Panning shots... But mine just look like holiday snaps!

[up-the-dubs]

There's obviously a bit of a knack to getting panning shots when at a track or capturing passing cars on the road, but I just can't get it. I've obviously just used too fast a shutter speed as mine are just static shots (the car may as well be standing still ). Is there more to it than just shutter speed? I'm still not fantastic with the settings so any advice would be great!

Thanks....

And a few shots from a trckday on Friday. No panning ones here as they all came out a bit iffy, but I like these static ones from before the off!

[Simpo Two]

up-the-dubs said:

There's obviously a bit of a knack to getting panning shots when at a track or capturing passing cars on the road, but I just can't get it. I've obviously just used too fast a shutter speed as mine are just static shots (the car may as well be standing still ). Is there more to it than just shutter speed? I'm still not fantastic with the settings so any advice would be great!

It depends on the speed of the subject and focal length of the lens but I'd say 1/125th is a good place to start - then check the monitor, see if you have too much blur or not enough and adjust accordingly. Think 'golf swing' and follow through.

[flat-planedCrank]

If your panning shots are 'static' then i'd also guess your shutter speed is too fast
I don't shoot faster than 1/125 when panning...

What lens were you panning with ?
Do you have some examples ?



Nice static shots (damn 10-20mm )


Cheers.

Edited by flat-planedCrank on Sunday 10th February 17:41

[Goldeeno]

Panning is something that comes with practice, if you spend the whole day at a track day panning with cars your bound to get a few that come out great, unless your really doing something wrong.

Depending on what camera etc your using.
For my recent outing at silverstone, it was pretty horrible grey skies all day. Which limits what you can achive a bit. I not a fan of using high ISO's so i found myself using a much bigger aperture. Mostly f4 or f5. When panning to cars side on this is fine you dont get much distorsion along the car, but head on or from behind and you end up with either front or back in focus but rarely both. That was with the camera on Shutter Priority, shooting at about 1/160th and using an ISO of 200.

Best thing i can say is practice, but also do some homework before you go. If you have a look at my flickr, if you enlarge any photo, there will be..

(http://www.flickr.com/photos/goldeeno/)

Taken with a Canon EOS 350D Digital.
More properties "

If you click there you'll be able to see the EXIF data, basically the camera settings. It all comes down to lighting really.

Ideally i would aim for an aperture of around f8-f11, shutter anywhere from 1/200th to maybe 1/60th, and i really dont like using an ISO higher than 400 at a push, so i stick around 100 or 200. Shooting on Shutter Priority is probably best to begin with and to get the hang of panning because the camera will do the settings for you.

I must admit i had more fun shooting the cars when they were in the pit lane and parked up, so i like your shots, i wish i has used my 10-20mm though.

Edited by Goldeeno on Sunday 10th February 18:03

[DanH]

Take it easy with that wide angle unless you are planning to get a job with Max Power?

[baz7175]

Good ole' Mondello Park...some great fun down there over the years when I lived up in Derry...between track days, drifting and the various race days with btcc etc

[Shropshiremike]

up-the-dubs said:

There's obviously a bit of a knack to getting panning shots when at a track or capturing passing cars on the road, but I just can't get it. I've obviously just used too fast a shutter speed as mine are just static shots (the car may as well be standing still ). Is there more to it than just shutter speed? I'm still not fantastic with the settings so any advice would be great!

Thanks....

I don't know much at all about cameras but what I have found quite interesting on my compact ( Panasonic Lumix ) is to take photos with the auto default setting....then switch to the special scene mode ( for the particular type of shot you are trying to take ).
For example, mine has a "panning" mode which you can set the camera to.
When you download the pics to your computer you can see from the photo properties the different settings the camera used for the default setting versus the special scene mode e.g. panning.
Seeing what the camera has done has given me an appreciation of what to set the camera to when using the manual mode. You can exaggerate some of the different settings ( that the camera used for panning ) to see if it achieves more or less of the effect you want.

[kybo]

Couple of other things to advise you on.

1/ Most important - Make sure you continue to pan with the car, even after you have taken the shot (something I often forget to do and results can be poor)

2/ Shoot in burst/continuous mode if you can. Start before you want the ideal image and continue after. That way you have a few shots to choose from and you will always pan further than you need, hopefully making the 'ideal shot' smoother.

I actually shot Silverstone (with Goldeeno) but I used Tv priority (set to 160th) and didn't pay much attention to the Av value (tut, tut). Must experiment with Av priority next time.

