Nikon school

Neil Freeman speaks

What are the core skills for automotive photography?

To be a good automotive photographer, you need a wide range of skills. From a technical perspective, the ability to use tracking focus and the correct shutter speeds to ‘pan’ a moving subject are very high on the list, and if working in a studio environment, how to light a large subject such as car or bike and then minimise the reflections. It is also important to develop or understand the ‘look’ or ‘feel’ you want to create in your images to make them dynamic and stand out from the crowd.

how can the Nikon School help you to develop these skills?

Nikon School currently run photography days at Brands Hatch racing circuit where our delegates have media access passes to get right up close to the action and learn how to track focus and pan fast-moving cars and bikes. We are currently developing a new range of automotive photography workshops for 2018 in association with

Amy Shore.

“The high ISO performance of the sensors makes it possible to shoot easily in low-light situations such as garages”

What is the advantage of the Nikon system for automotive photography?

With the resolution available from the camera sensors, you can capture a high level of detail in your images. The high ISO performance of the sensors also makes it possible to shoot easily in low-light situations such as dimly lit garages or pit lanes. This alongside the very fast and accurate dynamic focusing systems in the latest generation of cameras makes tracking focus very easy, and the sport Vibration Reduction (VR) mode in some of the new lenses also makes ‘panning’ shots much more achievable. The dynamic range in the new EXPEED 5 sensors also makes post-processing easier as you now have the ability to uncover a wide range of detail in the shadow areas of an image or pull back highlights if required.

What specific courses do you recommend?

For anyone interested in automotive photography, our courses such as Fast Bikes and Focusing or

Fast Cars and Focusing held at Brands Hatch are a perfect way to learn the skills required.