the art of the pan

One basic shot rests at the very core of motorsports photography and thats the pan, a very basic shot thats pretty tricky to do well repeatdly hit the link to lean the best way to pan.
The basic principle of the pan is that you frame the car up as it travels towards you, you click as it becomes parallel to you you then keep it in the same framing as it travels away from you. Sounds simple and once you understand it, it is.
However there are multiple factors that can have an effect in how sharp your pan is. 

• Smooth Motion - this is making sure that the horizontal path the camera takes is the same as the one the object (car takes) the more undulations that one of the other path has that isnt replicated in the other will result in a softer image.
• Parallax shift - Whoa count those A's basicly with out getting into a physic degree this is the amount of variation between back out side corner moving and the front inside corner. because the outside corner has further to travel in relation to the camera it has to move faster resulting in only part of the car being sharp.  (with me so far?) The rate of parallax decreases the closer to the parallel the two objects become. 
• Bad Motion Blur- this is where the movement of the camera  is slower or faster than thatof the object meaning that the object is burled laterally.

The great thing is that when you know what your doing these problems are a snap to fix. HEres how.

Improving your Smooth Motion

To improve the fluidness of your pan the best thing you can do is wedge the camera into your body (having a SLR or large compact really helps at this point) grip the lense in your left hand 

with your arm pointing down so your elbow is bent 180 degrees and is facing the floor. Now Pull your arm into your body press the camera into your face, not so hard that your disfigure your nose but hard enough so that it dosent wobble around. With your right hand (trigger hand) you want to keep the angle as parallel to the floor as you can (see diagram). As you pan make sure that you twist from the hips to ensure you pan at a constant hight. 

Reducing parallax shift 

This is a simple fix, always ensure that you press the trigger as the object becomes parallel to you minimizing the effect.  Also ensure that your shutter speed isn't too slow (small number i.e 1/20) otherwise you will find that the car will pass the "sweet spot" and start to move off the parallel inducing the dreadded parallax shift.  

Notice how the front and rear of the bike are not sharp but the middle is, this is caused by the shift in parallax .

Reducing incorrect Motion Blur

Motion blur is the intended out come of this exercise how ever we don't want it on the focus of the frame only the background. To insure that the object stays sharp and the background stays blury follow these simple steps.

1. As soon as the car becomes visible start tracking its movement 
2. Continue to track its movement even after you have taken the photo
3. Make sure that your shutter speed isn't too slow, each person has their own limit experiment to find yours as you become more used to following the movement and adjusting to the changing rate of execration you will find you will be able to drop to slower speeds. As a starting point for a Top Fuel dragster somewhere in the relm of 1/800 should give you a nice basis to work from. 

How to set your camera up.

The best way to set your camera up for this sort of work is to select shutter priority mode. This is where you tell the camera what shutter speed you want in fractions of a second e.g 1/250 means the shutter will be open for 250th of a second. the camera then works out what the rest of the settings should be to ensure a correct exposure. 

Once you become more familiar with the workings of your camera you can also use manual mode which will allow you so control all aspects of the camera and thus gives you more controll over how the finished image will look.

Practice is the key to constancy.

Hope thats of some help. Let me know how you get on and as always feedback is always welcome.

Technically a great pan, aesthetically its naff but skill wise this is what is possible with a little practice(click to see the full image) 

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Hot Rod 09

Christmas is nearly upon us and so is the new year. Ive just released the new calerndar hit the jump for more info
So the season has pretty much finished now so it was time to wade threw the masses of photos (most of them crap) and find the best to put into a calendar. Well Im pleased to say that its done and it can be seen here. Let me know what you think
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How to take better sports photos - Part 3

Last time out I spoke about Location, the Moment and Composition today will cover knowing your sport and safeties.
if you have not read part one or two start here
Know your sport, Know your “safeties”.
Each sport requires different techniques and calls for different angles to be used to maximize the photographic opportunities that each sport presents.

So what is a safety I hear you cry! Well put simply a safety is the shot that you know works that you know the papers like and will get published if you fail to get good action for what ever reason. Once you have your safety shots man heading ball, line out in rugby, bat on ball and so on you can then concentrate on getting interesting action packed shots, taking risks (trying something new that might not work) and generally being more adventurous and pushing your photographic skills. Sports is a game of patients you May be soaked to your skin, sat up to your knees in snow or be involved in a force 9 gale but if there is enough light and the game is carrying on its worth sticking it out as you never truly know what’s going to happen. You cold pack the camera away and be walking to the gate because your too cold and you’ve had enough when the new signing for the home team hits a perfect over the head volley and clears it into the top corner of the goal. What a moment missed!

