At The Drags

[Pehpsi]

a pan shot from WSID not long ago. still very new at action shots, and my slow Tamron 70-300 doesn't help much...cant wait for my Nikon 70-200 VR to be in my hands!!


[img]<a%20href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/pehpsi/293688098/"%20title="Photo%20Sharing"><img%20src="http://static.flickr.com/113/293688098_c510aeedac_o.jpg"%20width="800"%20height="479"%20alt="1400%20HP"%20/></a>[/img]


cheers..

[bwhinnen]

Panning technique looks pretty good. Big question, where was your focal point? Pick a car and ensure you have continuous focus set and keep your focal point on it as you pan. Shame the Santo's cranes had shut off already though.

Slow glass is not so much of an issue with panning, trains you to be a little more steady than anything. You will loose sharpness but none the less you can get some wonderful shots.

What is the exif for this shot? I've found with panning (at the normal distance for drags) that around 1/50 - 1/80 is fairly sufficient (this is with a 70-300 G Nikon lens). At lower light, bump the ISO up, staying under 800 will give more than acceptable shots.

[Pehpsi]

hey there, stats were:

70mm focal, f4, 1/50, iso 400, continuous, matrix, +5ev.

pretty new to panning, but it was fun and looking forward to giving it another go..

cheers..

[jammy2]

Very nice try with the panning..both cars must have been going at some knots so it must have been a blur Keeping that difficulty in mind and the closeness of the race, composition looks a bit between frames, it may have been better to solely focus on the front car with the "afterburner".

[Raskill]

Nice image to start with.

I agree that focusing on the one vehicle, rather than getting half of each is a better option. Your panning technique seems okay, not helped by your lens.

Yopu'll notice the difference with the VR F/2.8 lens, which is generally sharper, and will allow higher shutter speeds. I would say you could easily get away with a shutter speed as high as 1/200 for drags and still produce a nice sharp subject with blurred background.

For smaller meets at the WSID approach them and try to get accreditation as a freelance photographer. You won't get it for the top fuelers, but even the smaller meets will help you to improve your shots.

If, with your new lens, you feel you are producing shots that are good enough for selling, consider selling images to the drivers of the cars. All blokes want pictures of them selves doing that sort of thing. You might find you pay for your VR in no time at all.

Good start and look forward to more images!