SS right exposure

[Roba]

Hi, I posted a race bike picture in the sport section, and some of the c&c was to use a slower shutter speed 160.
This i understand to achieve more blur and giving it a speed affect, the other thing ive read else where is "too shoot wide open".
So ive tried this shooting with a D7000 and 55-300 at 5.6, sunny day iso 100, ss 160.
The result was over exposed, so the only way i knew to get it somewhere near right was to increase the shutter speed. Or increase the aperture.
Any advice appreciated.

Rob

 

[robbins.photo]

Hi, I posted a race bike picture in the sport section, and some of the c&c was to use a slower shutter speed 160.
This i understand to achieve more blur and giving it a speed affect, the other thing ive read else where is "too shoot wide open".
So ive tried this shooting with a D7000 and 55-300 at 5.6, sunny day iso 100, ss 160.
The result was over exposed, so the only way i knew to get it somewhere near right was to increase the shutter speed. Or increase the aperture.
Any advice appreciated.

Rob

If you want the bike to be sharp but the background to be blurred, you've got couple of options. Assuming the bike is far enough away from the background increasing the aperture will work, if such is the case simply increase your shutter speed to get the proper exposure. The blurred background isn't a function of shutter speed in that case, so you can go as high as you want in shutter speed - in fact for that type of shot the higher the better. However note that the background blur will be pretty much whatever bokeh your lens generates as a result of a narrow DOF, it will just make the subject stand out from the background but probably won't give you the effect your looking for - a background that gives the impression of being blurred because of speed.

If the bike is close to the background and using a narrow DOF (Depth of field) isn't enough to blur the background for you, you can use a technique called panning - panning will give you the "motion blur" effect I think your after:

Mastering Panning - Photographing Moving Subjects - dPS

 

[Roba]

Thanks Robbins, but i was after the effect of catching the bike sharp, but keeping the back ground and the wheels blurred for that speed look. So needing that slower ss. And that's where I was struggling with the exposure.
I will check your link out
p.s I was giving it my best effort of panning, haha.

 

[robbins.photo]

Thanks Robbins, but i was after the effect of catching the bike sharp, but keeping the back ground and the wheels blurred for that speed look. So needing that slower ss. And that's where I was struggling with the exposure.
I will check your link out
p.s I was giving it my best effort of panning, haha.

Panning is tough - it's not an easy skill to master. It takes a lot of practice - so keep at it

 

[tirediron]

Panning does take a bit of skill, but the bonus is, in the digital era, it's cheap and easy; just wander down to the side of the nearest highway and spend an hour or two taking practice shots. Start with an SS of 1/100 and work your way down from there.

 

[Roba]

Thanks tirediron for the panning advice, but my question is more to do with keeping the right expouser when shooting wide open.
And a slow shutter speed, making the picture over exposed.

Rob

 

[Designer]

Thanks tirediron for the panning advice, but my question is more to do with keeping the right expouser when shooting wide open.
And a slow shutter speed, making the picture over exposed.

Rob

I'm not sure why someone suggested shooting wide open. What was the purpose of that?

 

[SCraig]

There's no "Perfect" formula, it just depends on the circumstances. You have an LCD on the back of your camera, so use it. If you aren't getting the motion blur you want then use a lower shutter speed. If you can't keep the subjects in focus use a higher shutter speed. Shooting race bikes means pointing your camera in different directions, hence different lighting conditions. The D7000 has an excellent metering system so use that.

I normally shoot motorsports in shutter priority with center-weighted metering, dial in the shutter speed I want and let the camera worry about the exposure. Alternatively, take a meter reading off of the track and use that to set your exposure. Gray asphalt meters very well.

 

[Gavjenks]

Shooting wide open will lend a little bit of an optical illusion of more speed blur, but ONLY if you already have some motion blur to begin with. I.e., out of focus motion blur looks more motiony than in focus motion blur. I assume that's what the advice was about in terms of shooting wide open. Getting overexposure when shooting wide open is just a failure of metering and is fixable by being more diligent and practice and maybe using a different mode, maybe using an ND filter (it could be that your shutter can't go fast enough in daylight to keep up, if so ND filter), nothing to do with the core concept.

The basic foundation of sharp bike, motion-blurred background is only possible one way, though, and that is panning. Well either that, or if you can get a background that is extremely contrasting with the bike (like ALL green grass), then you can treat it like a green screen and select it precisely in photoshop and add motion blur. But it's probably better practice to just get good at panning.

Some lenses have special Image Stabilization modes made just for panning - they only auto-correct in the up/down direction when you set them to that mode, making panning easier.

 

[Roba]

Scraig, that's what I was after! Real nice blurring of the wheels. My picture I couldn't get below SS of 500 without being overexposed. I will try using S next time.
Thanks guys, I am new to this so all advice appreciated.

Rob

 

[Roba]

This is the picture i got at SS 500

 

[SCraig]

... So ive tried this shooting with a D7000 and 55-300 at 5.6, sunny day iso 100, ss 160.

The old rule of thumb for sunny days was called the "Sunny 16" rule. On a sunny day with ASA 100 film (same as ISO 100) shoot at 1/100 second shutter speed at f/16. If you shot at f/5.6 you were about 3 stops overexposed.

You can't just pull numbers out of the air and decide to use them, you have to balance them with the amount of light in the shot. Just deciding that you want to use ISO 100 and 1/160 second wide open will only work when the amount of light is correct for those settings. Your camera knows how to do that, it has an excellent built-in metering system. Use that tool and save yourself a lot of missed shots.

Additionally, I never shoot wide open unless I have to. Most lenses are not as sharp wide open as they are stopped down 1 or 2 stops.

The shot I posted was taken at f/16, ISO 200, 1/200 second but I was less than 30' from the bike when it went in front of me. The closer the subject is the more difficult it is to pan with the subject and your shutter speed can still be relatively fast to give decent motion blur. As the distance increases you don't have to move the camera as fast to keep the subject in the frame and you can use a lower shutter speed while keeping the subject sharp.

 

[sk66]

You can't just pull numbers out of the air and decide to use them, you have to balance them with the amount of light in the shot. Just deciding that you want to use ISO 100 and 1/160 second wide open will only work when the amount of light is correct for those settings. Your camera knows how to do that, it has an excellent built-in metering system. Use that tool and save yourself a lot of missed shots.

Additionally, I never shoot wide open unless I have to. Most lenses are not as sharp wide open as they are stopped down 1 or 2 stops.

+2.
The only option you have when there is too much light is to add filters...A CPL will cut ~ 1stop but it may not be very effective cutting reflections if working a wide area. Or ND's...

In reality you only need to use EITHER a wider aperture OR a slower SS in order to blur the BG and provide subject separation. I would almost always choose to use a smaller/sharper aperture and a slower SS.
My ROT for choosing a panning SS is 1/subject speed (mph) and then (usually) increase from there. For motorcycles it's going to be ~ 1/250 as the ideal in most cases (because there are so many different motions in different directions).