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Speed Camera at le Mans (2)
Rangefinder or SLR?
That year I attended the race with a pair of Leica M-4/2 and M-4/P rangefinder cameras rather than my Nikon outfit. I find it generally easier to photograph action sports with rangefinders because with a longer lens such as a 135 mm the viewfinder shows a field of view much wider than for that lens length so you can see the speeding subject coming into the area covered by that particular lens... and then click! It’s much easier to do that describe.
For “moving” action shots of fast cars I use shutter speeds of between 1/15th and 1/60th of a second. As each car comes around again in well under four minutes, and the fastest ones complete 350 or more laps in 24-hours, there are plenty of opportunities to vary the camera’s shutter speeds. The pair of images of the extraordinary Martini sponsored Porsche 935/78 - nicknamed “Moby Dick” - show this technique well... the left photo was taken at 1/250th of a second compared to the right photo taken at a 1/30th. The shot showing more motion (and emotion) was taken at three steps slower on the shutter speed dial... but what a difference in depicting action. The leading image taken at 1/15th shows too much bur but it is still effective because of the bright colour and highlight streaks from the polished metal parts. Of course for every step slower shutter speed a one stop smaller aperture has to be set on the lens.
Of equal importance are the foreground and background elements which, being blurred themselves, not only add to the effect of speed but become less distracting for the viewer and so make the focal point of the image, the car, more prominent. In the left sharper image the eye wanders from the foreground Armco barrier to the background advertising banners, spectators and trees... not so with the moving picture.
Update : These shots differ from the “Zooming Around” image seen on my weblog for two reasons. Primarily because the lens was a fixed 135mm short focal length telephoto and not a zoom lens... so the deformation of the car’s shape is due to the subject increasing in size as it got nearer to my camera position, not an adjustment in a zoom lens’ length. And secondly, the speeds were much higher at Le Mans... at the sweeping corner Virage Tertre Rouge where I took the images used in this article, most drivers would change down to 4th or 3rd gear, from 6th, to balance their cars at around 240 km/h (150 mph) as they exited the curve to line-up for a flat-out sprint along the Mulsanne Straight (this was years prior to the two infamous roundabout chicanes being installed to slow the cars down slightly). Of course you can try these camera shutter speed techniques at lower speeds on your own street or road... but be prepared for some strange looks from passing motorists or police patrols!
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