Sprint Cars

look good.
it would have been nice to see panning shots with a slower shutter to gain a sense of movement.

I do need to play around some more and try to get more motion blur.

I agree with the panning but not bad at all!

Any better?

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AP64 wrote in post #12133016
Any better?

Not really. They are all nice shots, but since you shot them at a very high shutter speed (1/1000th for the last one), the wheels look like the car is standing still. Again, they are nice shots, but what people refer to when they mention "panning shots", they mean something like this:

its a good start, just keep practicing and over time lower the shutter speed until you get blurry background but crisp car photos

Demonstrating the difference with sprint car pictures.

Static:

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Damn those are some nice images!!

Day or night it doesn't matter.

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I would also suggest that positioning could have improved many of the above pics. It's clear that the cars have some serious attitude going on (sideways, inside wheel cocked), but from the side you're missing this. If you have a long enough lens, try to get some head-on shots as they exit the corner sideways - you'll add more drama to the shot. Move around a bit till you get the best angle.

I'm not saying ALL shots should be like this. When standing to the side, panning can be used to introduce some drama and movement, that's fine, but the shots you gave as examples could either have been panned, or taken from a better angle.

Rick Lane's pic is a good example of this.

This is great, and these are some great shots. I just glad there are more people on this web site besides myself, that love sprint cars. Thanks for the pointers.

P.S. Don't give Rick Lane a big head. I have to put up with him every weekend at the races, he is a good friend of mine.

Body positioning when panning is critical. Rather like playing golf, you should complete your 'swing' after getting the shot and DON'T position your torso so that you're hitting the shutter release as you approach or hit maximum rotation.

Say the cars are passing from right to left. Don't face the oncoming cars, otherwise you'll be pressing the shutter button when your body is twisted to the left, and this often means you're not tracking the car accurately. Instead, face the point where the car WILL BE when you hit the shutter release. Now twist the top half of your torso to the right and pick up the car in the viewfinder as it approaches. Track the car nice and smooth, matching the car's speed AND VECTOR - i.e. if the track slopes down to your left, your panning movement should run parallel to the track, also dropping to the left. It's important to keep horizontal AND vertical movement in the viewfinder to an absolute minimum.

Now as your upper torso unwinds and just as the car enters your chosen point, squeeze the shutter smoothly. Don't jab it or the camera will move vertically and spoil the shot. As the shutter fires, even if you're only going for one frame, keep the body rotation going in one smooth movement AFTER you've got the shot. This is important if you're going to keep the tracking speed (body rotation) smooth and matched to the car.

So, as I said, you should be firing the shutter when you are FACING the car with little or no twist in your torso - when you're nice and comfortable.

I hope this is clear!

I got to paly around a little more this past weekend at a test and tune day at Lawrenceburg Speedway. Getting better?

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