picprinter
2nd of May 2008 (Fri), 14:30
Hello fellow Motorsports Photographers. I am coming to you because so many of you are accomplished photographers and capture some outstanding images. Maybe you can help me assist some of those who have asked me for help and suggestions. I've been having some interesting discussions with a few of the newer fellow Motorsports Photographers I've met recently concerning shutter speed and flash duration. There isn't much time to discuss things at the track and they often ask me if I could write down what I've just explained to them so they can refer to it in the future. If you have the time and would like to provide any feedback on what I've put together here I would be very interested in hearing what you've got to say. I hope I've got all of this right and that my examples are good but if I am wrong let me know.
Shutter Speed and Flash Duration – What they mean to you. Tools in your toolbox.
Shutter speed and flash duration both dramatically effect the affect of your image. Or is affect the effect? Shutter speed and its setting can help you, hurt you and fool those looking at your images. I am a huge fan of having motion visible in my sports images. Especially my motorsports images. Specifically I like to have blurring wheels and tires in my motorsports images. How do you accomplish that? With shutter speed! At times it can be like looking for nirvana, I want to shoot fast enough to cover up for my poor pan technique yet slow enough to allow for the motion to be seen in the tires and wheels. And then it all goes out the window once again after the sun sets and you start shooting flash.
Lets take a few practical examples from Trail-Way Speedway, just outside Hanover, PA, in the midst of PA Posse Sprint Car County. Trail-Way Speedway is a beautiful 3/8 mile, banked dirt track which races every Friday and Saturday during the racing season. While around here the 410 Sprint Car is King, Trail-Way Speedway plays host to 358 Sprint Cars, Thunder Cars, 270cc, 600cc and 1000cc Micro Sprints and several other divisions each week. The racing is fantastic and if you are a fan or photographer that enjoys “racing”, you’d love Trail-Way Speedway. I am also lucky to be the Track Photographer which gives me access to many fun and exciting vantage points from which to capture images.
So, to look at a few practical examples, lets consider that the 358 Sprint Cars average approximately 95 mph around the 3/8 mile oval. Faster on the straights and slower in the corners but still a hefty average on a tight race track. When the cars first come on the track they idle around at about 25 mph. Not much excitement in a race car going 25 mph but you can fool those looking at your images by using shutter speed.
http://pfsimages.com/images/ShutterSpeed/TW_042508_010.jpg
By selecting a slow shutter speed and panning with the race car you can make it appear as if it is going by rather quickly. Here, a shutter speed of 1/60 sec was used. The track and background are blurred and the tires and wheels are showing motion. Here is another example:
http://pfsimages.com/images/ShutterSpeed/TW_042508_016.jpg
There are times when I want to speed up my shutter speed to cover for pan error but still want to be slow enough to show motion. In this example the cars were up to racing speed so I adjusted my shutter speed to 1/320 sec. and got this:
http://pfsimages.com/images/ShutterSpeed/TW_042508_086.jpg
Notice, there is not as much blur in the track or background yet I was still able to maintain the sense of motion in the tires and wheels and caught what I think is a nice spray of the dirt coming off the rear tires.
As the sun sets and you transition over to flash things get more complicated due to flash duration. I have always thought the easiest way to think of it is that when you are shooting with a flash you are actually recording two images on your sensor or on your film. You are recording one image from the available light during the entire duration of the exposure and you are recording a second image during the duration of your flash. Depending on what flash you use and what modifications you may have done to your flash, flash durations will range anywhere from 1/2000 sec to 1/8000 sec. The darker the ambient gets, the less of an image you will get from the ambient component until finally, the only component of the image that is captured is that component which comes from the flash. A fast flash duration will act the same as a high shutter speed. In really dark instances you will approach the point where even slowing down your shutter speed while shooting the flash will have a very limited effect because there is no ambient light component recorded, only the flash component.
So, when shooting flash at just past dusk a shutter speed of 1/200 sec. might be just slow enough to allow you to capture a sharp image of the race car while still allowing for motion blur in the tires and wheels
http://pfsimages.com/images/ShutterSpeed/TW_042508_181.jpg
But note how that once full darkness has come across the track a shutter speed of 1/250 sec. will tend to freeze all of the action including the tires and wheels as in this example.
http://pfsimages.com/images/ShutterSpeed/TW_042508_237.jpg
Shutter Speed and Flash Duration can be your friends in that they can help you hide flaws such as pan error but in doing so they can also be your enemy by freezing the action and making the image look static. Or, as my daughter would say, “Look Daddy, that race car is parked on the race track”.
