Focus on off-center subjects

First of all, g'day, I'm Karl, an Aussie motorsports photographer, I have my own business but it doesn't make good money - but as we all do here (mostly) as a hobby Bout to get $11,000 of gear and I just sold my camera, so I am cameraless until later this week.

I was wondering because I have observed some interesting styles on here, such as a fast moving object completly still on a motion blurr that's in a corner per-say, I'm keen to know how this was done, based on a little research, would it be the Aperture Priority mode that does it on a tripod, to fix the camera? Or am I completly wrong?

Thanks in advance!!

I am trying to imagine what you are describing and I just can't. Would it be possible for you to link to some examples - perhaps shots you have seen on the web. Don't post them - TOS violation - just link to them.

Rad

I use manual, no tripod.
Welcome to POTN, & have a read, Mate!

Some panning info:
first shoot with moving cars need advice.

Don't forget the other links you find in it:
Advice needed for Rally shooting

Are you talking about something like this:

https://photography-on-the.net …=505031&highlig​ht=car+rig

If so, search "rig" and it will yield a boat load of results. If that's not what you're talking about, then I'm at a loss as well to help. Best of luck and welcome to POTN.

Sounds like you are talking about panning. This is the unofficial thread https://photography-on-the.net …=325181&highlig​ht=panning
It requires a slow shutter speed focused on a fast moving object. As well as steady movement of the camera. The camera follows the subject which causes the background to blur.

eddarr wrote in post #5727996
Sounds like you are talking about panning. This is the unofficial thread https://photography-on-the.net …=325181&highlig​ht=panning
It requires a slow shutter speed focused on a fast moving object. As well as steady movement of the camera. The camera follows the subject which causes the background to blur.

Yeah, it is essentially a panned shot, however I was just wanting to know how an image can be completly off center and still be the focused subject.
The second image is the one I'm referring to; the first is a pan, my favourite one I've got so far.

Thanks in advance

Content warning: NOT AN IMAGE

Back in the days before auto focus I would pre-focus on a spot, pan with the subject then trip the shutter when the subject enterd the focus zone.

Your situation would be a good time to turn off auto-focus and use manual focus.

Another approach would be to use auto-focus and set the active focus point to the one that will cover your subject.

Personally, I would go manual and pre-focus.

As a fellow Canberran, welcome to POTN.

other then that I'm no motorsport photographer so yeah..

move your focus point to the far right? i dont really understand what the problem is especially when you ask about which mode to be in, if you are a motorsport photog you would know to use tv mode or M mode as you want to control your shutter speed.

I was only trying to figure it out that's all, I never thought of manual focus as an option, another example would be getting two people one meter apart and aiming the camera in the center, that just would be a still photo. All has been revealed and learnt.

Thanks Boucha, I've noticed many Canberrans are on here, it's great
I've wasted a whole free day of time on here, just less than 8 hours, learning more than I would have expected - and thats always good, love to progress in stead of staying still and just doing the same thing...

Gotta admit, the canon based forum owns all the others

Thanks for the advice all, was a good help

You didn't ask that question or tell us what camera you were using?
IF you can, use C.Fn-13 (1) to put the focus points on the joystick (multi controller) which makes it easy to switch when things are moving fast or other situations where you need an off-center point.

In your two-people-a-meter-apart situation try using the focus/recompose method. Basicly you focus on one person's eyes with a half-press of the shutter button, hold the half-press to lock your focus then recompose and take the shot. There can be some exposure issues with this technique but usually it works fine.

This assumes that you're using the center focus point only and the people are equally distant from you. If one is closer then you have to think about your f-stop and the depth of field it yields.

Of course, you could ask them to step closer together

Its not great for the image ... but you can always crop to get the composition you want (focus off to side).

Panning fast action using an offset focus point is still beyond my skill level

Off center panning?... is this what your are looking for?

What I was referring to was without cropping - having a subject at full focus in a random place not at center or near there, there are a few in the best panning photo thread, a couple of the types I'm referring to can be found here:

https://photography-on-the.net …hread.php?t=325​181&page=8

Alanw89 and Beaneth posted the ones I'm talking about.