I strangely enjoyed writing the photography guide during my Christmas break last year, so this year I decided to go into more detail with the motorsport side of things. As always these are only what I personally have found to work for me, so treat them as a rough guide or as something different to try.
I’ve made no mention of ISO settings here, individual users will know how far they like to push their ISO settings so I’ve left that out. With panning in particular I’ve never moved from the lowest setting available to me (ISO200) as I’m working with very slow shutter speeds. But obviously if it’s overcast or if you under a canopy of trees at a rally etc you can always bump the ISO up to compensate.
Suggestions/comments welcome! This is based on one season of DSLR motorsport photography, so I’ve got as much to learn as anybody else.
Techniques
Panning
There are various methods of panning, but here are some basics to get you started, you will probably find you then adapt this to suit your own style….
Setup
Shooting (Side-on Pan)
The most important thing is to ‘follow through’, there should be no pause or abrupt end once you have taken the shot, continue to pan smoothly and you are more likely to get the shot.
How far do you go with the shutter speed? Well that depends entirely on how successful you are with it, here are some examples, along with a very fast shutter speed to show what happens if you took a ‘normal’ photograph of a passing car…
1/1600 - no blurring of car wheels or background, easy to achieve
1/320 - blurred car wheels, slight blurring of background, reasonably easy to achieve
1/250 – good blur in wheels and background, offers best balance of result/difficulty
1/160
1/80 – completely blurred background, hard to achieve
Shooting (3/4 Pan)
The above examples are for cars traveling side-on to you, as they are not moving towards or away from you during the actual image capture the vast majority of the car should remain sharp. If you are shooting cars at a different angle you should consider that during a pan the movement of the car may fall outside of your area of focus.
1/250
1/60
Which you prefer comes down to personal preference, whilst the first image is sharper the second image could be said to be more dynamic and highlights the sense of speed. If you prefer to keep the whole car sharp you should stick to around 1/320-1/200, anything slower will start to blur the rear of the car.
Close-up Pans
Another option to consider is to zoom right in (if your lens allows) for some detailed panning shots. As only a section of the vehicle is completely in the frame you are panning faster and it is very difficult to achieve a smooth pan. With this in mind it is better to play it safe and stick to around 1/320 – 1/250. If you are hoping for a detailed wheel shot it is better to aim for 1/250 – 1/200 as this should blur the wheels enough for the brake disc and caliper to be visible.
1/200
Head-on / Rear Shots
There are two completely different ways to approach these kinds of shots:
1. Very fast shutter speeds
This one’s simple to explain, just choose shutter priority mode and select a shutter speed between 1/800 – 1/2000, basically as fast as your lens will allow before the viewfinder gets too dark. Fire away, no panning or any particular technique is needed, the shutter speed will be more than fast enough to freeze the car.
+ Is easy to do
+ Almost guarantees a sharp image
- Lack of motion in shot
- Requires fast (expensive) lens if light is not good
1/1000 (f2.8) – Very sharp image but lacks movement and required very fast lens
2. Slower shutter speeds
This method is slightly harder to perfect, essentially you need to pan, although that sounds simple it will become clear when you try it that if a car is coming straight towards you, it isn’t actually moving very much in your viewfinder. A speed of around 1/320 – 1/250 should mean you only need a very slight pan, you can achieve this if the car is at a slight angle to you by tracking the car as you shoot, or if it is coming dead towards you then you can try forcing movement by panning from the top of the windscreen down towards the front grill. Only a small amount of movement is needed at 1/320 so as long as you can pan slightly with the motion of the car it should work.
+ Motion in shot (i.e. blurred wheels)
+ Doesn’t require a fast lens
- Is harder to achieve
1/250 (f7.0)
One added bonus of perfecting slower pans is that it helps to isolate the subject. In the following image the Caterham is blurred, helping to isolate my intended subject, the Renault 5. The slightly upwards and left motion of my pan (tracking the R5) has blurred the Caterham because that was moving right.
1/160 (f10)
Note for bridge camera users: Although most super-zooms are capable of f2.8 it’s often better to go for option 2. The sharpness of super-zooms can be lacking at the long end and you will not get a blurred background to isolate the subject, you will probably get a more pleasing result if you practice using slower shutter speeds and panning slightly.
