BTCC pics from Brands

[Andy3536]

Just a tiny selection of the pics i took last weekend, enjoy

[oolon]

So how were the pictures taken? As the cars seem in focus but the backgrounds are blured. I thought it was just aperture size however the brandshatch.co.uk seems to have movement blur.

[nibbler]

That first pic is stunning, the smoke from the back of the tire perfectly in focus. Have these been retouched at all?

[Andy3536]

So how were the pictures taken? As the cars seem in focus but the backgrounds are blured. I thought it was just aperture size however the brandshatch.co.uk seems to have movement blur.

That first pic is stunning, the smoke from the back of the tire perfectly in focus. Have these been retouched at all?

Pictures were just taken with a S5800 fuji bridge camera.

The motion blur is just from panning left to right with the cars. Must just be shutter speeds that have varied and some were taken before the braking point, others right on druids. I just left it on the sport setting on the camera for most of the shots

No touchups at all done on these. I even posted them here as i thought they'd be out of place in the picture a day thread.....

Glad you like them though

[Madafwo]

Really awesome pictures, wish I had chance to get some shots like that.

Then again it would help if I actually took my camera along.

Really liking that Avensis NGTC car, sounded lovely when Thommo was giving it the beans.

[mountainmachine]

cracking pics.

[blueball]

Great pics but wondered what I would see when I read the topic title

[Andy3536]

Great pics but wondered what I would see when I read the topic title

Never noticed untill now

Can't edit that either......

People will just have to think there clicking to see a picture of pis then

[Saracen]

So how were the pictures taken? As the cars seem in focus but the backgrounds are blured.....

As Andy said, panning.

Generally, set a relatively slow shutter speed. The slower the speed, the more blurred the background, but the trickier the technique is to get right). Select the point you want the picture to be taken at, and as races tend to be repetitive events, that's pretty easy to do. The pick up the car you want to catch some way in front of that point, and follow the car's motion smoothly, and squeeze the shutter when you get to the pre-selected point.

The result, if done well, is a nice, sharp vehicles with a motion-blurred background.

It's easy to do, but harder harder than you might think to do well. You really want the camera moving at a consistent speed, and it's kind-of counter-intuitive to follow through when you release the shutter. The normal reaction (mine, at least) is to hesitate or stop when you click.

Also, ideally (unless you opt otherwise for "artistic merit" purposes, you keep the camera movement dead horizontal. That keeps the movement lines horizontal. It's a bit distracting if the movement lines are at an angle, unless you've done it deliberately because it suits the picture.

It also makes it a bit easier if you pick a point at which the car is moving at a relatively constant speed, because if it's braking, and slowing down, it's that much trickier to pan smoothly. So selecting your location, and camera angle, helps. Of course, if you pick the spot and angle for the impact of the shot, you can wind up with a much better image than if it's just going past you in a straight line, but you have to work harder to get the shot.


Advancing the technique slightly, be careful about picking shutter speed, depending on :-

- speed of the subject
- distance to subject
- the nature of the subject matter.

Typically, the faster the subject, the faster the shutter speed will need to be because you;re after a balance between the subject frozen and the background blurred. A good starting point is about 1/30th sec, but there'll be a difference between a motion-blur shot of a pensioner on a bicycle and a low pass from a jet fighter.

So you may want to adjust up or down from that to get the result you want. Experimentation is the key here.

Also, do you want to freeze all of the background, and is some of the background moving? If you're photographing a water-skier, you may want to freeze the spray from the skis. If so, you're not just thinking about the speed of the skier, but the speed of the spray too.

Finally, two hints.

1) Often, a monopod helps. It gives more freedom of movement than a tripod, which is close to useless unless you're tracking dead horizontally, and preferably is a video tripod with a fluid head. But a monopod still helps eliminate, or at least reduce, camera shake in the vertical direction.

2) Secondly, if you have image stabilisation, you'll probably either want to turn it off or, if the camera/lens has it, put it in vertical mode only. There's not much point in trying to capture horizontal movement if the camera/lens if fighting you trying to take it out again.

[Saracen]

Never noticed untill now

Can't edit that either......

People will just have to think there clicking to see a picture of pis then

Amended it for you.

Some quite nice shots there, by the way.