Manchester World Track Cup Photo Album

Story posted November 4

By Larry Hickmott

British Cycling's Exclusive Reports & Photo Home Page

There is nothing quite like a packed Velodrome with the crowd going nuts and the racing at a speed we rarely see at the National Cycling Centre. Last weekend saw the first World Track Cup for the new season and what a great event it was. To celebrate the event, we have nearly a thousand pictures covering every event in our photo galleries:

Day 1 Photo Album: Men's Events | Women's Events

Day 2 Photo Album: Men's & Womens Events

Day 3 Photo Album: Men's Events | Women's Events

A few tips and hints
My job during the World Cup was to capture it for prosperity and as anyone who has taken photographs of racing indoors will know, it is not as easy as photography out doors where modern cameras have more light to help them focus on the fast moving subjects. There is a lot of thought and planning that has to go into photographing  an event like this. Which camera to use for what event because every event will provide a challenge for a camera.

So I used two cameras. One a seven year old 3 mega pixel pro camera (D1H) which is sadly is on its last legs and will only manual focus now. The other a bang up-to-date Nikon D300 which is probably within the reach of many enthusiasts selling as it does less than £1,000 now and working almost as well as a camera three times the price. Each camera I use has a flash on it as the light in the Manchester Velodrome is not that bright and only the really new breed of cameras such as the Nikon D3 and D700 are really suitable for flashless photography because they allow the photographer to shoot at the speeds required to stop the action while still retaining the detail in the images which is lost in older cameras.

There are many things to remember for getting good images in such a venue and the big one is to know what your camera is capable of and stay within that zone. Too many will try and get the camera to auto focus everything with a zoom lens and unless you have a really good camera/lens combination, then you’re going to end up with a lot of ‘soft’ images and those are only good for the bin. There is quite simply nothing worse than a soft (out of focus) image!

Manual focused image: Photography like any visual arts is subjective but for me, this is an ideal working picture, sharp (so the subject can be identified -- Matt Crampton) with the right blend of motion blur. Nikon D1H, 80th of a second at F8.

I know a lot of pro cameras with pro lenses that will struggle to give a sharp autofocus  picture every time but they will do a better job than the cheap camera/lens combo. Which is just as well as for the pros, it’s their job to get sharp images! So, for the World Cup, knowing there were few shooting opportunities outside the track because of the huge crowd and VIP sections which meant  no real good positions for getting images, I stayed on the track apron most of the time where I could get the photos I needed quickly.

One camera, the Nikon D300 was used for autofocus work and was quite consistent in giving me sharp images which is not bad considering the lens used is now five years old. By way of settings, the D300 was set to 320th so that the pictures had a near normal ambient balance (even without flash, the image would look correctly exposed) and the flash was used on manual (1/32nd) which allowed it to refresh quickly and keep up with the camera where I am shooting at between 5 and 7 frames a second.

An auto focused picture: Nikon D300 with 80-200 AFS 2.8 lens at 320th of a second with flash.

The flash gives the subject a crisper feel and fills the shadows created by the top lighting you get in an indoor venue. It also helps give a better white balance in a  venue with a mixture of lighting. The other thing to remember is modern cameras are computers – the less they have to compute, the quicker they will react (focus etc) which is why many pros will have the camera on a manual exposure setting as the light should be fairly consistent indoors (it does vary but not that much) and for cameras that allow, many will use one button to focus and another to fire the shutter.

One final thing I see is people using long lenses .. 300mm or more. Getting sharp images requires a good camera on that lens and even then I see pros getting soft shots with such a set up so going wide angle, enables a photographer to get sharper images. I will for example use the 80mm end of my zoom more than the 200mm end of it.

And, as a back up, I have a second camera which I will use manual focus. What this does is almost give you a sure bet the image will be sharp or as close as dammit. This can be used inside or outside the track and the only draw back is you only take the picture within a set area of the track.

By way of example, whilst the hospitality box at the top of the track was not being used, I went there with a  18-70 mm zoom. I set the shutter to 80th, the aperture to F8 and the flash to manual (1/4). I then pre-focused on the track in front of me where I knew the riders would come through and waited. Panning with the riders, I waited until they were in my ‘area’ and took the picture and pretty much every one of them was sharp.

One final thing to say. Anyone taking pictures at such an event and there were plenty of people doing so at the World Track Cup, make sure any lens hoods on your cameras are well fixed onto the lens so they don’t drop off onto the track surface! It happens and I saw it happen so be warned!

Final tip -- the madison is best shot from outside the track so you get the change like this. Much more difficult to get from the inside of the track. Manual focused as above.