night panning?

is it possible to do panning at night time with a flash and capture the motion in slow shutter speed, without freezing the subject vehicle?

If you went out & tried that with traffic, I think you would find that the flash duration is too fast to avoid freezing the vehicle. Maybe you could find spots where there is some ambient light that would allow the image you're thinking of w/out using flash.
The biggest problem I see is that you're probably going to need to manually pre-focus if it's that dark out. OTOH, here's a black car in the late evening & I think the AIServo did it's job: GT-40 on Woodward
Good luck!

PhotosGuy wrote in post #18697174
If you went out & tried that with traffic, I think you would find that the flash duration is too fast to avoid freezing the vehicle. Maybe you could find spots where there is some ambient light that would allow the image you're thinking of w/out using flash.
The biggest problem I see is that you're probably going to need to manually pre-focus if it's that dark out. OTOH, here's a black car in the late evening & I think the AIServo did it's job: GT-40 on Woodward
Good luck!

you are right, as you can see from the photo attached,

I tried a few times and even went as low as 1/15s with rear curtain flash and got everything you would expect from a pan shot, flu with light trails except the wheels of the car


As you suggested, I think its best to utilize any ambient light available and shoot at high ISO....my Nikon D5 sees like a bat in the dark

Flash can be quite distracting for a driver

colintf wrote in post #18697261
Flash can be quite distracting for a driver

true, but it depends on your angle..if you fire a flash on to the car head on, yes it is distracting.

some events they ban use of flash but unless its a track event, there is no way they can enforce a ban (like on a street stage where every Tom,Dick & Harry holds a camera on the side of the road)

I've seen drivers really distracted by a flash used during panning at Le Mans Classic. I think they should be banned for safety reasons!!

I go to the Rolex 24 hour race at Daytona every year and see several photogs shooting with flash in certain corners. They can get much closer than I am able to so I've never tried, but there must be a good reason. I would be really interested to see some of those results.

I shoot weekly at a quarter mile paved bullring using flash. The strobe effect does mask any motion blur.

I have never had any driver ever tell me that my flash was distracting

colintf wrote in post #18697261
Flash can be quite distracting for a driver

Tell that to rally photographers.

When I used to attend the RAC Rally in the UK, in the middle of the night and in a forest, you could track the approach of each car by watching the trail of flashguns firing in the distance.