Went to the off street drags last night to watch some of the guys in my club race. And to get in some much needed panning practice before the big boys (top fuelers) come to town.
danc666 wrote:
Went to the off street drags last night to watch some of the guys in my club race. And to get in some much needed panning practice before the big boys (top fuelers) come to town.
C&C is welcome as long as its not too hash.
Dan,
No harsh crit here but you need practice....like everyone else. For my editors a pan shot at a shutter speed slow enough to create some blur also has to have something dead sharp in it. Maybe the whole car does not need to be sharp but there needs to be a focal point of sharpness which draws the eye.
Throwing out luck, achieving this is all about technique and for me, technique breaks down into two categories. The first is figuring out the right shutter speed to achieve what you want. This will be different for every situation and it takes experience and trial and error. You need to arrive at a shutter speed which will allow you to capture an acceptable ratio of decent images to trash. I shoot Indy Car, NASCAR, F-1 and Moto. Each type of racing requires different camera setups (shutter speed included) and each position on the track may require a change.
The second category of technique is how you use your body. You want your camera to track the car on the same plane with as little deviation as possible. For me this means using as little arm and hand motion as possible and tracking as much as possible with the rotation of my body. I position my body flush to the position on the track where I want to get the picture. I rotate my trunk to where the car will be coming from and I rotate my body back around to the picture position with the motion of the car. This way I can keep my elbows braced against my chest and keep the camera stable. Moving the camera with arm motion is a technique you have to use sometimes but for me it yields a much worse ratio.
If I were you I would use a higher shutter speed until you perfect your tracking technique. The cars need to be sharper. I don't think it will take long, but panning is a technique that takes a lot of practice. If it was easy (like a lot of things about photography) everybody would be a photographer....but whoops....nobody could make a living at it.
Good luck and please show us some of your shots of the "big boys".
Thanks, I was changing the shutter and had to make it really slow to get enough background blur. Full size the pics are sharper resizing messed it up a bit. But again thanks for the tips, i need all the help i can get.
Yeah thats what i was thinking when i got home. Its only around my 3rd time shooting at the drags. I keep forgeting to move around. Oh well just need some more practice.
If I were you I would use a higher shutter speed until you perfect your tracking technique.
If you look at the images posted carefully, I'd say the shutter speeds used here were pretty high already. This would be minimun background blur I would accept.
Resizing could have messed up the images posted here. If they are sharp at native resolution, then I'd work on decreasing shutter speed for more blur in the background.
Those shots were at 1/60 ~ 1/80. Last time i was there i was shooting around 1/160~1/320 but that was on much faster cars.
If anyone has any tips that could help me out that would be great. I haven't had my camera for even a year yet, im learning as i go through this site, other sites and mags. Any pointers that people give me i try out.
I should mention that each situation is different. 1/60 - 1/80 may be slow, but may not be slow enough for the effect you want to achieve. It all depends on how fast the target is moving and how far you are from it, as well as the type of lens (FL) you use at the time. Everything is relative. So an absolute number in shutter speed doesn't mean much. I'd say practice is the best way to learn, especially with the instant feedback of digital. I can't imagine if I were shooting film.
Thanks for the tip, do you have any hints on shutter speed? ie faster for the closer you are or other way around? i shoot with a AF-S Nickor 55-200 4-5.6g ED lens which came as part of a pack with the camera.
gscharton wrote:
My suggestion would be to go down towards the middle of the track more. I don't like seeing the rear of the car more than the front and side.
Just my $0.02
what he said....back of the cars doenst work for me either. I'd rather see a sharp image with no panning than the cars blurry for any reason
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