Car Tracking Photos; how to?
Discussion
Afternoon all
I'm just about to spend a weekend in the Isle of Man with some rather tasty motors (3 x F430's, amongst other rather sexylicious stuff). Anyway...camera, needless to say, all prepped and ready.
I've done many (well, ok, not many) tracking shots of cars in the past and at first I used multi-burst mode. I always found that I got 5 half-good shots rather than 1 good one. So I now use single shot mode.
The key, is shutter speed I would imagine? So I will use shutter priority and set it approppriately (40mph = 1/60 perhaps? ish?)
Anyhow, focus is another one for me; do you canon users use SERVO mode, and maintain the central point on the car as it moves towards you, or do you focus one point, know where you want to take the picture, and ensure you take it at the right point?
My experience at tracking shots hasn't been great, but thought I'd ask the "proper" way, rather than the Tony way
Thanks all
Tony
I'm just about to spend a weekend in the Isle of Man with some rather tasty motors (3 x F430's, amongst other rather sexylicious stuff). Anyway...camera, needless to say, all prepped and ready.
I've done many (well, ok, not many) tracking shots of cars in the past and at first I used multi-burst mode. I always found that I got 5 half-good shots rather than 1 good one. So I now use single shot mode.
The key, is shutter speed I would imagine? So I will use shutter priority and set it approppriately (40mph = 1/60 perhaps? ish?)
Anyhow, focus is another one for me; do you canon users use SERVO mode, and maintain the central point on the car as it moves towards you, or do you focus one point, know where you want to take the picture, and ensure you take it at the right point?
My experience at tracking shots hasn't been great, but thought I'd ask the "proper" way, rather than the Tony way
Thanks all
Tony
Though I've not done many tracking or panning shots, I've seen some stunning panning shots.
In general the advise I was given was, don't use the AI it doesn't work particularly well.
Shutter speeds no higher than 1/250 (this is obviously dependant on the focal length you are using, as well as the lens and lighting conditions)
As a rule of thumb the shutter speed shouldn't be lower than 1/Focal Length to avoid blurring
Use shutter priority (Tv on Canons)
Practice, practice and practice, it will take a while to learn
In general the advise I was given was, don't use the AI it doesn't work particularly well.
Shutter speeds no higher than 1/250 (this is obviously dependant on the focal length you are using, as well as the lens and lighting conditions)
As a rule of thumb the shutter speed shouldn't be lower than 1/Focal Length to avoid blurring
Use shutter priority (Tv on Canons)
Practice, practice and practice, it will take a while to learn
wyvern971 said:
In general the advise I was given was, don't use the AI it doesn't work particularly well.
AI Servo is fine, AI Focus is worse than useless.
Use AI servo mode & Shutter Proirity and select a focus point. If you feel comfortable with the centre point stick with that. You can experiment with other points later..
As for shutter speeds for pan shots, start at 1/250th and reduce it as you get the hang of it.
The 1/Focal length "rule" for shutter speed doesn't apply for moving cars as you want to show movement. It's all about technique.
This one's at 1/200th...
1/125th...
Edited by monkeyhanger on Thursday 3rd May 17:01
monkeyhanger said:
AI Servo is fine, AI Focus is worse than useless.
Thanks for the advice!
Can I make sure I understand the difference in the two modes properly? AI Servo adjusts the focus as an object nears the camera (for example?). AI Focus, does that cover both? IT focuses, and if it senses movement changes to changing focus?
(probably very badly worded)
Thanks, though!
AI Servo will track the subject as long as you keep the focus point on it.
AI Focus automatically switches between one-shot AF (still subject) and AI Servo. If the camera detects movement it "allegedly" switches to Servo mode but in practice it doesn't work too well. The change-over is too slow.
When in AI Servo mode the camera expects a moving subject and will track as long as you keep the focus point on the subject.
The 1 series bodies don't come with AI Focus...which says a lot about it
This is worth a read..
http://photo.net/bboard/q-and-a-fetch
AI Focus automatically switches between one-shot AF (still subject) and AI Servo. If the camera detects movement it "allegedly" switches to Servo mode but in practice it doesn't work too well. The change-over is too slow.
