Dirt track, practicing panning :|

[Aakajx]

Hi, in the weekend I tried practicing my panning at the dirt track. Mind you I've never done panning. Just wondering if I'm on the right track. And tips or hints will be great.

i do have other photos but these are the only two on my iPad my partner uploaded for fb :/

 

[EIngerson]

Not bad at all. I like the second one, but I would crop it a little different. No big deal though. You mind posting your exif info? My exif reader isn't picking any up on these.

 

[fokker]

Good start, but you need to drop that shutter speed down a bit, the background is still mostly recognizable, and hence detracts from the riders. I do really like the second pic though, just the way the dirt is tracking over the back tire looks great.

 

[EOV]

Hi, in the weekend I tried practicing my panning at the dirt track. Mind you I've never done panning. Just wondering if I'm on the right track. And tips or hints will be great.

Was that pun intended?

Congrats on working on something new and putting it out there for critique. They look pretty good to me but I have no experience with panning.

 

[Nibbio]

I like both of them, especially the second. Much more color density.

 

[midgeman]

Good start, but you need to drop that shutter speed down a bit, the background is still mostly recognizable, and hence detracts from the riders...

I think the SS in the second is just fine, the composition is just a little off. The first might need to slightly slower SS, but overall good job. You did well for panning as a technique. Now you just need to work on composition.

 

[lambertpix]

Now you just need to work on composition.

Right on. My favorites include eye contact if possible.

 

[xj0hnx]

Second one is the better of the two, if you could have framed the rider either dead nuts in the middle, or more to the right, it would be perfect. Are you using a monopod? Or handheld? If you're on a monopod I'd definitely experiment dropping the shutter speed to see if you can get that background to really move. But if you're hand holding, well you still did a great job but I think going slower on the shutter would be hard to keep such a clean picture of the riders.

 

[ronlane]

I have no experience trying panning. But there is one thing that I noticed. In the second picture there is a wild distortion of the rear tire. I've seen slow motion camera work of similar stuff with drag racing tires.

 

[midgeman]

I have no experience trying panning. But there is one thing that I noticed. In the second picture there is a wild distortion of the rear tire. I've seen slow motion camera work of similar stuff with drag racing tires.

I'm not so sure it's a distortion but more of an illusion. It looks as though the dirt is being pulled up the tire tread, and combined with the shadow it makes it look odd. In drag racing the rear tires are physically distorting as a result of low tire pressures.

 

[ratssass]

...i'm with ron on this one...look at the bead breaking away from the rim.

 

[Rags]

Very nice...

Shooting dirt racing with slow shutters is really tricky.

There's a lot of suspension vertical motion that can muddy the front end.

I think you're choice of SS fit the occasion and I like dirt rooster trails - it compliments the motion

Good work

Rags

 

[EIngerson]

That is actually the tire after hitting a bump. Motocross tires are inflated to very low pressures. 10 -15 lbs is around average. You can get some photos of people accelerating up the face of a jump and the tire looks absolutely flat.

 

[Gavjenks]

The pan was successful technically speaking insofar as the subject is pretty frozen, but I don't think it's a strong enough pan to begin with. If/when you are close to mastering this amount, drop to lower shutter speeds, always, until you push your personal physical ability limits as far as they can go. There is no good enough, really, until the entire background is completely blurred beyond all recognition (which is really damn hard and won't happen for awhile). It's just better and better along a continnum.

Also, unrelated point: it usually looks better if you put more empty space in front of the direction of travel of a moving subject, rather than center composition. "Give them somewhere to go"

 

[Aakajx]

Thanks all . I did get a few shots with eye contact. Mostly the younger riders. They seem to love the camera lol. Ill send the info later. I'm just holding it with my hands.. Elngerson is right the rider had 14lbs in the tire. I have a lot of pictures where the tyres look warped.