Digital photos, how to.........

[Rs2oo]

Advice please.

I have a digital camera, quite good but not the best. The picture below is pretty much the best I can get. Taken last year at the Le Mans 24 hours, the car was travelling at 60mph at 11pm exiting the pits. I kept the camera on the car and took it as i moved with it if that makes sense. Is this the clearest I will get with this sort of camera or is there a better way to achieve a clearer sharper image ?

Your thoughts and suggestions appreciated. Please don't baffle me with camera speak, simple terms only please !

[flat-planedCrank]

Rs2oo said:

Advice please.

I have a digital camera, quite good but not the best. The picture below is pretty much the best I can get. Taken last year at the Le Mans 24 hours, the car was travelling at 60mph at 11pm exiting the pits. I kept the camera on the car and took it as i moved with it if that makes sense. Is this the clearest I will get with this sort of camera or is there a better way to achieve a clearer sharper image ?

Your thoughts and suggestions appreciated. Please don't baffle me with camera speak, simple terms only please !

Hi,

The technique you describe is generally known as ' panning' - continuing to point the camera at the moving object while taking the photo. This is often done to get a 'sense of speed' in the photo as it will often make the background blurred and the moving subject sharp.

In the situation you describe it was probably the best way to get a sharp image of the car.

[the photography bit]
In normal daylight conditions your camera would have looked at the scene, noticed there was enough light present, and probably chosen a fast 'shutter speed'. The shutter speed is the actual period of time the photo is taken over (its normally a fraction of a second).
The fast shutter speed would have given the effect of 'stopping' the motion of the car, so you would have gotten a completely sharp image, background included.

The problem your camera faced was that when it looked at the scene it would have noticed that there wasn't much light - its night time after all.
So it has a dilemma, it knows it needs a certain amount of light to make the image, so how can it get that extra light? It chooses to lengthen the shutter speed so more light can enter the camera (and maybe fire the flash as well). The problem now is that if the camera moves while the photo is being taken it can appear blurred. In actual fact you did exactly the right thing to make the car sharp, while it was taking the photo you continued to point the camera at the car.
[/the photography bit]

Sorry for the photography stuff but its pivotal to dictating how your image turns out

Much of the success of panning is down to technique rather than equipment - a novice could take poor pictures with professional equipment costing thousands. The effects that are achievable are worth the practice though, you can really create a sense of speed:






Hope this helps,


Cheers.

[Dogsey]

Rs2oo said:

Is this the clearest I will get with this sort of camera or is there a better way to achieve a clearer sharper image ?

Simple answer, yes.

[henrycrun]

But daylight pictures can only get better

[GJB]

Off topic - Henry, what's Minnie Bannister up to these days. Is she still hitting the Brass Polish?

[Rs2oo]

Ok thanks for that, looks like thats the best im going to get out of my camera !

[flat-planedCrank]

Rs2oo said:

Ok thanks for that, looks like thats the best im going to get out of my camera !

More expensive kit would probably have done a bit better (a more powerful flash would have probably given you more options) but for a point-and-shoot camera it did pretty well


Cheers.

[RobDickinson]

Rs2oo said:

Ok thanks for that, looks like thats the best im going to get out of my camera !

What camera do you have?

[LongQ]

RobDickinson said:

Rs2oo said:

Ok thanks for that, looks like thats the best im going to get out of my camera !

What camera do you have?

Sanyo P&S according Exif.

The flash went off giving the sharp white letters on the car. For the rest. 1/50th of a second and panning at night is always gong to be a challenge to get a sharp image. 'Artistic' interpretations with any camera, especially a P&S, will be hit and miss. FWIW panning with many P&S cameras even in full daylight produces haphazard results for a number of reasons related to electronics and physics.

I quite like what you got, given the technical constraints.