When in AI Servo mode the camera expects a moving subject and will track as long as you keep the focus point on the subject.
The 1 series bodies don't come with AI Focus...which says a lot about it
This is worth a read..
http://photo.net/bboard/q-and-a-fetch
Edited by monkeyhanger on Thursday 3rd May 17:08
Thanks for the advice - AI Servo it is then! I'll also look at that link you gave.
And, speak of the devil....one of the very cars I'm looking forward to taking a shot or two of! (you got it yet, Jeremy? I'm getting excited!)
Thanks again everyone - I'll be sure to show you what I take next week!
And, speak of the devil....one of the very cars I'm looking forward to taking a shot or two of! (you got it yet, Jeremy? I'm getting excited!)
Thanks again everyone - I'll be sure to show you what I take next week!
Here is some advice based on my experience for what it's worth:
Agree hand signals with the driver of the car behind so that you can position it accurately for your shot while you are going along. Also agree a procedure for if a car should come up behind or in front of you. Make sure the car you are in has its hazards on.
Fold rear seats down so you can lie flat in a stable position, I normally wedge my elbows in by my sides against the end of the boot and hook my feet over the seats so I am well held into the car.
Use a flat smooth road and encourage your driver to pull off and accelerate slowly and smoothly upto about 30mph. You may wish to position the cars where you want them statically, before you drive off, it makes it easier.
Make sure your camera is set before you start with your polariser in the right position etc if you are using one, and you may need to use a soft nd grad on the sky if its bright or even an ND to get the shutter speed you require.
I did most of them in shutter priority at 1/30th if moving across the light. If the light is continuously in the same direction you may wish to set the exposure manually and then just use that. If you have an IS lens this may help. I usually used a 24-70L but a 17-40 will work well if you don't go too wide. DOF is not really an issue with these kinds of shots because of the focal length so don't worry too much about the aperture. Don't forget to consider the direction of the sun because nothing looks worse than a tracking shot with the shadow of the tracking car in.
Try to use your arms and body to absorb any vibration as you are driving which will help keep the shots sharp.
Try to experiment with different angles and car positions. I liked shooting them diagonally so the car takes up a lot of the frame. Also try including plenty of the road in the foreground as the motion blur is more pronounced closer to the car.
Like anything your best bet is practice, practice, practice and see what works for you.
Matt
Agree hand signals with the driver of the car behind so that you can position it accurately for your shot while you are going along. Also agree a procedure for if a car should come up behind or in front of you. Make sure the car you are in has its hazards on.
Fold rear seats down so you can lie flat in a stable position, I normally wedge my elbows in by my sides against the end of the boot and hook my feet over the seats so I am well held into the car.
Use a flat smooth road and encourage your driver to pull off and accelerate slowly and smoothly upto about 30mph. You may wish to position the cars where you want them statically, before you drive off, it makes it easier.
Make sure your camera is set before you start with your polariser in the right position etc if you are using one, and you may need to use a soft nd grad on the sky if its bright or even an ND to get the shutter speed you require.
I did most of them in shutter priority at 1/30th if moving across the light. If the light is continuously in the same direction you may wish to set the exposure manually and then just use that. If you have an IS lens this may help. I usually used a 24-70L but a 17-40 will work well if you don't go too wide. DOF is not really an issue with these kinds of shots because of the focal length so don't worry too much about the aperture. Don't forget to consider the direction of the sun because nothing looks worse than a tracking shot with the shadow of the tracking car in.
Try to use your arms and body to absorb any vibration as you are driving which will help keep the shots sharp.
Try to experiment with different angles and car positions. I liked shooting them diagonally so the car takes up a lot of the frame. Also try including plenty of the road in the foreground as the motion blur is more pronounced closer to the car.
Like anything your best bet is practice, practice, practice and see what works for you.
Matt
le gravy noire said:
Here is some advice based on my experience for what it's worth:
Agree hand signals with the driver of the car behind so that you can position it accurately for your shot while you are going along. Also agree a procedure for if a car should come up behind or in front of you. Make sure the car you are in has its hazards on.
Fold rear seats down so you can lie flat in a stable position, I normally wedge my elbows in by my sides against the end of the boot and hook my feet over the seats so I am well held into the car.
