how do i take pictures of a moving car?!!!

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burrachaga

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colin
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evening guys,

after taking inspiration from some of the amazing car shots on this forum i decided to give it a go this afternoon. i had an idea that i needed to lengthen the shutter speed, drive the car at 10-15 mph and pan the camera.

could i do it? er no!!!!!

after a bit of enhancing the best i could do was this sad effort.

blur11.jpg


shutter 1/30, f20, iso 800.

the effect i was after was when most or all of the car is in focus but the wheels, road and background are blurred. the light was fading which im sure doesnt help but obviously im doing something wrong.

you pro's make it look easy, any tips would be great.

cheers.
 
I will leave this one for Matt Sayle

He will be here soon to help you
 
ive just read that maybe i shouldn't have posted this thread here... apologies
 
Mods have ben told :thmbs:.

Pick up yor target early and just follow it through :) Andrew has said about shutterspeeds
 
cheers for the advise,

i tried all the way from 1/250 down to 1/20 and i couldn't find a happy medium. at 1/125 the car was sharp but the wheels were in reasonable focus as well, maybe i need to get the car driving a bit faster.

i'll just have to get out there again tomorrow and practise, practise, practise!!

this was taken with a 12-24 lens, does it make any difference if i stand further away and use a lens with more zoom, that way i dont have to pan as much?
 
I may be wrong but is the OP thinking of a rig shot maybe?
 
Perhaps try a spot of flash (rear curtain sync) to pick out the cars detail as you pan with the movement? I'm no expert mind you!

Also, I would switch of autofocus and then manually pre-focus on a spot you know the car will go through. Then pan with the car and take when it hits the spot you focussed on. Thats how I do it with biking photos anyway...
 
I think I can see where you're going wrong... and 1/15", 18mm focal length and f/4 makes for a short depth of field as well.

Panning works best when you are a bit further back, and perpendicular to the vehicles axis of motion. What's happened in your shot (from the front quarter) is that the "sharp bit" round the front headlight is what you have been constantly tracking, but the rest of the car has been moving relative to that point, causing it to blur...

Head over to http://digital-photography-school.com/mastering-panning-to-photograph-moving-subjects and have a read...
 
I think your prob is the panning, you need to follow the car in a smooth action and then after taking the shot continue to follow through for a bit. I hope that makes sense?

There is a write up somewhere about panning which is very useful, I will see if I can find the link for you.
 
cheers everyone,

you all make sense. i think reddeathdrinker has hit the nail on the head when he mentions panning is easier perpendicular to the motion. i was on an 's' bend, stood right on the apex. therefore i had to rotate fairly quickly and therefore did it poorly.

i think i was trying to be a bit gready because in some of the great car photos it looks like the road is blurred about six inches. i need to learn to walk before i can run!! lol.

thanks once again
 
the first one, although they are both great.

after reading around for the last few hours im going to guess this was done from another car?

nice shots mr bsm, are they yours?
 
burrachaga said:
nice shots mr bsm, are they yours?
Click to expand...
no, I just 'borrowed' them from google to gauge what you was after. The first one is known as a rig shot and requires a fair bit of work both during and after the photo is taken. The 2nd is achieved with good panning technique.
 
i decided to spend an hour this afternoon practising my panning technique. i drove up to the coastal road and parked in a spot facing the road. it was freezing cold outside so there was no way i was stepping out of my car so all the shots were taken through the front windscreen.

i stuck the camera on burst mode and started out with the shutter around 1/125 and worked my way down. i was hoping for the lambo's and ferrari's but i had to make do with the corsa's and uno's.

the light was really grey again but i generally managed to get a half decent shot about 25% of the time like the one below

1.
blur4.jpg


2.
blur2.jpg


they arent great but at least my technique has improved.

thanks for the offer mike, i have had a good look through your Le Mans folder and there is some really classy stuff in there. my first goal is to get a shot similar to the one of the blue ferrari 78 travelling right to left.

thanks everyone

just to add, the first photo was taken at 1/100 sec, the second at 1/80
 
reddeathdrinker said:
Panning works best when you are a bit further back, and perpendicular to the vehicles axis of motion. What's happened in your shot (from the front quarter) is that the "sharp bit" round the front headlight is what you have been constantly tracking, but the rest of the car has been moving relative to that point, causing it to blur...
Click to expand...

Spot on RDD. The problem is the close viewpoint, although the shutter speed is rather ambitious, too.

For great shots like the white Subaru, you don't need a rig to try it. Just hang out of the car window and you'll get the effect. Drive slow, and slow down your shutter speed to match. IS/VR helps with this. Then you graduate to hanging out of the boot which makes getting good angles much easier.

Rigs are only for extreme effects.

Richard.

Edit: Now that you know how not to do a conventional panning shot, you have discovered a twist on that technique which I think looks really cool, ie move in close with a wide-angle for an unusal result. You'll find this close-up/wide-angle technique actually much harder as the car rushes towards you at the end and you have to whip the camera around really fast! But I like it :thumbs:
 
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