Snetterton BTCC

[d4v3y]

First time shooting moving vehicles and got a few tips on panning...unfortunately most of the pictures I took the car was blurred. Below is one of what I consider, the better shots.

basically i want to know about the position of the car, is it sharp enough and how can I improve next time?

Camera Model: Canon EOS 1000D
F-Stop: f/20
Exposure Time: 1/125 sec
ISO Speed: ISO 200
Focal Length: 300mm

Edit: Here's the link to the image on Flickr.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/52926439@N06/4880321734/

[LigouriRd]

It took me quite a bit of practice to be able to keep the car in frame and still enough for it to be sharp.

I typically pick a zoom level and pick a car to do a test pan. Follow the car from further down on the track, depress the shutter half way to get the camera to focus on the car, and keep the car near the center of the frame so the camera can continually focus as the car gets closer. Follow though the pan as the car arcs out of view. If the car fills the frame too much or gets hard to follow I reduce the zoom and try again. When I take the actual photo I follow through the motion again as the shutter closes. I have a lot of delay between fully depressing the shutter and the actual photo so the follow through is the most important. A lot of my shots I have to go and re-crop but since i am taking them at high resolution it makes little difference.

You could also try a faster shutter speed, but that will impact the background blur.

My $.02

[sk66]

I think the image is good.. plenty sharp, at least at this resolution.
I find I get the best results using my monopod while panning...I like to get a lot of background blur.. I don't think there was a need to go to F/20 unless you were trying to get a slower shutter speed... to get this image at 1/125 w/ 300mm freehand is pretty good.. and probably why most images were blurred.