le and it covers
this is a good article i found about motorsports photos...its made for cars and road racing, but I'm guessing the points would be about the same
http://www.ephotozine.com/techniques/viewtechnique.cfm?recid=88
Very good article and worth printing and reading because it has so many good points.
Let me put emphasis on some of them with a little additional information.
Panning, don't stop after you take the picture. Keep following the subject. It's just a matter of smooth and not jerky shots. It will make a difference.
He didn't mention shooting with both eyes open. After awhile it's not as strange as it seems. Where this comes in handy is watching the approach of a car (or anything else) with your wide angle left eye and then close-up with your tighter crop right eye.
Anyone who has shot trap or skeet knows both of the above work. :thumbup:
His article is about film, but otherwise it fits well.
You can shoot a fast shutter speed and stop everything, which can be nice if you have a desire to freeze time. You give up extended depth of field, except in very bright Sunlight.
You can shoot a middle speed like 1/125-500 while panning and stop almost everything except things that are moving very fast, gain a little depth of field for focus range.
Shoot something slower than 1/125 and pan, which will get you more depth of field for the subject you are following, and blur the background which makes it less distracting. Since you are trying to pan at the same speed as the subject, you will get more rejects. But when you hit one right, it's really a nice effect.
I tend to just stick with
ISO 200 as my starting point and try to stay there and match my style of shooting to that. I want sharp and if it's possible, I don't want to worry about noise. Of course if it's darker outside, that's not an option.
I do use a monopod for panning, whenever possible and have a Canon IS lens set to mode II. Since you can set the point you want to be shooting in advance, you know the range.
I liked his 3 P's! :mrgreen:
Pre-focus
Pan
Pray
(Practise)
Did he include "HAVE FUN" !