1st try at panning

[ogre1231]

So, yesterday I was rather bored. I had nothing to do on a friday, so I looked up my local track online, Snetterton raceway, and they were having practicing for the race today. I figured, what a great day it is to go and try my hand at some panning. I tried shooting as slow as I possible could while keeping the car clean, however, I couldn't get much below 1/160th without loosing something.
All shots were taken with my 1DmkII and 70-200. I used spot metering for most of the shots and found that I was getting them underexposed. I guess next time I'll shoot in manual and look harder at the histogram. Any tips and and comments would be much appreciated. without further adieu... my favorites in no particular order

1
http://i254.photobucket.com/albums/hh114/ogre1231/20080926-JS5X7444-Edit.jpg

2
http://i254.photobucket.com/albums/hh114/ogre1231/20080926-JS5X7358-Edit.jpg

3
http://i254.photobucket.com/albums/hh114/ogre1231/20080926-JS5X7370-Edit.jpg

4
http://i254.photobucket.com/albums/hh114/ogre1231/20080926-JS5X7423-Edit.jpg

[ogre1231]

One more
http://i254.photobucket.com/albums/hh114/ogre1231/20080926-JS5X7509.jpg

[Jamie Holladay]

Looks liek a good start.

[dunganick]

Good first effort. Number 3 particually

Try and get them more square on. As with the first of the shots you post they will come out much sharper.

Also i dont know what shutter you were shooting on, but it looks quite slow, i might be tempted to speed it up a bit until your confident in your panning ability.

Heres two from the same location, but with far less adventurous shutter speeds.

http://dunganick.smugmug.com/photos/331508924_gNko8-L.jpg

http://dunganick.smugmug.com/photos/331483619_XptgN-L.jpg

[freebird]

Actually pretty good for first pans:)

My experience below 1/200 its more difficult to get keepers for motorsport.
Speed vary depending on speed of cars. Indy cars moving 180mph you can go like 1/400 and still get good roll in the tires.

Practice panning technique at track for few minutes without taking shots until you get fluid in your techinique , then take lots of pics.

Get a good base under you, and swivel from the hips!! Also follow through with pan after shutter release , make it smooth!

Good luck and ty for sharing.

[ogre1231]

Thanks for the input. As my day progressed I got more keepers which made me happy. I tried a few different ways of holding the camera to get it steady. I also tried using the center point to focus on and just practiced trying to keep the little red square on the same spot on the car as it passed me by. It's definitely not easy to do.
The cars weren't going all that fast. I dont know how fast they were going down the straight into that corner, but on my bike I'd regularly hit 140. I was really trying to get some good wheel spin. I suppose next time I'll step up the shutter speed. I tried to keep the exif data, but I think somewhere it got schwacked from the pictures. Most were shot at around 160th or 200th. I really would like some more reach though. 200 wasn't enough from where I was standing. Has anyone used a TC for this type of shooting? I've read they slow AF down, but how much would a canon 1.4 TC really slow down autofocus? Too much for shooting things like this?

[rrookey]

looking good