In Car Moving Shots

[purd002]

Do any of you guys have any experience doing any in-car shots? I'm looking for some tips to an idea I have for a shoot this weekend. Besides some horizontal panning shots, I wanted to try some inline panning shots from another moving car going in the same direction and speed.

My idea was to shoot from the back of a leading car creating something similar to many of the auto mag shots.

It appears that we will be limited to around 30mph and didn't know if i'd be able to get a slow enough shutter speed at that speed to get a good blur of all the backgrounds but yet not show all the bumps and camera shake.

[andrewc]

can you mount a tripod anywhere to reduce camera shake?

[adam1093]

u wont need even 30mph
long exposure time even at 5mph can produce some outstanding results
the key is finding nice smooth roads and some suction mountings

[purd002]

Yes i can mount a tripod in the back of one of the cars. I was kind of under the impression i'd get more shake out of a tripod at 5mph, then handheld at 30mph??

I figured you'd need around 1/2 second exposure at that slow of a speed. The pavement should be pretty smooth, it will be on a NHRA dragstrip.

[RobKirkwood]

We've shot a good deal of car-based stuff ...driver training stills and video for customers; plus light-trail effects for our own amusement.

As has been said, 30mph should be plenty to achieve blur. Our problem has usually been preventing blur at normal driving speeds.

Best type of camera supports will be suction mounts on glass - my personal recommendation is to buy Manfrotto. We've used a Benbo Trekker before for a rear-facing video camera, but fitting it in place is like wrestling an octopus in a confined space ...plus it's a real pain securing any sort of tripod inside the car (you don't want it flying around loose) - we used elastic luggage bungees to pull the Trekker tight to the seats and doors.

For light-trails, hand-held will be fine.

Rob