Chris Dodkin
West Coast Correspondent
There's nothing that says speed more than a nice panning shot of a moving target, with the background all blurred out. (See Number 55 by Hamish)
It's a great effect, and with some practice and the wonders of a modern DSLR, you can get some great keepers.
You ideally want the car to be going a constant speed, so you can pan smoothly with it, and you want to be standing 90 degrees on to a piece of track, so it's a pretty constant distance from you as it comes by.
Start with the shutter speed set in TV mode at around 1/120, and pan with the cars as they pass, use AI Servo focus if you have it, so the camera keeps the car sharp.
Matching the cars speed with the camera takes practice - use the LCD on the camera to review your panning speed, shot timing/composition, and the effect of the shutter speed.
As you get the timing right, start dropping the shutter speed, and check how this effects the background blur, and the sharpness of the car.
The lower you go, the more the effect, but the harder it is to keep the car sharp!
Here's a sequence of frames shot on motordrive - you can see how my panning speed is out, but then matches the car speed briefly to get a frame or two that are keepers.
The driver ended up buying 3909 as a print of him at the wheel of his Lotus
Here's another speed blur shot, at the same location - this time with the whole car framed up.
I've tipped the camera axis to add more interest to the shot, and also give me the longer diagonal to use to get a larger image of the car in frame.
If you do shoot at an angle to the track, you'll get an effect where the car has changed size in the frame during the capture, making parts of it sharp, and other parts blurry.
Can be very effective - as here, passing under the bridge on the way up to Druids
With digital shots now being effectively free - it's well worth it to try this technique out the next time you have a chance - the final results just might be worth it.
It's a great effect, and with some practice and the wonders of a modern DSLR, you can get some great keepers.
You ideally want the car to be going a constant speed, so you can pan smoothly with it, and you want to be standing 90 degrees on to a piece of track, so it's a pretty constant distance from you as it comes by.
Start with the shutter speed set in TV mode at around 1/120, and pan with the cars as they pass, use AI Servo focus if you have it, so the camera keeps the car sharp.
Matching the cars speed with the camera takes practice - use the LCD on the camera to review your panning speed, shot timing/composition, and the effect of the shutter speed.
As you get the timing right, start dropping the shutter speed, and check how this effects the background blur, and the sharpness of the car.
The lower you go, the more the effect, but the harder it is to keep the car sharp!
Here's a sequence of frames shot on motordrive - you can see how my panning speed is out, but then matches the car speed briefly to get a frame or two that are keepers.
The driver ended up buying 3909 as a print of him at the wheel of his Lotus
Here's another speed blur shot, at the same location - this time with the whole car framed up.
I've tipped the camera axis to add more interest to the shot, and also give me the longer diagonal to use to get a larger image of the car in frame.
If you do shoot at an angle to the track, you'll get an effect where the car has changed size in the frame during the capture, making parts of it sharp, and other parts blurry.
Can be very effective - as here, passing under the bridge on the way up to Druids
With digital shots now being effectively free - it's well worth it to try this technique out the next time you have a chance - the final results just might be worth it.
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