Photographing a moving car

James_G

James_G

Suspended / Banned
Messages
39
Name
James
Edit My Images
Yes
A friend has asked me to take some pictures of his car, now that it's for sale. The static shots I am happy with, but we hatched a plan for taking a shot of it while moving, for which I need some advice.

Firstly, we have found a quiet stretch of rarely used two dual carriageway to eliminate any problem of having two cars side by side.

Secondly, I will be shooting from the back of a smooth riding 7 series saloon, so there shouldn't be too much camera shake, but presumably I'll still need a fast shutter speed. No VR on my lens currently unfortunately. I had thought of shooting from the back of an MPV with the hatch raised but I don't fancy the implications of a run in with the Police should we be spotted.

So other than good weather, and a steady hand, is there anything else to be considered? Polariser to cut out reflections from the glass?

Thanks in advance

James
 
Fast-ish shutter speed, otherwise the car will just look stationary!
Also experiment with using Al-Servo AF mode, I havent ever used it but I believe it should allow you to keep the car in focus even if it is moving closer/further away from you at the moment the shutter opens/closes, whereas if you used One-Shot mode then you could risk the car getting ever so slightly out of focus if the distance between you and it changes mid photo... although on a daylight fast exposure photograph it shouldnt really be an issue!
 
mini95.jpg
 
A few pointers on the classic car-to-car tracking shot, an oft-used favourite in magazines!!

I use shutter speeds anything from 1/15-1/160, with obvious effects on the final image - your trading hit rate, for background motion. Some cars & roads are better for this than others - something with nice soft suspension on a smooth road should let you go down to 1/40 without too many problems before hit rate becomes an issue. The odd one that works @ 1/15,1/25 does look great though.

Watch for the reflection & shadow of your tracking vehicle - if you can shoot 90 degrees to the sun this should avoid your support cars shadow appearing in shot, alternatively you can shoot the shadow side with some effect - but this works best with light coloured cars.

Work through hand signals with the driver beforehand. The key with both cars is for any movements to be smooth. I normally do tracking shots around 30mph, sometimes slower and adjust shutter speed to suit.

Composition - if your shooting out the side window you will be a bit limited, this is why we always dangle out the boot. Liveview is a major boon for virtually dragging the camera on the ground to give a really dramatic comp with loads of movement in the road surface.

You'll want to use continous focus, and I mostly shoot multi grid metering to accomodate changing light as you move.

Polariser - usually a good move, cars are very reflective. Watch for flared highlights if shooting bright metallics on a sunny day.

Hope that helps!

Steve
 
Car to car is tougher than panning, and that's not even considering the logistics. Why not set yourself up on a nice rural road and take a few of your man going backwards and forwards. Much more scope to get the shot you want. You should be able to drop your shutter as low as 1/80 and keep the car pretty sharp but even at 1/200 you'll capture a sense of movement. Depending on the focal length of your lens it could be worth using a tripod for slow-shutter panning.

If you do end up shooting car-car do it against an uncluttered background and make sure you don't lose the car's roof into a blown sky.
 
All

Many thanks for all the great advice. Focusing modes hadn't occurred to me, nor the metering either, so some things to concentrate on.

Should be doing it this weekend, so I'll post up some photos if they are any good.

Cheers

James
 
Isn't there also a technique using either panning or attaching it to the target car and then using a slow shutter speed simply pushing the car along? It looks like it's moving at speed and isn't.
 
never done this so not gonna comment on the photographic side, but if you know anyone with a freelander or rangerover you can open the boot windo and drive along (its a proper window so is all kosher)
 
david1701 said:
never done this so not gonna comment on the photographic side, but if you know anyone with a freelander or rangerover you can open the boot windo and drive along (its a proper window so is all kosher)
Click to expand...

Good suggestion. A friend drives an old Honda Civic with a split tailgate so I may try that for a comparison.
 
You could try a zoom burst, using a small aperture with a slower shutter speed from a tripod, say f22 / 1/30sec. tripping the shutter while zooming backwards from say e.g 70mm to 18mm it gives good effects.
 
david1701 said:
never done this so not gonna comment on the photographic side, but if you know anyone with a freelander or rangerover you can open the boot windo and drive along (its a proper window so is all kosher)
Click to expand...

Sorry to put a spoiler on this!

A very good idea, but not 'kosher' or legal as you won't be wearing a seat belt which is liable to get you in trouble and the driver some points on his licence!

Regards

Chris
 
The shutter speed will be determined by two factors, the speed of the car, and how much road blur you want.

The faster you are travelling, then the faster the shutter speed you can use. But, you don't need to be going stupidly fast.

Some quick calculations, will help you to get an idea of what may work.

For example, at 40 mph, the car will travel 1.78m during 1/10th of a second.
 
Thanks for the further replies, and the shot of the Citroen, which looks great.

Alas it rained and rained yesterday so didn't venture out. Instead I made myself a softbox from a £1.49 Ikea bin.:)
 
Here we go then, got a break in the weather and so a chance to head out with some friends to take these shots.

It's tough to keep the camera still, and there were a lot of out of focus shots, but as a first effort I'm pretty happy with these. CC welcome.

1.


2.


3.

4.
 
pretty darn good effort:thumbs: but can In suggest you look at buying a cp filter which would help kill some of those reflections in the glass and bodywork:)
 
Are these straight out of the camera? Seem to be lacking in something for me?

Perhaps they just want a levels tweek or something.
 
all look a little blurry to me.
glad to see you got a shot of a BMW in its natural habitat of driving over the chevrons LOL
Number 3, you have a bit of the car in top left corner (and the telegraph pole does nothing to make the photo prettier either)
 
Straight out of the camera, but with a bit of sharpening in Adobe's Camera RAW. I feel reasonably competent behind the lens, but Photoshop wise, I am still very much a beginner. Level adjustment is in the "Editor" presumably?

I realise since getting home that I hadn't turned on servo autofocus, which may have caused some of the blurring. Also I was shooting at 1/50 @40mph to get some decent blur. Even out of the back of a limo like 7 series that still gives some camera shake.

So, any other tips to nail a really crisp shot?
 
nearly 2 weeks to take pics for a car someone wants too sell sounds like alot of effort. Hope your mate usses common sense when it comes to pics he uses as i always love the ones with "looked after no matter what the cost" then is accompanied with a shot of it on a racetrack.
 
mikeward said:
nearly 2 weeks to take pics for a car someone wants too sell sounds like alot of effort. Hope your mate usses common sense when it comes to pics he uses as i always love the ones with "looked after no matter what the cost" then is accompanied with a shot of it on a racetrack.
Click to expand...

Agreed, but his 540i sold already so I took photos of some other cars instead. I can't see how a picture of somebody driving along a quiet stretch of road would cause offence however?
 
Hanging out the back of an Astra estate at about 40 mph

f/4.0, 1/80 sec @ 40mm

200612_3089a.jpg



f/3.5, 1/30 sec @ 135mm, probably a little slower road speed though

200612_3138.jpg


ISO 800 for both. It was the end of a long, damp day's shooting for a feature.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top