I need your help with panning

[minicoop1985]

I'm trying to nail this down before racing season starts. Anyway, here's the deal. I can't get the WHOLE car in focus while I pan. I can get the front/middle or middle/rear in focus, but not the whole thing. I'm trying to avoid the standard profile shot-I find a little angle to be visually pleasing, but I know they're actually relatively easy to get right compared to what I'm trying to do. Here's some examples to show what I mean:

IMG_9799 by Michael Long, on Flickr

IMG_9818 by Michael Long, on Flickr

IMG_9843 by Michael Long, on Flickr

EXIF data should be on the Flickr pages (1/80, but I at some point accidentally bumped it to 1/100), but for the Silverado I turned on the VC on my 70-200.

 

[Stradawhovious]

I'd say those look pretty danged good!

you do need to clean your sensor something fierce though...

 

[runnah]

I try to go with the non stick for larger pans and cast iron for more of the traditional frying pan.

 

[robbins.photo]

Ok, looks like your lens is stopped down so next thing I'd look at would be panning speed. The shots look pretty darn good already so you probably aren't looking at a huge improvement overall, but the way I do panning shots on vehicles, I pick an identifiable portion such as the door handle, line up with that, and try to pan at such a rate as it stays inside my focus point while I pan, then hit the shutter.

It's by no means perfect but it's the best method I've found when panning. Shutter speed and distance from target will always play a factor so really all you can do is practice a whole ton.

 

[Watchful]

Turn off horizontal vr and just use panning vr if any.

 

[minicoop1985]

I try to go with the non stick for larger pans and cast iron for more of the traditional frying pan.

LOL

Turn off horizontal vr and just use panning vr if any.

This lens only has one VR/IS/VC mode. I WISH I had sprung for the Canon now that I've used it for real panning, but on a ball head and monopod (with another ball head foot thing on bottom), I don't think it really made much difference.

And yes, I desperately need to get my sensor cleaned. I tried doing it myself, to no avail, so it's time to give up the $50 and have it done.

 

[manaheim]

They look pretty good to me. I'd say it's nearly impossible to dead-on nail an image like this short of putting a rig on the car itself or tracking alongside at the exact speed.

Especially when you consider while the car is moving in a (relatively) straight line, YOU are TURNING, which changes your distance from the car in minute ways (Depending on the distance from the car, of course).

Add camera shake, yadda yadda.

 

[Watchful]

With all the freeway shootings that happen these days, I wonder what these people think if and when they notice a scope looking thing pointed at their car...

As for panning, this might help you some. LINK

 

[SCraig]

You'll never get dead-on perfect because the methods are self-defeating.

Think about it. You pan with a subject so you can use a relatively slow shutter speed to allow the background to blur. More specifically, you're panning horizontally with the subject (in the case of motor vehicles). The vehicle is, however, bouncing up and down slightly unless the road is absolutely pancake smooth and the vehicle isn't accelerating or decelerating. The only way to stop simultaneous horizontal AND vertical motion is by using a fast shutter speed which violates the purpose of panning. Hence self-defeating.

I have that problem a lot with drag cars. The front is always rising, the rear is always squatting, so I get motion blur on the ends on a lot of shots even though the middle is in focus.

 

[Derrel]

I'm trying to nail this down before racing season starts. Anyway, here's the deal. I can't get the WHOLE car in focus while I pan. I can get the front/middle or middle/rear in focus, but not the whole thing. I'm trying to avoid the standard profile shot-I find a little angle to be visually pleasing, but I know they're actually relatively easy to get right compared to what I'm trying to do. Here's some examples to show what I mean:

IMG_9799 by Michael Long, on Flickr
EXIF data should be on the Flickr pages (1/80, but I at some point accidentally bumped it to 1/100), but for the Silverado I turned on the VC on my 70-200.

It is not "focus" that is the issue...look at how far away you are from these vehicles...you have PLENTY of depth of field....so it's not "focus" that is the issue--but as SCraig mentioned, it's the vehicles' own actual, real, normal, natural, expected movement that is being recorded! Panning is designed to create a visceral feeling of speed, of movement, of travel across distance, across a bit of time...expcting that the entire vehicle be tack-sharp, as if shot with a high-speed burst of flash is...not what panning is really all about. This is a perfectly fine panning shot: look at how seamlessly smooth and straight the yellow line appears!

 

[minicoop1985]

Thanks for the help, everyone. I think I'll just try to get it as in focus/not blurred as possible so that reasonable sized prints don't really show the blur.