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Master Photographers Tell You How

Professional Racing Photographer Paul Webb's Photo Tips for High-Speed Events Professional Racing Photographer Paul Webb offer eight photo tips for shooting at high-speed events like motocross and nascar races Article rating: 8.21

1) Choose a specific subject matter. Sporting events can be distracting. Make sure to have a defined subject before taking a photograph.

2) Find an uncluttered background. This is important for all photographs, but easy to forget when there's a lot going on around you. Use in combination with number 1. 

3) Employ basic, simple design principals. All good photos utilize the basic principals of good design, such as anything symmetrical, triangles, using light to lead the eye to the main subject, etc.  

4) Use available light. Don’t be afraid of harsh or seemingly unfriendly lighting conditions; light, after all, is the essence of the photograph.

5) Get comfortable with manual mode. Choose the shutter speed and f-stop combination that suit conditions and make the proper exposure.  In situations that don’t involve speed, the less depth of field the better. The subject is better separated from the background.

6) Experiment with shutter speeds.  For high-speed or any kind of action photography, you may need to experiment yourself with how shutter speeds affect the motion in the photo. Generally 1/1000 of a second will stop most action, and 1/500 of a second will work pretty well if you're careful.  Conversely, to show motion in the background and pan with the subject, a shutter speed anywhere from 1/15 to 1/125 of a second may work, depending on the speed of the subject matter.

7) Don't worry about lenses. There's no need for tons of equipment or to be changing lenses all the time. That will only cause you to miss images.

8) Be critical of your own work. Pretend it’s someone else’s and critique it harshly. Trust me, a lot of what everybody produces is junk.  If you take your own ego out of it for a minute, and you’re honest about what’s crap, pretty soon you’ll take a real photograph.

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	The article was most informative. I got some good tips from it. Posted by: John McTarnaghan Aug 2, 2006 @ 3:13 PM EST
	Thanks for the advice Paul. I especially like the shutter speed information and the flash information shared. Critically looking at our own photos is good advice - not just smooshing everything we take. Posted by: K. Dunne Dec 2, 2006 @ 10:57 PM EST

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