I had a little doodle on a notepad here, was was trying to see if it could be the relative motion difference and how to put it in to some equation. Empirical data looks convincing, though....
I actually caught myself thinking "I wonder if I should get a trial copy of the Image Processing Toolbox for Matlab and try to see if the blurring is straight linear motion"... I'm a dork.
OK, weird, so I can't explain the horizontal blur of those lights compared to the rest of the car. But, here you have doubled your shutter and the car is sharp, you have some wheel and background blur. The sweatspot is somewhere inbetween. And with that I have to get back to work before I get in trouble.
I've got a theory. Maybe the rental 70-200 was insulted when it realized that it had been mounted on my poor, lowly little D90. The lens turned on a hidden "funky picture mode" to encourage me to go out and purchase a more befitting, and more expense, Nikon body. Good thing I didn't rent a 300 f/2.8... it might have refused to even let me take pictures if I mounted it to my camera!
Another theory, my trusty 15 year old non-VR, non-AF-S, slow focusing, built like a tank push-pull 80-200 has sabotaged my RAW images because it was jealous that I rented a new lens for this race.
I know it seems silly to rent a 70-200 2.8 when you own a 80-200 2.8, but I've been thinking of upgrading and figured renting the new lens for a weekend was the best way to try it out... I'm thinking I may stick with what I've got!
From my experience, it depends on how close you are to the car as well as the angle the car is traveling. For example on a straight and provided the car actually goes "straight" (lol), and lets say you are attempting to pan an even amount on both sides to the center point where the car is directly in front of you. In that situation there is rotation of the car in relation to your pivoting. Imagine a ruler and a circle beneath it. The circle represents your panning path and the ruler the path of the car.
_______ << sorta like that.
.....o.....
The closer you are, this will be more noticeable.. especially the slower the shutter speed. So you can have the front, middle or back of the car look crispy where the rest isn't. It takes quite a bit of experimenting and practice to hone your skills as well as knowing where to set your camera for the given situation. A larger DoF will help alleviate the OOF, but part of the car can still blur depending on where you aim and to the shutter speed and car speed which transforms to how much rotation. (..also keep in mind another tip.. make sure you follow thru.. just like a golf swing. helps you keep smoother. At least it does me! lol )
Some repeat, but things you have to consider is the path of the car in relation to the track, the speed of the particular car (including any acceleration, deceleration, braking),the distance between you and the car to be able to factor in what YOU can pull off given your particular skill in holding the camera steady and keeping the camera on target. There is also the consideration if there is any bumps in the track along your panning path. In a perfect situation, panning from the inside of a curve works best, but that isn't always possible, especially given the relation to you and the sun. ...well, and possibly how much access you have.
As suggested above a ND filter or even better if bright harsh sunlight, a polarizer will help achieve a smaller DoF around F4, though again depends again on how close you are given the lens you are using to a achieve a cool shot given the situation.
Turn the VR off win shooting sports and you will see a big diffrence. The biggest problem people have is shooting moving objects while having the VR on, you get shake and your shots will be soft no matter what angle you shoot.
Agreed. 1/125 is TOO slow for cars at that speed. As Loudoogs stated, you can more than double your SS, and still get good wheel blur.
This shot was taken @ 1/125 and the car is going about 200 MPH. It's not to slow of a SS as I posted earlier take the VR off and keep practicing and you will be fine.
This shot was taken @ 1/125 and the car is going about 200 MPH. It's not to slow of a SS as I posted earlier take the VR off and keep practicing and you will be fine.
Nice shot
Well no problem with remembering to turn off the VR... the rental 70-200 is gone and I'm back to my old non-VR 80-200.
The practice part might be a little tougher. Schedule, location and the weather are all conspiring against me right now. Might have to get a little creative coming up with a good subject for practicing panning shots on.
Well no problem with remembering to turn off the VR... the rental 70-200 is gone and I'm back to my old non-VR 80-200.
The !
practice part might be a little tougher. Schedule, location and the weather are all conspiring against me right now. Might have to get a little creative coming up with a good subject for practicing panning shots on.
Comments
Another theory, my trusty 15 year old non-VR, non-AF-S, slow focusing, built like a tank push-pull 80-200 has sabotaged my RAW images because it was jealous that I rented a new lens for this race.
I know it seems silly to rent a 70-200 2.8 when you own a 80-200 2.8, but I've been thinking of upgrading and figured renting the new lens for a weekend was the best way to try it out... I'm thinking I may stick with what I've got!
_______ << sorta like that.
.....o.....
The closer you are, this will be more noticeable.. especially the slower the shutter speed. So you can have the front, middle or back of the car look crispy where the rest isn't. It takes quite a bit of experimenting and practice to hone your skills as well as knowing where to set your camera for the given situation. A larger DoF will help alleviate the OOF, but part of the car can still blur depending on where you aim and to the shutter speed and car speed which transforms to how much rotation. (..also keep in mind another tip.. make sure you follow thru.. just like a golf swing. helps you keep smoother. At least it does me! lol )
Some repeat, but things you have to consider is the path of the car in relation to the track, the speed of the particular car (including any acceleration, deceleration, braking),the distance between you and the car to be able to factor in what YOU can pull off given your particular skill in holding the camera steady and keeping the camera on target. There is also the consideration if there is any bumps in the track along your panning path. In a perfect situation, panning from the inside of a curve works best, but that isn't always possible, especially given the relation to you and the sun. ...well, and possibly how much access you have.
As suggested above a ND filter or even better if bright harsh sunlight, a polarizer will help achieve a smaller DoF around F4, though again depends again on how close you are given the lens you are using to a achieve a cool shot given the situation.
Confused yet?? ...Just keep on practicing.
Agreed. 1/125 is TOO slow for cars at that speed. As Loudoogs stated, you can more than double your SS, and still get good wheel blur.
http://www.knippixels.com
Nikon D70,D2H,D300,Nikkor 300mm f2.8,Nikkor 80-200 f2.8, Nikkor 24-70 AF-S f2.8,Nikkor 50 f1.8
www.ScottDavis.smugmug.com
This shot was taken @ 1/125 and the car is going about 200 MPH. It's not to slow of a SS as I posted earlier take the VR off and keep practicing and you will be fine.
Nikon D70,D2H,D300,Nikkor 300mm f2.8,Nikkor 80-200 f2.8, Nikkor 24-70 AF-S f2.8,Nikkor 50 f1.8
www.ScottDavis.smugmug.com
Nice shot
Well no problem with remembering to turn off the VR... the rental 70-200 is gone and I'm back to my old non-VR 80-200.
The practice part might be a little tougher. Schedule, location and the weather are all conspiring against me right now. Might have to get a little creative coming up with a good subject for practicing panning shots on.
Thanks for the input!
Thank You!!
Nikon D70,D2H,D300,Nikkor 300mm f2.8,Nikkor 80-200 f2.8, Nikkor 24-70 AF-S f2.8,Nikkor 50 f1.8
www.ScottDavis.smugmug.com