# Sealy Drags 1 of 2



## RustyBrown (May 29, 2004)

I was contacted last February by a promoter doing a drag racing / car show event at the old Sealy dragstrip in April. It was a 2 day deal and he just wanted to make sure he had a shooter and anything I sold would be mine. I did some recruiting and unfortunately it was just too inconvenient for most of you.

Come to find out the Friday night show was just a bunch of local guys doing their thing, but it gave me a warmup and a chance to use the Pocket Wizards with limited success. Since I had a few months to think about it, I really wanted to capture these guys with a true sense of speed. What I didn't want was to shoot 12fps at 1/2000th of a sec. I guess I'm getting into high speed automotive portraiture for lack of a better term.

Got to the hotel room a little after midnight completely spent...the real fun however would come Saturday....

Evening Light


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## Crab Trap (May 7, 2006)

Good job! Sure miss that Maroon 57!


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## stargazer (May 24, 2004)

Nice Rusty, like how the 2nd one has the face in focus, but shows motion in the helmet.


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## MichaelW (Jun 16, 2010)

Very nice shots. Question. Are you panning the camera to keep the subject sharp but the background blurred.


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## Pocketfisherman (May 30, 2005)

Wow, nice stuff.


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## Slip (Jul 25, 2006)

Very Nice indeed!


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## RustyBrown (May 29, 2004)

Michael brings up an interesting point and this might lead to some interesting discussion. I know most of you don't shoot drag racing but this might have some interesting applications for you as well. 

If someone likes an image enough to buy it there has to be a connection between the customer and the image and I believe the initial impact of the shot can help that connection a lot. When I shoot drag racing action I want the car as sharp as possible with a blurred background to show the speed â€" but thereâ€™s a problem.

As you slow the shutter more and more you introduce undesirable blur into the subject. While this can add to a sense of movement, it can also be distracting as its usually the front and rear of the subject that gets out of whack. After looking at thousands of shots I came to the conclusion that the slowest shutter speeds that keep the subject sharp do not produce blurring consistent with what the eye sees. They provide too much detail. 

So I stumbled on what I feel is technical limitation. I needed a technical solution for this problem just like HDR can help exposure latitude issues. What Iâ€™ve developed is a PS workflow that enhances the background movement and letâ€™s me have my cake and eat it too. Just like HDR though, itâ€™s best used in moderation. The end result creates a sharp isolated subject with a greater sense of movement. The first image here is a good result of the process.

Iâ€™m curious to hear your thoughtsâ€¦more examples coming.


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## Pocketfisherman (May 30, 2005)

I really like what you did with the first one. The pop of the car against the blurred background is what really makes that image stand out. For the cycle shot, I don't care for the ghosting around the riders helmet face shield. Is that ghosting a result of your process, or was it part of the captured image?


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## RustyBrown (May 29, 2004)

PF, I could have really, really used your expertise in slow sync / rear sync. The second shot is just normal post - so I'm trying to understand why the reflection and ghosting were thrown in front of the rider instead of behind. Hopefully I'll have some time to study it tonight.


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## Pocketfisherman (May 30, 2005)

Rusty, When you use second curtain sync with flash, on Canon's it will only activate at shutter speeds slower than 1/60. So at that speed or slower as you pan with an object, you get ambient blur behind it and the flash fires right as the shutter closes freezing the primary image in place.


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## RustyBrown (May 29, 2004)

Sorry so long on the update. Here's a few more from that evening...


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## Seeker (Jul 6, 2009)

Nice!


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