Got a Good (I Think) Car in Motion Pic

jhelms

I've gone out a few times and tried to get a car in motion pic, finally got one that I think turned out decent, although I have my own critiques about it.



Nikon D200, 1/8s, iso 100, f9

Also, I focused on the front 'z28' logo. My personal critiques (and this applies to the entire 400 picture session that we did with the car) include the following:

1) I tried f9 to get as much of the car in focus as possible, the camera vehicle was also matching speed pretty well, but I think they need to be a little more dead-on locked with each other to help keep everything in focus. Should I try a higher f-stop to get more of the car in focus?

2) We were going about 40-45mph and it was about an hour before sunset. I like the time of day but think we should have been going faster, at least 60ish. My opinion is that I think that would have allowed the blur (in both the background and the wheels) that I was looking for while allowing me to use a higher shutter speed (1/60th maybe) to keep everything crisp. Most of the shots in the series were 1/10th to 1/30th, and there were tons of deletes from just not being able to hold the camera steady enough.

3) Speaking of steady, I had the 18-200mm VR lens with VR on normal - should I have turned it to 'active'? I didn't since I wasn't really panning horizontally.

4) I've poured over many car magazines looking at their pics and it seems rare that they have a car-in-motion pic that is fully crisp at the front and back of the car, so I'm gathering it's pretty hard to do but I want to figure out how. Should I have shot with more light, more mph, and faster shutter speeds? I think that's what I'm going to try next.

I think that's about it for now, I really want to get good at these, there's tons of awesome local cars that I want to be able to take stunning poster-worthy pictures of. IMHO, I think this particular picture is cool and worthy of an enlargement for the car's owner, but I'll always see a few flaws in it.

Thanks in advance for the criticisms.

DavidTO

I moved this from the WP, since the WP is for your best work, not work that you already know you have a problem with. Please refer to the rules, which are linked in my signature.

black mamba

Hi jhelms,

I believe you need to be shooting at a much higher speed. As in many things, photography often demands us to compromise. When I'm shooting races I'm often working at 125 sec. to 250 sec., or even higher. That obviously depends on what sort of light I have. It also depends on the angle I have on the car and track at a given point, and whether I'm looking for a pan shot or not. There are times when I desire a certain degree of blurring, other times when I'm after a totaly tack-sharp image. I'm sure you know much of this. Overall, though, I think you need to work at a higher speed.

eL eSs Vee

Find a way to mount the camera to the camera car. There are suction cups for mounting a tripod to the bodypanels.

HockeyFan

Good job on the shot. I like it.

p27rpy

good job!

heres one of mine, taken handheld from a moving car just like yours. exif is:

1/80 sec (.0125/sec)
f16




I like your shot a lot though, the background adds a lot to the image!