segments together. It is usually best when you shoot slot cars on the track to keep the clips fairly short. You can move to different points of view, do panning shots or zoom in or out for effect. Avoid abrupt motions, static shots can get boring after a while but it is usually better to stop recording than to make changes on the fly. For most people Windows Movie Maker works well enough, you can use it to stitch together a series of clips, add titles, do all sorts of transitions, add music, sound effects or a narration and even add special effects like slow motion.

[HomeRacingWorld]

Yes, good advice. My Dad was a photog and he took billions of shots it seems. I take quite a few myself. On average I take about 100 shots for a review. I then use Photoshop to resize and to add text, etc.

I need more directional lighting. Dave Kennedy from Carrera is a fantastic photographer. He has helped me a lot and one of the cheapest and easiest ways to get more light is those cheap drop lights.



These really do the job.

Thanks for all the feedback. HRW is just small site, but I want to improve things where I can. Good pics help tell a story, and that increases the chances of helping folks. And in the end, that is why we are here.

[Ember]

Two worthwhile investments that need not be expensive, but in my book are absolutely essential.

1) A tripod! - Let's face it. The lighting around most tracks is good for racing, but not great for shooting. I would always rather shoot in available light than deal with a bounce flash. Available light means longer exposures. It's amazing how many people think they can hold a camera still for half a second or more.

2) Remote shutter release - Took me a long time to give in and by one of these. I used to use so often on my film camera, but they were expensive for digital when I first converted (crumbs that's a long time ago now). I bought a cheap chorded unit from Deal Extreme a couple of years ago. It was great, but it had a few problems. Last year I lashed out and bought a cordless one. Cost me a bucketload (USD 28). Best thing EVER!

And yes.... shoot, shoot and shoot some more. I recently shot 3 gig of photos for a 4 page article.

But then, I also recall shooting 22 rolls of film on a 2 week holiday to central Australia. Took me a while to afford to process it all being a student at the time. But there were some winners amongst them. And as a bit of a bonus to sell a few of what were essentially holiday snaps.