How to shoot moving cars?

ckrieg · Dec 4, 2006

^ wow! That pan is incredible! exif info? how fast were they driving?

bitteraspects · Dec 4, 2006

if i had to guess, id say at least the speed limit. (45+)

shot at 1/30 (or 1/60, i forget)
f/2.2

xfloggingkylex · Dec 4, 2006

the photo's from the original post are all photochopped, the blue 350 being the worst of them all.

Basically he is in another car that has a platform so he can get low for the shots. The speed match it at a relatively slow speed (just enough to get that solid look on the rims) and then he photoshops the blur and all the other crap into the shot. The 350 definitely looks like photoshop blur.

It doesn't take much speed if you pan well enough and post process to make up for the rest.

http://i7.tinypic.com/2115tfn.jpg

this shot was taken David Seale on Newtiburon.com. IIRC he got his setup with the tripod on the door, set the delayed shutter and pushed the car to get that blur. Thats a 3 second exposure at about 5mph, so I figure if the guy can pan well, a shot somewhat like that could be accomplished at 10-15mph with post processing picking up the slack. The huge blur that is in all his pictures is fairly unrealistic, since they'd need to be going closer to 100 to achieve results like that.

nice pictures though.

EDIT another picture of overdone PS work is the picture taken from the back of the EVO of the blue STi. He either rigged the tripod on the EVO, or they werent even moving. I'd lean more towards not moving because the vibrations of the car going over the little curb would be enough to make the STi blurry as can be.

ckrieg · Dec 14, 2006

xfloggingkylex said:
Basically he is in another car that has a platform so he can get low for the shots. The speed match it at a relatively slow speed (just enough to get that solid look on the rims) and then he photoshops the blur and all the other crap into the shot. The 350 definitely looks like photoshop blur.

It doesn't take much speed if you pan well enough and post process to make up for the rest.

http://i7.tinypic.com/2115tfn.jpg

this shot was taken David Seale on Newtiburon.com. IIRC he got his setup with the tripod on the door, set the delayed shutter and pushed the car to get that blur. Thats a 3 second exposure at about 5mph, so I figure if the guy can pan well, a shot somewhat like that could be accomplished at 10-15mph with post processing picking up the slack. The huge blur that is in all his pictures is fairly unrealistic, since they'd need to be going closer to 100 to achieve results like that.

nice pictures though.

EDIT another picture of overdone PS work is the picture taken from the back of the EVO of the blue STi. He either rigged the tripod on the EVO, or they werent even moving. I'd lean more towards not moving because the vibrations of the car going over the little curb would be enough to make the STi blurry as can be.

That's what I thought too... but if you look at the picture I posted from the NSX, Integra Type R, and the Silver BMW, you'll notice that they are all turning. So the picture can't be taken from another car because the speed and turn radius would have to be matched perfectly. So I would assume that a rid is used with a wireless remote, and then edited out.

Yes, he does do an awful lot of editing. It even says so in his bio.

kemplefan · Dec 14, 2006

they look like they were shot form below the door handle, so yea seems like a rig would do it, in the new populat scient there was a screen to attach to your dslr so you get a live preview

Mad_Gnome · Dec 14, 2006

A couple of those vehicles (like the BMW and the Integra) probably aren't even moving. All of the blurred motion effects can be added in PS later.

Nurd · Dec 15, 2006

maybe the cars arn't moving at all. Maybe he takes shots of the background blurrs them or do whatever then takes pics of the cars and puts them in the shot...with ps anything is possible

castrol · Dec 15, 2006

The turning shots are definitely done with a rig. The shutter is opened, the car
is pushed in a circle creating the effect. And an awesome one it is. This has
been beat to death over at accessphoto.com

Xmetal · Dec 15, 2006

Rig shooting is still a black art and a lot of the pro shooters are very protective of their rig designs but it's not that hard to do if you're prepared to do some thinking and you too can create your own rig.

I've been there and done it all before, only I used a very basic set up.

I did these ages ago now...I guess I should have another go sometime soon since it's been a long time between drinks.