poeticsofspeed

3 thoughts on “Brun Motorsport Porsche 956 – Le Mans 1984”

1. Was wondering if you could share the camera settings for this shot, since you captured the wheel movement well, and it doesn’t look like a panning shot. Thanks.

2. I would gladly share the settings if I had them but I was shooting analog photo in the last century and none of the detailed info that digital photo automatically records was in existence. My film of choice like most of the GP photographers was was Kodachrome 64 (ASA 64). It provided rich colors and details and was archivally stable so the slides still look like new thirty years later.

   I can deduce what settings I probably used with the following old school guidelines:

   The f16 rule of thumb suggested a shutter speed nearest your film’s ASA number at f16 in full daylight. So that would give a basic exposure of f16 @1/60 for a correct exposure. Another rule of thumb suggested a minimum shutter speed for hand holding at the nearest equivalent of the focal length of your lens. My longest lens was a 300mm so ideally it could be hand held at 1/500 or maybe 1/250 if I was really steady. If we do the equivalent exposure calculation based on f16@1/60 that would put my working exposures at either f8@1/250 or f5.6@ 1/500. Depending on the distance to the subject the depth of field was really shallow at these settings and it required some precise focus and timing.

   The direction of the racing car also affects the shutter speed. If the car was coming at you the relative distance it was traveling was less so you could use a slower speed to stop action. If the car was moving across your field of vision the relative distance of its travel was greater and a correspondingly higher shutter speed was necessary.

   In this picture the 956 was coming towards me at a slight angle and my guess is I was using f5.6 @1/500. The wheels are still blurred because they are rotating at a higher speed than the car and would require a faster shutter speed to stop their motion.

3. Hi Dale, many thanks for spending the time to do all the calculations for estimating the photo settings. Really appreciate that. I guess we take it for granted these days with digital cameras that all the EXIF data is recorded, which as you mentioned was not possible with analog shooting. Its great that the Kodachrome 64 you used is archival stable and that now you can digitally scan them. I’ll use the f5.6 @ 1/500 setting as a guide for shooting race cars in a similar situation, since I like the way the car is sharp front to side, with the wheel motion captured, and background out of focus (but still recognizable) to give the car a 3D effect, which is a different look to the photo than panning. Hope that its okay I ask you about some of your other shots, since its a great way for me to learn about different shooting styles. Thanks again for your help and advice. Best Regards David