I hope that makes you think and makes you want to go out and play. Try some experiments with your shutter speed. After all, if you’re shooting digital it isn’t going to cost you anything.
Thanks for reading and looking forward to your comments and feedback.
Shutter Speed and Flash Duration – What they mean to you. Tools in your toolbox.
Shutter speed and flash duration both dramatically effect the affect of your image. Or is affect the effect? Shutter speed and its setting can help you, hurt you and fool those looking at your images. I am a huge fan of having motion visible in my sports images. Especially my motorsports images. Specifically I like to have blurring wheels and tires in my motorsports images. How do you accomplish that? With shutter speed! At times it can be like looking for nirvana, I want to shoot fast enough to cover up for my poor pan technique yet slow enough to allow for the motion to be seen in the tires and wheels. And then it all goes out the window once again after the sun sets and you start shooting flash.
Lets take a few practical examples from Trail-Way Speedway, just outside Hanover, PA, in the midst of PA Posse Sprint Car County. Trail-Way Speedway is a beautiful 3/8 mile, banked dirt track which races every Friday and Saturday during the racing season. While around here the 410 Sprint Car is King, Trail-Way Speedway plays host to 358 Sprint Cars, Thunder Cars, 270cc, 600cc and 1000cc Micro Sprints and several other divisions each week. The racing is fantastic and if you are a fan or photographer that enjoys “racing”, you’d love Trail-Way Speedway. I am also lucky to be the Track Photographer which gives me access to many fun and exciting vantage points from which to capture images.
So, to look at a few practical examples, lets consider that the 358 Sprint Cars average approximately 95 mph around the 3/8 mile oval. Faster on the straights and slower in the corners but still a hefty average on a tight race track. When the cars first come on the track they idle around at about 25 mph. Not much excitement in a race car going 25 mph but you can fool those looking at your images by using shutter speed.
http://pfsimages.com/images/ShutterSpeed/TW_042508_010.jpg
By selecting a slow shutter speed and panning with the race car you can make it appear as if it is going by rather quickly. Here, a shutter speed of 1/60 sec was used. The track and background are blurred and the tires and wheels are showing motion. Here is another example:
http://pfsimages.com/images/ShutterSpeed/TW_042508_016.jpg
There are times when I want to speed up my shutter speed to cover for pan error but still want to be slow enough to show motion. In this example the cars were up to racing speed so I adjusted my shutter speed to 1/320 sec. and got this:
http://pfsimages.com/images/ShutterSpeed/TW_042508_086.jpg
Notice, there is not as much blur in the track or background yet I was still able to maintain the sense of motion in the tires and wheels and caught what I think is a nice spray of the dirt coming off the rear tires.
As the sun sets and you transition over to flash things get more complicated due to flash duration. I have always thought the easiest way to think of it is that when you are shooting with a flash you are actually recording two images on your sensor or on your film. You are recording one image from the available light during the entire duration of the exposure and you are recording a second image during the duration of your flash. Depending on what flash you use and what modifications you may have done to your flash, flash durations will range anywhere from 1/2000 sec to 1/8000 sec. The darker the ambient gets, the less of an image you will get from the ambient component until finally, the only component of the image that is captured is that component which comes from the flash. A fast flash duration will act the same as a high shutter speed. In really dark instances you will approach the point where even slowing down your shutter speed while shooting the flash will have a very limited effect because there is no ambient light component recorded, only the flash component.
So, when shooting flash at just past dusk a shutter speed of 1/200 sec. might be just slow enough to allow you to capture a sharp image of the race car while still allowing for motion blur in the tires and wheels
http://pfsimages.com/images/ShutterSpeed/TW_042508_181.jpg
But note how that once full darkness has come across the track a shutter speed of 1/250 sec. will tend to freeze all of the action including the tires and wheels as in this example.
http://pfsimages.com/images/ShutterSpeed/TW_042508_237.jpg
Shutter Speed and Flash Duration can be your friends in that they can help you hide flaws such as pan error but in doing so they can also be your enemy by freezing the action and making the image look static. Or, as my daughter would say, “Look Daddy, that race car is parked on the race track”.
I hope that makes you think and makes you want to go out and play. Try some experiments with your shutter speed. After all, if you’re shooting digital it isn’t going to cost you anything.
Thanks for reading and looking forward to your comments and feedback.