Ideas #3: Room to Breath

It’s tempting to fill the frame with car when you have a lens capable of doing so, and the vast majority of people will jump straight to the longest end of their zoom lens as soon as they arrive at a circuit. To highlight the sense of speed you really need to give the subject room to drive into, or if you want to break the rules; room that it has driven out of. Either way it’s best not to completely fill the frame with the subject.

Frame full of car

Plenty of room to move into

Breaking the rules (occasionally)

Ideas #2: Get low

The obvious thing would be to take photos whilst stood up, so generally between 5-6ft. It’s amazing how a shift in perspective can improve a photo though, just by crouching down you can create a completely different photo, or even remove unsightly background distractions. Here are two examples from Druids Bend, Brands Hatch.

Standing up

Crouched down

 This also applies to the locations you choose around a circuit, generally spectators enjoy the action from banking so they can see as much of the circuit as possible, however as a general rule motorsport shots look better from the lowest angle you can find.

Ideas #1: Use Barriers

Armco and the various barriers around a circuit can be an annoyance and ruin a good photograph, so try and use them as part of the overall image instead. They can be particuarly useful as a framing device, and when panning they blur very well, adding to the overall sense of speed.

Shutter Priority @ 1/125