Use a flat smooth road and encourage your driver to pull off and accelerate slowly and smoothly upto about 30mph. You may wish to position the cars where you want them statically, before you drive off, it makes it easier.
Make sure your camera is set before you start with your polariser in the right position etc if you are using one, and you may need to use a soft nd grad on the sky if its bright or even an ND to get the shutter speed you require.
I did most of them in shutter priority at 1/30th if moving across the light. If the light is continuously in the same direction you may wish to set the exposure manually and then just use that. If you have an IS lens this may help. I usually used a 24-70L but a 17-40 will work well if you don't go too wide. DOF is not really an issue with these kinds of shots because of the focal length so don't worry too much about the aperture. Don't forget to consider the direction of the sun because nothing looks worse than a tracking shot with the shadow of the tracking car in.
Try to use your arms and body to absorb any vibration as you are driving which will help keep the shots sharp.
Try to experiment with different angles and car positions. I liked shooting them diagonally so the car takes up a lot of the frame. Also try including plenty of the road in the foreground as the motion blur is more pronounced closer to the car.
Like anything your best bet is practice, practice, practice and see what works for you.
Matt
Agree hand signals with the driver of the car behind so that you can position it accurately for your shot while you are going along. Also agree a procedure for if a car should come up behind or in front of you. Make sure the car you are in has its hazards on.
Fold rear seats down so you can lie flat in a stable position, I normally wedge my elbows in by my sides against the end of the boot and hook my feet over the seats so I am well held into the car.
Use a flat smooth road and encourage your driver to pull off and accelerate slowly and smoothly upto about 30mph. You may wish to position the cars where you want them statically, before you drive off, it makes it easier.
Make sure your camera is set before you start with your polariser in the right position etc if you are using one, and you may need to use a soft nd grad on the sky if its bright or even an ND to get the shutter speed you require.
I did most of them in shutter priority at 1/30th if moving across the light. If the light is continuously in the same direction you may wish to set the exposure manually and then just use that. If you have an IS lens this may help. I usually used a 24-70L but a 17-40 will work well if you don't go too wide. DOF is not really an issue with these kinds of shots because of the focal length so don't worry too much about the aperture. Don't forget to consider the direction of the sun because nothing looks worse than a tracking shot with the shadow of the tracking car in.
Try to use your arms and body to absorb any vibration as you are driving which will help keep the shots sharp.
Try to experiment with different angles and car positions. I liked shooting them diagonally so the car takes up a lot of the frame. Also try including plenty of the road in the foreground as the motion blur is more pronounced closer to the car.
Like anything your best bet is practice, practice, practice and see what works for you.
Matt
^^^
Wot 'e said.
I got this hanging out of the back of a Z4Coupe using a 24-120 VR @ 1/40th - 1/40th seems to be the sweet spot for me. Nice long piece of quiet road (about 0.75 miles) meant I could capture several different compositions and select the most successful. I always compose the shot in my head and check I'm happy with the composition by looking through the viewfinder static - that way you'll nail your desired composition straight away before moving onto try out other compostions when time allows.
Or you could use layers in photoshop
Edited by trackdemon on Thursday 3rd May 23:31
Fantastic, thanks very much guys for the comments - much appreciated!
Will do my best to get as much done as possible...I'm determined not to miss opportunity of such cars being there!
Thanks again...I'm trying to better my car photography more and mroe (as you've seen in the past with my efforts) so let's see how this weekend goes
Tony
Will do my best to get as much done as possible...I'm determined not to miss opportunity of such cars being there!
Thanks again...I'm trying to better my car photography more and mroe (as you've seen in the past with my efforts) so let's see how this weekend goes
Tony
jeremyc said:
1. Pose stationary car (with driver) in required action stance.
2. Take all the time you want over the photo(s).
3. Blur background and wheels in Photoshop.
All the best tracking or action shots of cars I've seen done have been at very low speeds, if not stationary.