Shooting through fences
Having a fence in your way doesn’t automatically mean you can’t shoot from that particular location. As long as you can get very close to the fence and are using at least 200mm you can shoot normally. Common sense would suggest that you need a bright day so you can use as wide an aperture as possible, but it’s actually far easier to achieve on an overcast day, I’ve no idea why though, perhaps it’s something to do with sunlight reflecting off of the metal fencing.
The following image was taken at Druids at Brands Hatch, despite the extensive catch-fencing it is possible to get reasonable shots from that location. If you look closely you can see some grey haze where the fence was captured during the pan, but it’s a useable image.
1/250 (f7.0) @ 200mm
Drifting
Drifting can require a different approach to normal motorsport photography due to the unusual movement of the cars and lower speeds. As the majority of a drift occurs on a corner you will get the same focus issues as with ¾ pans, and you will also have the problem of smoke to confuse your auto-focus system.
Due to the madness that normally accompanies a drift (smoke, flames etc) you can get away with faster shutter speeds and still come away with a shot that implies plenty of movement. However if you can find an angle where a drifting car passes your position in a conventional way you can still use a standard side-on panning technique and get good results, you will probably need a much slower shutter speed (i.e. 1/100) though as the car will be moving much slower than normal.
1/320 – Relatively fast shutter speed but lots of movement visible due to smoke etc
1/100 – Car passed me without moving towards or away from me (despite pointing directly at me) therefore a standard pan was achievable with no blurring to the car
1/100 – Same shutter speed as above but car was moving towards me, therefore half of it is blurred
Bikes
Bikes are more difficult to shoot than cars due to their smaller size, increased potential for sideways movement (particularly with motocross) and rapid acceleration. The same basic techniques applied to car photography still stand, but you may find you need to shoot at slightly faster speeds. Due to the obvious movement of both bike and rider the sense of speed is more obvious and therefore you can get away with slightly faster speeds without significant loss of a dynamic shot.
1/200 – Workable shutter speed but gives results equivalent to much slower shutter speeds when shooting cars
1/1000 – Very fast shutter speed but some feeling of speed maintained due to position of riders and mud spray.
General Tips
A few general tips to consider, these aren’t rules by any stretch of the imagination, but they may help initially…
1. Get down low.
Whilst it isn’t always easy, a shot from a low angle is generally recommended over a shot where the car roof is visible.
2. Give cars space.
It’s easy to fall into a trap where you maximize your zoom capability and miss the bigger picture. Whilst there is nothing much wrong with this image below technically, the car has no space to move into. By leaving space in front of the car it generally gives you a more appealing photograph.
3. Avoid cluttered backgrounds.
The aim of a motorsport photograph is often to capture a particular car, as a general rule anything to take your eye away from that is not good for the final image. In the image below the car is quite difficult to pick out from a busy background, as this was shot at 1/200 the background isn’t blurred enough to really highlight the car.
You can use cluttered backgrounds to your advantage though, if you use a slow enough shutter speed (in the image below, 1/50) you get fantastic streaks of colour which really highlight the sense of speed.
4. Try a Monopod
Some photographers find that monopods make motorsport photography more difficult, however they do significantly stabilize your lens which is important for both panning and standard shots. When panning it removes nearly all vertical movement, this is one of the major factors in ensuring a nice sharp panning shot. They are also hugely useful when you have a long and/or heavy lens, firstly to stabilize your lens and secondly to take the weight of the equipment away from you.
5. Go Mad
The most important advice I can offer is to go a bit mad, particularly once you are reasonably competent with the basics of motorsport photography. Whilst it is good to get some ‘record’ shots saved, I find that my best images actually come after I’ve got a few standard safe shots and then decide to experiment and do something a bit silly, in many ways this helps you to develop as you are pushing your abilities to the limit
My favourite images came from a 2 day festival where I had plenty of time to play around with different ideas. Many things didn’t work, but they can easily be deleted. After a bit of practice I managed to start getting something that resembled cars at the ridiculous speed of 1/25, eventually I started getting some shots that I really liked:
1/25
On the other hand, at the Festival of Speed I was too scared to miss anything, therefore I played it safe and ended up with my dullest pictures of the year, I hardly look at them anymore:
I’ve made no mention of ISO settings here, individual users will know how far they like to push their ISO settings so I’ve left that out. With panning in particular I’ve never moved from the lowest setting available to me (ISO200) as I’m working with very slow shutter speeds. But obviously if it’s overcast or if you under a canopy of trees at a rally etc you can always bump the ISO up to compensate.
