The first thing I would suggest is to follow the cars with the camera. Many times these cars are traveling so fast that if the camera is just set up on a tripod somewhere along the track or at the end the cars are going to look blurry. Also, depending on how long the track is, at some point in the video the cars may be pretty small. If you can follow the cars with the camera, the video will be a lot more enjoyable for your racers.
Slowing the video down a bit will also make the video more enjoyable. It will give your racers a little more time to cheer and root for their cars in the race. However if all you do is use video editing software to slow the video down it will not look as good or smooth. It will be much better if you can shoot more frames per second. To do that you need a camera that can do that. Most phones these days have the ability to change the frame rate. Action cameras also generally have higher frame rate capability.
Go-Pros are a great action camera, but can be a bit pricey. They are however, the Cadillac of action cameras so if you have the money to spend, they are a great option.
If you want an action camera at a lower price point, I really like the EKEN action camera. I’ve been using one for a while now since my Go-Pro died and have felt like it is a really good affordable option.
If you are going to shoot your video at a higher frame rate you are going to need some extra lighting. Your regular room lighting is not going to cut it. To get started I would suggest a couple of work lights.
These lights are super bright. The way I use them is to point them at the ceiling and use the reflected light. They will definitely brighten up the room and help your slow motion videos look much better and clearer. However, if you try to point them right at the track, you’re going to get a lot of shadows as well as probably some “hot” spots on camera…places that look really bright compared to others.
For some lighting that that is a little better to directly light up the track you should check out this softbox photography lighting kit.
It will help light up your track with much softer light and will reduce the hard shadows and bright spots that you get with the work lights.
A combination of the work lights reflected off the ceiling and the softbox photography lights lighting up the track will really help your slow motion video look great.
Another fun little tool for helping with your filming is this versatile camera rig.
There are several different places where you can mount cameras, lights, microphones, or whatever, as well as your phone. You can simultaneously shoot video on your phone and action camera, plus mount an extra light as well, all at the same time. It can definitely boost your creativity having so many options!
Hopefully some of these tips will help your race videos turn out great and keep racers coming back to your track for many more races to come.
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