When you next down that way Goldeeno?

Scott

[Shropshiremike]

kybo said:

Couple of other things to advise you on.

1/ Most important - Make sure you continue to pan with the car, even after you have taken the shot (something I often forget to do and results can be poor)

Very true - stand back up a quiet entrance road near to a quick roundabout ( somewhere you won't be noticed/distract drivers ) and have a practise on some of the passing cars. This helps you get used to the panning technique

[Piers_K]

The above is all sound advice.. Couple of extras.. Single point focus can help, and rather than jump in at the deep end, work your way down through the shutter speeds as you get your eye in... Shutter priority and start at 1/320... it should give you some motion blur on the wheels at least..


Coming into or out of Club is a good option for Silverstone.. both give plenty of time to track the cars and your a fair way away from the track so they dont zip past like lightening...

[kybo]

Piers_K said:

Coming into or out of Club is a good option for Silverstone..

I'm so glad you've said that, Piers_K, as that's where I'm sat for the F1 GP and all the practice I'm getting in will hopefully bare fruit by the time it comes around

[baz7175]

The good thing about getting used to panning faster and faster is you can normally catch things that you normally wouldn't as well - for example this pic from the BTCC in 2006 - I have a 20x30 poster of this up in the living room - bottom of the hill at Castle Donnington, hard on the brakes prior to the right hander, brakes starting to glow under braking

[kybo]

Up-the-dubs, What kit have you got and what have you used at trackdays so far?

I have a 350D and borrowed a friends Bigma for a track day at Silverstone. I took abut 350 shots, many of these were 5-6 shot bursts of which usually 2 from each burst were OK (thank heavens for Digital). I ended up keeping about 75 so my ratio of good to bin is not the best. I have edited a few (and played with photoshop a little) and put them in a gallery here.
I hoping to add to these soon. Not bad for a first attempt, I suppose. Much room for improvement, granted.

Post some panning shots, dubs. I'm sure we'd all like to see.

Thanks,
Scott

[up-the-dubs]

Cheers all,

Some good advice there. Camera is a D80 btw !

ummm... Had a mild laptop malfunction a while ago so have lost the full set of photos from that day, so don't have any of the panning shots to post other than those on Photobucket, which aren't real panning shots!

My Floortop:!!!

Edited by up-the-dubs on Monday 18th February 01:38

[Gingerbread Man]

You can still rip that apart some more!

[Goldeeno]

lol, hmmm i take it the bottle of wine helped

[autofocus]

Hi there,

One word - PRACTICE !!

I love panning shots and have spent a couple of years shooting from public areas where side on panning shots are the only shots you can get without the fences getting in the way.

The key is keep playing with the shutter speed and as kybo said keep panning even after the car has passed you.

Recently I have been working for a few publications and have media access so I am now concentrating on more head on and cornering shots. However I still love a good pan !!

Here are a few of my favourite pans: -











Regards

Tim

[GravelBen]

Practised some panning shots over the weekend. Really fast cars are a bit trickier than slow ones but some I'm happy enough with, I think I'm improving anyway. C&C welcome.

More photos from the same event are up here:
http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a...


ETA: Camera is a Fuji S5500. Gotta get me a dSLR sometime...


























(OK, so I played with that one a bit )

Edited by GravelBen on Tuesday 19th February 00:18

Edited by GravelBen on Tuesday 19th February 00:20

[alanw89]

Like everyone else says practice is the main thing but if your not already doing it, get your feet planted, elbows against your body, twist at the waist and take a burst. I usually take a burst of three and choose the one that came out best, this means you have hundreds of pictures to sort through and alot of them you probably wont use but sometimes you get one that really stands out. Also i find that when a car is moving towards you, you either get the front middle or back sharp never the whole car because of the way the angle your looking at it changes as it comes towards you, but if you get in the inside of a corner where you can have the car moving parrallel the angle never changes so you can get it all sharp.

e.g
All sharp

1/125

Only the helmet and shoulders are sharp

1/125

And then the odd one that surprises you, i almost deleted this one when i looked at it on the camera because i didnt get the whole car in but it looked sharper than every other picture when i saw it on the computer.

1/100

[Piers_K]

Personally I prefer to take try and frame the picture with a single shot rather than a burst of 3 or 4... makes life easier when downloading and PP at a later date

Another thing to be aware of is background..

Both taken at Copse.. both at 1/200

Edited by Piers_K on Tuesday 19th February 15:14