With the new dslr camera tonight's excercise was to get one or two decent shots of my pal clogging the his Lambretta along a road in Leeds & capture some motion blur...."make it look like you're going quick" says I.......and by golly, didn't he just. I think he was enjoying being the big star out on a photo-shoot & really tonked the scooter up & down.
I've probably deleted more shots than kept, but here are some of the better ones. Not perfectly in focus, but I was pleased with these for a first attempt.
Any tips very gratefully accepted!
...sometimes he was a bit TOO quick... 
...and others a LOT too quick! 
yeah nice. I think the first one is really the best!
nice shot! did you move the camera at the direction of the scooter to get this effect?
yes, it's called "panning", but other settings such as shutter speed, focusing type & smooth movement are also very important. The camera goes on rapid fire, a slightly slower shutter speed than normal is used (otherwise everything in the background is too sharp) & you've to "swivel" the camera as the bike passes, shooting constantly.....that's as much as I know....there's some vital ingredient missing from my knowledge though that makes the subject dead sharp.
How come the top pro's get sharp images of their moving subject with loads of blur behind, but mine are grainy?
I don't know...it's a frustrating game!
Is it purely quality of camera & skill, or am I cocking up the settings?
Perfection...
....not perfection 
Well ... try to use monopod - it helps.
If You don't have it you may do it using screw, string and a big metal screw pad.
One end of string -> screw, second end -> pad ... screw->camera (there where You normally fix monopod/tripod) and pad->floor.
Now You can stand on the pad and keep the string tight 
http://www.friday.com/bbum/2007/10/10/the-scrap-monopod-the-stringpod/
Next - try to follow your obiect with the camera much earlier, and if it will be straight forward then "click".
Try to do this in better light (it doesn't have to be dark... just use f16, f22... better chance to have the object sharp)... 1s is enought ... 1/15s can give nice effect too (depends on how fast the object is)
If you know in which place You want to "click" the photo - set focus on this place and "lock" it
Last thing - practice, practice, practice ... and turn image stabilization OFF (or in some cameras there is an option for only vertical - up/down - stabilization - this can be usefull)
| wellerchap wrote: |
Is it purely quality of camera & skill, or am I cocking up the settings?
|
Sony A300 isn't so bad - more prectice and it will be gr8.
BTW ... pro photos are pro ... because of lens quality ... G for Nikon, L for canon Hey b4r4t, thanks for the tips....for a moment I thought you were joking about the stringpod, but that looks like a logical solution!
The photos were taken in pretty good light, but I find once I set the camera to "S" priority I get a blue tint to most of the shots....possibly white balance but until I try again on different settings I don't know.
Thanks again for the info.
Here's one more I did one week after...same sort of results, but in a cool sort of way I like the blur on this.
One more thing ... if you have external flash (because I don't think that built in can do the thing) You can set the flash to 1st curtain ... and it will be:
Click->Flash fire (it freezes the image)->you move the camera normally
Flash can help to freeze object
But i'm not sure that this will help - but You can try
first and second curtain:
second curtain:
I've heard of using flash to freeze the subject, but don't have external, just the onboard unit.
I may give it a go, but am still at the "surely it'll make no difference in full daylight" mode.
These are all things I'm learning (and being surprised by) as I go along.
Another thing that ceases to amaze me is the price of af lenses.......... 
I'm back out again this evening, trying to get the blur right...my pal's being very patient, riding up & down like an idiot. We do go for fish & chips straight after though, so that's a reason to get out in itself! From what I can see it definitely looks like the images need more light, but its probably hard to get enough to get a clear picture. Keep practicing because what you have so far shows some promise.
well, thanks to you guys, thursday night's efforts were better by miles!
The awb sorted the blue tints (white bal set to auto), and faster shutter speed sorted out the blurry subject.
I took dozens of shots, some even with my brand new stringpod - EVEN cheaper to make than b4r4t's
I'm now a happy wellerchappy!
Cheers.
Much better then 1st try
But ... as You see 1st picture from this new set is most sharp because of F16 ... last is F13
Higher F number => max Depth od field
And You don't need BOKEH here because the blur effect is by moving camera ... try to keep F as high as possible ... this may fix some AF problem because your sharp field is much wider
And btw ... stringpod can be even cheaper ? :>
And if your friend is driving fast ... You can try something like 1/100, 1/125 or even faster ... now You used 1/60 and 1/80
Experiment
About White Ballance ... well ... shot in RAW - then You don't care about WB, You can always set it when You are processing RAW files
You can even buy Kodak gray card - it's about $4 on ebay
Then You just place this card in one place, shot RAW, and then just keep shoting pictures ... and set WB on PC using this card picture Realy nice thing if You planning to shod lot of photos in one place Nice improvement. Looks like everyone already chimed in on what I would have said. Don't ever be afraid to use your flash in the daytime. That is a secret that the pros use. In fact, flashes help control your light better. You may want to invest in a flash unit sometime. The sb-800 is a great one (for nikon) and Canon has a few speedlights that work well, too.
| GB wrote: |
| Nice improvement. Looks like everyone already chimed in on what I would have said. Don't ever be afraid to use your flash in the daytime. That is a secret that the pros use. In fact, flashes help control your light better. You may want to invest in a flash unit sometime. The sb-800 is a great one (for nikon) and Canon has a few speedlights that work well, too. |
But he have SONY alpha Those look real cool. Isn't it simply a matter of the camera moving at the same speed as the subject? Give that a try 
check this: http://www.flickr.com/photos/drewwilsonphotography/1872799475/sizes/l
Wow !!
Now that is one cooool picture !
I've tried some panning shots, but never got any good results. It's crazy how those pros can get results like that.
Awesome effects in all these photos!!!
I think I'd fall out of the back of the car
Neon light lends itself brilliantly to good night time shots aswell....the colours in that driving shot are beautiful !
