NoTHiN but the TRuTH

Over the weekend I worked at a Soap Box Derby race.  I admit that I wasn't too excited about waking up at 7am to go watch a bunch of wooden cars roll down a hill.  But I'm glad that I did.  I was taken completely by surprise with how exciting and serious of a sport this is.  This was also the nicest group of people in the world!  Everyone offered me food, drinks, and sun screen (is it that obvious I need sun screen?!?).  Being that this is a serious sport, I wanted to get some serious shots.  I wanted to emphasize the speed these cars were getting.  What better way to do that than with a little motion blur?

Motion blur is a tricky thing to perfect.  Of course you can try to add it in with Photoshop later down the road, but I prefer to do as much in-camera as possible.  Plus even the experienced Photoshopper would have a hard time getting these results! These shots were not put through Photoshop at all.  I didnt even mess with the levels or contrast.  For all the photographers and hobbyists who want to learn motion blur - I'll try to explain the method I used. 

The first thing I do is set my F-stop, shutter speed, and ISO to get a proper exposure just like always.  Shutter speed is what controls movement and stop-action.  So in order to show movement in a picture you want a shutter speed that is slower than your subject.  I believe these shots were taken at about 1/50th of a second.  For faster moving objects, I may have used a slightly faster shutter speed.  So start dropping your shutter speed and remember how many steps it takes to get to 1/50th.  Then RAISE your F-Stop that same ammount of steps.  Your exposure should now look roughly the same as it did to begin with.  If not, adjust your F-stop accordingly. 

Here is the technique for firing the shot.  I got nice and low on the ground for a good angle.  The subjects were coming down the hill from my right to my left.  This is the hard part... you want to pan with the subject while the shutter is open.  Its important that you pan at the same speed and the same direction that the subject is passing you.  This is very tricky and although you see 3 good images here, I took several pictures that did not come out.  The more accurate your panning, the clearer the subject is.  In the first two images, I was focusing on the car furthest from me.  In the first image, its almost perfect.  Even the small text on the car is in focus.  The second image is not quite as accurate, but still very good.  When you're panning its important that you move ONLY in the direction the subject is moving, or you end up with unwanted camera movement.  Funny right?  You ARE moving the camera, but you dont want to move it in the wrong direction.  So remember, practice takes perfect.  And luckily with the digital era, practice isnt very expensive!   To see the rest of the images I took, go to

http://www.photostockplus.com/home.php?tmpl=43&user_id=33487&album=148856