Its also well worth getting to know the people off the pitch if you have a highly emotional coach keep a eye on him see what makes him explode with emotion and anticipate it and be ready for the shot as he throws the water-bottle back into the dug out in disgust. Also keep a eye on the fans they can really make a photo and help tell the story as well as offering a different angle to what you see on the pitch.

Sharp shots.
No one likes a soft photo, Most modern DSLR’s will give you a shutter speed of up to 1/8000th of a second some go even high. This is enough to catch pretty much everything with pint point sharpness. The general rule is that you should never hand hold a lens any slower than its relative shutter speed e.g if you was using a 300mm lens you should never hand hold any slower than 1/300th of a second. Gadgets such as Image stabilization and Vibration reduction allow you to break this to an extent but as a rule of thumb it works well.

The shutter speed needed to freeze action depends on what your shooting (this goes back to knowing your sport) how ever for football you need ideally 1/1250th of a second how ever you can get away with having anything as low as 1/500th of a second and still get sharp images depends on your technique and the type of shot your going for. If you have a head on shot of a player running towards you you can get away with a slower shutter speed than if you have a player lunging across the frame. To really maximize your abilities to get a sharp shot its worth investing in a good mono-pod to give you a stable platform to shoot from and thus reduce large amounts of camera shake

That Concludes the how to series that covers the very basics of sport photography over the course blogs dissecting shooting style and techniques will be written to help further your abilities.
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How to take better Sports Photos - Part 2

We left of part one after talking about Camera's and lighting (or the lack of) If you haven't read part one yet start HERE
Location
The most important step to achieving a good sports photograph is attaining the correct vantage point, this is often easier said than done as access is highly controlled at sporting events, more for your own safety than anything as there is nothing worse than being on the side lines at a rugby match as some 25 stone bloke gets taken into touch taking you and more importantly your £6000 camera set up with him! Its a pretty scary thing to experience. 

Sports photography is all about the bring the viewer close to the action, making them feel like there are part of the winning play. This is achieved threw selecting the right location and getting as close as possible to the action. if your lucky and get a press pass you can be on the side lines how ever positions will still be limited as you will be there with 10 or 20 other photographers all wanting the same thing. Ok so you've selected the best location to catch the best action from as close as possible, thats half the battle won the next is finding the angles that allow you to create a clean and uncluttered background.
Photo 1

Photo 2

As you can see the people in the background of photo one distract your eye and to not make for such a pleasing image as photo 2.

At major sporting venus cutter is unavoidable but it is all about how you work with it to minimize the effect it has on the image a small DoF (depth of field) helps blur the background into a creamy soup of color allowing your subject to stand out almost jumping off the page. 

The "Moment"
Spray and pray is the only way to shoot Timing and anticipation are two very important parts of sports photography. The art and skill is being able to anticipate the peak of an action and release the trigger so that you capture it. You can’t wait for the moment to happen other wise by the time your retina has seen the moment sent the information to your brain which in turn has interpreted the information and decided that you want a photo of this and sent a command to your trigger finger to take a photo, your finger has then pressed the trigger and then the camera final takes a photo by which point chances are the moments past and the shot has been lost.

By knowing and understanding your sport you are able better judge the speed at which some one (or something) is traveling and you can adjust your point of reaction accordingly (this can also help for moving out of the way of low flying cricket balls rugby players and the odd stray part of a car).
For example I’m shooting cricket using a 600mm lens and wanting a ball on bat shot. I know the bowler Is probably going to be bowling a fast ball, I know that roughly if I press the trigger as the ball hits the ground I will get a bat on ball shot(assuming that the batsman hits the ball).

Composition
Faces
A regular cry that can be heard coming from most picture desk editors offices is “give me faces!”. Faces are a key factor in a successful sports image as it is the easiest and most effective way to portray emotion. In a ideal world all your photos should have clear faces and you should be able to see the whites of there eyes to really drive home the message of what’s going on how ever this is easier said than done.

Rule of 3rds
A basic rule of all photography is the rule or thirds where you divied the frames into thirds vertically and horizontally and then place the subject at the intersection of the lines thus making the photo more interesting.

In sports the rule of thirds is a good idea. . . . Most of the time. If you are shooting a runner running right to left leave more room on the left than on the right to imply that he’s going somewhere. Shooting the frame as if hes leaving the frame is classed as poor composition and is not desirable or pleasing (try it and see what I mean).

Portrait or landscape?
Logic dictates that you are trying to fill the frame with the action and with humans being tall and thin there for the most effective way use the camera would be in the portrait position. And this works great when your trying to isolate an individual. How ever multiple people don’t fit particularly well in a portrait image with allot of empty space being waisted. So when you are trying to show conflict between two (or more) people landscape is often the best way to shoot alowing you to get as close to the action as you can with out chopping any body parts off or having too much dead space.

Part 3 comming soon!