Suggestions/comments welcome! This is based on one season of DSLR motorsport photography, so I’ve got as much to learn as anybody else.
Techniques
Panning
There are various methods of panning, but here are some basics to get you started, you will probably find you then adapt this to suit your own style….
Setup
- Set the shutter speed to 1/320 as an absolute maximum, any faster and you won’t get the blurred effect.
- Change the focus mode to “AF-C” (also known as ‘AI_Servo’, or whichever setting on your camera will continually re-focus as you pan) if possible, this will force the camera to continually refocus, important when a car is about to pass at 80mph.
- As a dry run track a car as it passes, find a good level of zoom so it fills the viewfinder nicely when in front of you.
Shooting (Side-on Pan)
- Track the car through the viewfinder at the earliest possible opportunity
- Hold the shutter release down half-way to initiate focus
- Continue to track the car with the button half-pressed, the camera will continue to refocus
- Fully press the shutter release at the point where you want to capture the car
- Continue to track the car in a smooth movement
The most important thing is to ‘follow through’, there should be no pause or abrupt end once you have taken the shot, continue to pan smoothly and you are more likely to get the shot.
How far do you go with the shutter speed? Well that depends entirely on how successful you are with it, here are some examples, along with a very fast shutter speed to show what happens if you took a ‘normal’ photograph of a passing car…
1/1600 - no blurring of car wheels or background, easy to achieve
1/320 - blurred car wheels, slight blurring of background, reasonably easy to achieve
1/250 – good blur in wheels and background, offers best balance of result/difficulty
1/160
1/80 – completely blurred background, hard to achieve
Shooting (3/4 Pan)
The above examples are for cars traveling side-on to you, as they are not moving towards or away from you during the actual image capture the vast majority of the car should remain sharp. If you are shooting cars at a different angle you should consider that during a pan the movement of the car may fall outside of your area of focus.
1/250
1/60
Which you prefer comes down to personal preference, whilst the first image is sharper the second image could be said to be more dynamic and highlights the sense of speed. If you prefer to keep the whole car sharp you should stick to around 1/320-1/200, anything slower will start to blur the rear of the car.
Close-up Pans
Another option to consider is to zoom right in (if your lens allows) for some detailed panning shots. As only a section of the vehicle is completely in the frame you are panning faster and it is very difficult to achieve a smooth pan. With this in mind it is better to play it safe and stick to around 1/320 – 1/250. If you are hoping for a detailed wheel shot it is better to aim for 1/250 – 1/200 as this should blur the wheels enough for the brake disc and caliper to be visible.
1/200
Head-on / Rear Shots
There are two completely different ways to approach these kinds of shots:
1. Very fast shutter speeds
This one’s simple to explain, just choose shutter priority mode and select a shutter speed between 1/800 – 1/2000, basically as fast as your lens will allow before the viewfinder gets too dark. Fire away, no panning or any particular technique is needed, the shutter speed will be more than fast enough to freeze the car.
+ Is easy to do
+ Almost guarantees a sharp image
- Lack of motion in shot
- Requires fast (expensive) lens if light is not good
1/1000 (f2.8) – Very sharp image but lacks movement and required very fast lens
2. Slower shutter speeds
This method is slightly harder to perfect, essentially you need to pan, although that sounds simple it will become clear when you try it that if a car is coming straight towards you, it isn’t actually moving very much in your viewfinder. A speed of around 1/320 – 1/250 should mean you only need a very slight pan, you can achieve this if the car is at a slight angle to you by tracking the car as you shoot, or if it is coming dead towards you then you can try forcing movement by panning from the top of the windscreen down towards the front grill. Only a small amount of movement is needed at 1/320 so as long as you can pan slightly with the motion of the car it should work.
+ Motion in shot (i.e. blurred wheels)
+ Doesn’t require a fast lens
- Is harder to achieve
1/250 (f7.0)
One added bonus of perfecting slower pans is that it helps to isolate the subject. In the following image the Caterham is blurred, helping to isolate my intended subject, the Renault 5. The slightly upwards and left motion of my pan (tracking the R5) has blurred the Caterham because that was moving right.
1/160 (f10)
Note for bridge camera users: Although most super-zooms are capable of f2.8 it’s often better to go for option 2. The sharpness of super-zooms can be lacking at the long end and you will not get a blurred background to isolate the subject, you will probably get a more pleasing result if you practice using slower shutter speeds and panning slightly.