2. Take all the time you want over the photo(s).
3. Blur background and wheels in Photoshop.
All the best tracking or action shots of cars I've seen done have been at very low speeds, if not stationary.
had quick go at this but don't have any pics with people in the car!, think the tyres give it away tho
a pleased, find it hard to do tracking shots, normally for rolling shots i am hanging out a car window
last two where for mr2only mag
Edited by JOHNSTON on Friday 4th May 11:36
[quote=JOHNSTON
last two where for mr2only mag
[/quote]
snap lol
can to car depends on the speed of the car and how much blur you want. you can do it out the window or like matt says out the boot.
1s going very slowly
1/6s going 40mph in the boot of a lowered saxo
1/13s hanging out the window about 40mph
last two where for mr2only mag
[/quote]
snap lol
can to car depends on the speed of the car and how much blur you want. you can do it out the window or like matt says out the boot.
1s going very slowly
1/6s going 40mph in the boot of a lowered saxo
1/13s hanging out the window about 40mph
Edited by poah on Friday 4th May 18:57
I was just about to post a question about tracking shots and then saw this thread - excellent.
Does anyone have any advice for when shooting such shots using a mount? I was having a go yesterday using a suction mount on the hatch of my car and trying to get shots of a car following. I seem to have done most things suggested above (in terms of set up before moving off and shutter speeds), but at 1/40, 1/50 and 30mph I had very little success avoiding blur due to vibration from the road.
Do I just need to find a smoother road/better riding camera car? Or is the mount a dead loss for this type of thing (it's a Cullman suction mount).
Thanks
Stuart
Does anyone have any advice for when shooting such shots using a mount? I was having a go yesterday using a suction mount on the hatch of my car and trying to get shots of a car following. I seem to have done most things suggested above (in terms of set up before moving off and shutter speeds), but at 1/40, 1/50 and 30mph I had very little success avoiding blur due to vibration from the road.
Do I just need to find a smoother road/better riding camera car? Or is the mount a dead loss for this type of thing (it's a Cullman suction mount).
Thanks
Stuart
go to: www.jameslipman.com/
some brill tracking shots there
The guy used to go to my school and said to me that he mounts the camera on a rig, uses a remote release and uses shutter speeds of a few seconds. for his shots of 2 cars, he said that he pushes the car with the camera attached, then gets someone to drive the other car at exactly the same speed
hope that helps
some brill tracking shots there
The guy used to go to my school and said to me that he mounts the camera on a rig, uses a remote release and uses shutter speeds of a few seconds. for his shots of 2 cars, he said that he pushes the car with the camera attached, then gets someone to drive the other car at exactly the same speed
hope that helps
poah said:
the mount on the car will generally be ok for very slow speeds on a smooth surface, car to car with a mount is difficult
OK - thanks. So for this type of thing would I be best just rolling along at about 10mph and using a long exposure like the 1 second example you gave above (perhaps with filters to cut light as required)?
Thanks
Stuart
stuart b said:
I was just about to post a question about tracking shots and then saw this thread - excellent.
Does anyone have any advice for when shooting such shots using a mount? I was having a go yesterday using a suction mount on the hatch of my car and trying to get shots of a car following. I seem to have done most things suggested above (in terms of set up before moving off and shutter speeds), but at 1/40, 1/50 and 30mph I had very little success avoiding blur due to vibration from the road.
Do I just need to find a smoother road/better riding camera car? Or is the mount a dead loss for this type of thing (it's a Cullman suction mount).
Thanks
Stuart
Does anyone have any advice for when shooting such shots using a mount? I was having a go yesterday using a suction mount on the hatch of my car and trying to get shots of a car following. I seem to have done most things suggested above (in terms of set up before moving off and shutter speeds), but at 1/40, 1/50 and 30mph I had very little success avoiding blur due to vibration from the road.
Do I just need to find a smoother road/better riding camera car? Or is the mount a dead loss for this type of thing (it's a Cullman suction mount).
Thanks
Stuart
Mounting on the tracking car is not such a good idea, you use your body as a dampner whilst shooting car-to-car handheld which is where technique and VR/IS lenses help out.
For 'uber' car-to-car shots you need an ultra consistant surface for both camera car and subject vehicle. Both vehicles are then tethered together (normally using towing rope) and the primary vehicle is pushed up to the desired speed. With ultra smooth surface and consistant lead car>subject car distant you should be able to achieve some wicked results as long as you can control the non-photographic elements sufficiently. Exposure length is up to you really....
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