John Thawley
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 p.3 #2 · race car panning advice | |
Well, I'm jumping in a little late here...
However, I'm the type of person that needs to know WHY I'm doing what I'm doing. With that in mind I would strongly urge you to figure out what elements combine to create the effect... what changes the effect and how to control the effects. After all, it's ultimately about control.
First and foremost... REMEMBER, it is the movement of the camera that creates the blur.
Imagine the car being attached to the center of your lens with a long string. You need to follow that car like it's attached. So, your camera movement is going to vary based on the speed of the car and your distance away from the car. Consider a car going by you 12" away at 30mph... you'd jump out of your skin. Yet a car going 120mph from 200 ft away doesn't even phase you. The speed is relative. Close=fast.
So, what you want to do is find a combination of distance from the car and the right lens focal length that will allow you pan smoothly and in control. If your too close, you'll jerk the camera and overswing. If you're too far away, you motion will be slow and wobbely. Success is all in the smoothness of your movement. So in reality... you want to try and find a sweet spot that allows you to pan smoothly. You want that to be as close to the same ALL THE TIME. Don't change your motion speed... change your distance and/or your focal length. That will up your success rate considerably.
Once you have that working in practice, you can then tweak the different elements to allow for creative effects on your work. If your body and panning motion is constant, you'll have a better success rate when you decide to drop the shutter speed and start going for extreme blur.
Regarding shots where the car is NOT parallel to face of the lens, you're going to have comprimises. When the car approaches at 3/4, the front is faster than the back. So, you'll want a little longer glass so the car is further away... (slower) and you'll increase the area of what remains in focus. The faster the shutter, the more in focus... but the less interesting the shot. 3/4 pans are tougher... radical 3/4 pans where you're really breaking all the rules are tougher yet.
I typically start my day panning at 1/125th to 1/160. That said, though... REMEMBER, that matches my comfort zone at which I move my body. I position myself with the right focal length glass so that I"m moving my body at the rate I find smooth and constant.
As my success increases, I start dropping the shutter speeds. Again, my body motion stays the same. Ultimately, I start to drop to 1/80, 1/60 and will play around at 1/30 and even 1/15.
If I'm shooting open cockpit cars and want to get in on the driver's helmet, I don't worry as much about the shutter speed... typically I can get what I want around 1/250 to 1/320 - But there again, it's a matter of geometry. I'm shooting deep into the center of the focal area on a smaller subject... so the things around the driver will still blur nicely.... including the background.
A final word... don't over swing your pan... it should be a nice short, smooth stroke. Think about it.... you're only on the car at 1/125 of a second. You do not need to pan left to right across your entire body. The longer swing your pan, the more prone you are to miss.
Pick up the car, is beat 1, beats 2 & 3 should be a couple of burst shots and beat four should be follow through.
GET CONTROL. The swing is the thing. If your body motion is consistant and smooth, your pans will come along. Don't change your swing. It's no different than golf, get your swing right... then employ your distance and the right lens.
This backlit shot was with a 200mm at 1/160 sec f/18 ISO 200
These were also shot at 200mm - 1/100 sec f/7.1 ISO 100
This is at 185mm, 1/80 sec f/3.5 ISO 100
Here with a 400mm at 1/250 sec f/13 and ISO 100
Here's a 3/4 pan shot at 200mm 1/50 sec f/32 ISO 100
And finally, just for grins, this was shot at 120mm 1/30 sec f/16 ISO 400 while using the 20D's pop-up flash. It was overcast, drizzling and I was in a bad mood. It was the morning warm-up which typically yields good light. This was not. 
Hope that helps shed some light on panning.
JT
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