Shooting through fences
Having a fence in your way doesn’t automatically mean you can’t shoot from that particular location. As long as you can get very close to the fence and are using at least 200mm you can shoot normally. Common sense would suggest that you need a bright day so you can use as wide an aperture as possible, but it’s actually far easier to achieve on an overcast day, I’ve no idea why though, perhaps it’s something to do with sunlight reflecting off of the metal fencing.
The following image was taken at Druids at Brands Hatch, despite the extensive catch-fencing it is possible to get reasonable shots from that location. If you look closely you can see some grey haze where the fence was captured during the pan, but it’s a useable image.
1/250 (f7.0) @ 200mm
Drifting
Drifting can require a different approach to normal motorsport photography due to the unusual movement of the cars and lower speeds. As the majority of a drift occurs on a corner you will get the same focus issues as with ¾ pans, and you will also have the problem of smoke to confuse your auto-focus system.
Due to the madness that normally accompanies a drift (smoke, flames etc) you can get away with faster shutter speeds and still come away with a shot that implies plenty of movement. However if you can find an angle where a drifting car passes your position in a conventional way you can still use a standard side-on panning technique and get good results, you will probably need a much slower shutter speed (i.e. 1/100) though as the car will be moving much slower than normal.
1/320 – Relatively fast shutter speed but lots of movement visible due to smoke etc
1/100 – Car passed me without moving towards or away from me (despite pointing directly at me) therefore a standard pan was achievable with no blurring to the car
1/100 – Same shutter speed as above but car was moving towards me, therefore half of it is blurred
Bikes
Bikes are more difficult to shoot than cars due to their smaller size, increased potential for sideways movement (particularly with motocross) and rapid acceleration. The same basic techniques applied to car photography still stand, but you may find you need to shoot at slightly faster speeds. Due to the obvious movement of both bike and rider the sense of speed is more obvious and therefore you can get away with slightly faster speeds without significant loss of a dynamic shot.
1/200 – Workable shutter speed but gives results equivalent to much slower shutter speeds when shooting cars
1/1000 – Very fast shutter speed but some feeling of speed maintained due to position of riders and mud spray.
General Tips
A few general tips to consider, these aren’t rules by any stretch of the imagination, but they may help initially…
1. Get down low.
Whilst it isn’t always easy, a shot from a low angle is generally recommended over a shot where the car roof is visible.
2. Give cars space.
It’s easy to fall into a trap where you maximize your zoom capability and miss the bigger picture. Whilst there is nothing much wrong with this image below technically, the car has no space to move into. By leaving space in front of the car it generally gives you a more appealing photograph.
3. Avoid cluttered backgrounds.
The aim of a motorsport photograph is often to capture a particular car, as a general rule anything to take your eye away from that is not good for the final image. In the image below the car is quite difficult to pick out from a busy background, as this was shot at 1/200 the background isn’t blurred enough to really highlight the car.
You can use cluttered backgrounds to your advantage though, if you use a slow enough shutter speed (in the image below, 1/50) you get fantastic streaks of colour which really highlight the sense of speed.
4. Try a Monopod
Some photographers find that monopods make motorsport photography more difficult, however they do significantly stabilize your lens which is important for both panning and standard shots. When panning it removes nearly all vertical movement, this is one of the major factors in ensuring a nice sharp panning shot. They are also hugely useful when you have a long and/or heavy lens, firstly to stabilize your lens and secondly to take the weight of the equipment away from you.
5. Go Mad
The most important advice I can offer is to go a bit mad, particularly once you are reasonably competent with the basics of motorsport photography. Whilst it is good to get some ‘record’ shots saved, I find that my best images actually come after I’ve got a few standard safe shots and then decide to experiment and do something a bit silly, in many ways this helps you to develop as you are pushing your abilities to the limit
My favourite images came from a 2 day festival where I had plenty of time to play around with different ideas. Many things didn’t work, but they can easily be deleted. After a bit of practice I managed to start getting something that resembled cars at the ridiculous speed of 1/25, eventually I started getting some shots that I really liked:
1/25
On the other hand, at the Festival of Speed I was too scared to miss anything, therefore I played it safe and ended up with my dullest pictures of the year, I hardly look at them anymore:
