Panning Success Rate

Hi,

Given the number of fantastic panning shots which are posted in the motorsports sharing section, I was wondering roughly what sort of percentage rate people find are keepers out of total panning shots taken?

TIA,
Dave.

One out of four is good, depending on shutter speed and the target's pace across the frame.

DC Fan wrote in post #7690193
One out of four is good, depending on shutter speed and the target's pace across the frame.

I would agree with DC - it all depends on circumstances.

Shutter speed would be the main issue - too slow and the subject gets blurred. Too fast and no motion blur in the background.

With that in mind it also is worth thinking about positioning:

A long straight and i would expect more keepers (more time to frame and follow the subject)

A tight bend would give the same due to the low speed.

Short straights and twisty sections and it gets harder to frame properly.

My success rate improves as the season progresses. At the beginning I am very definitely out of practise, but by the end I can generally nail most of my shots. I tend to prefer slower corners which improves my success rate, purely because I want a chance to compose and frame the image.

I think it was John Thawley on here that once said if all your shots are "keepers" then you're not trying hard enough. If I'm shooting in the 1/100+ range I tend to get a good amount of decent shots but I find them to be too boring most of the time so I'm always dropping lower and lower into the 1/40, 1/50, 1/60 range which produces a nice crisp clean keeper at a reduced rate than at 1/100+.

I shoot about 5000 images over a weekend race, of those I probably pick 50-60 for a gallery of event shots and then from that I break it down to 10 shots max that I consider quality shots which is about 0.2%

I expect about 95% when I'm playing it safe. Maybe 60% when I'm pushing the limits. And when I'm having fun, some of my 10% keepers are someone else's junk!
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Like all the others say it's so dependant on setiings most particulaly shutter speed. Out of 500 shots, at 1/250 250 are OK at 1/125 125 out of 500 are good at 1/60 about 60 are OK, get the drift.
Other considerations include location can you follow the car for any length of time before and after the shot? On same circuits locations (especially street) you only see the car for a second or 2 before you hit the button.

smcclelland wrote in post #7697376
I think it was John Thawley on here that once said if all your shots are "keepers" then you're not trying hard enough. If I'm shooting in the 1/100+ range I tend to get a good amount of decent shots but I find them to be too boring most of the time so I'm always dropping lower and lower into the 1/40, 1/50, 1/60 range which produces a nice crisp clean keeper at a reduced rate than at 1/100+.

I shoot about 5000 images over a weekend race, of those I probably pick 50-60 for a gallery of event shots and then from that I break it down to 10 shots max that I consider quality shots which is about 0.2%

Couldn't agree more! At the event I've been shooting this weekend, the photographer / property owner has all the images on display for purchase as each race ends. Although most have good focus, there is hardly any motion featured. I'd rather have .2% keeper - sharp / motion blurred to hell and back photos than 5,000 cars sitting on a racetrack.

Now, I just have to get my business card into the hands of the drivers tomorrow before the day ends

I do alright. But I've gotten really, really picky the last few years. Things I would have considered keepers in 2010, might not even make it home before I delete them now.

Agree with a lot of the comments above. It's easy to get a high percentage of keepers with the shutter speed above 100 and simple panning. But once you've done that it's about pushing the limits abd seeing what you can pull off. That's when my keeper rate plummets but the quality of the keepers is much higher.

After several years of taking shots for my own pleasure and gradually improving my equipment & skills (sometimes it seems like for every two steps forward, I take one back), I am now the "official" track photographer for my local short track.

While I have tried to improve my panning with slower and slower shutter speeds, I have found that 1/200 works best; much less and my keep rate goes down. I still get some motion blur, but of course, not as much as I would like.

The thing is, that the vast majority of the racers I sell to think my shots are great, and they really don't seem to care much about motion blur as long as their car looks sharp and clear. As the only photographer, I just can't take the risk of telling a driver I don't have anything of suitable quality to sell due to my quest to get a technically "perfect" shot.

Once I get thorough the beginning of the season and have something good of every car/driver, I can afford to start doing some more experimentation.

IMAGE LINK: http://i202.photobucke​t.com/albums/aa151/ind​yrand/YEE.jpg

Same here. After some time relying upon brute-force - IE IS+superhuman shutter-speeds - I realised that...

a) I'm not really using the IS the way it was meant to be.

b) My shots lacked immediacy|presence|lif​e.

I recently attended a subie club event and decided that, yes, my keeper rate would plummet, but I was determined to achieve more interesting photography.

Yes, I was down to about 1 in 20, but I was more satisfied with the results at 1/60th than at 1/1000th. It was an afternoon well spent, learning how really to make proper use of IS (70-200 MkI).

Didn't realize everyone's keeper rates were so low. I thought it was essentially just me and my newbie-ness at photography. Good to know that even the best of us don't just aim and fire keeper shots every time