Panning in motocross

[mxfarsa]

some of my first panning photos, i´m not sure about this but have a look and tell me what you think.

first one:


second:


Exif for these photos are:
1/60
between f14 and f16
shutterpriority mode
iso 100
focal: 108 mm
no flash

now correct me if i´m wrong. I am trying to train on many aspects. I am trying to find out if my photos is technically good or if I am doing it bad... Remember i am still learning and i am by no means a pro. So i am looking for pointers from all in this good community.

//have a great day/night everyone! mxfarsa

[drummingpariah]

Only photo #1 is showing up for me, but I'd suggest that you speed up the shutter speed slightly. 1/200 or 1/250 will offer a good sense of action while capturing the details of the bike/rider effectively.

[mxfarsa]

Thank you for your input, I will try to speed up the shutter and see. I´m not sure why the other photos don´t show but if you click the photo, you will be taken to my flickr page.

My startpoint for motocross photographing is f/5.6 640 iso 100 if the speed is fast and the weather is sunny. I usually end up with a shutter of 500, my main thing is to try and have the photo sharp but not freeze the wheels.

Here is another photo when I tried panning, from the same day and same exif:

[APhotoSchool]

The second shot your posted is much better. I would possibly slow shutter down a bit more even, and set the camera on a monopod or tripod to pan smoothly.

One piece of advice for panning come's from golf: Alway's follow through! Start panning well before you click the shot and keep panning after. Otherwise there will be a halt in the exposure that will ruin the sharpness.

Keep up the great work!

[mxfarsa]

Thank you for the input, next time I will try to slow it down and I need my monopod for stability.

It is a really nice and useful website you got for us action junkies

//mxfarsa

[JFSanders]

Keep both eyes open if you can. It will help you to track the rider. I shoot FTR races and the uneven light is my biggest problem as they don't like you using flash.

Jim

[mxfarsa]

I am shooting with both eyes open, and yes the uneven light and the no flash policy is not so funny for us - good for safety of the riders, but I dont know how much a flash will disturb a 100% focused rider..

When I started to photograph, I was run down by a motocross just because I was not looking with both my eyes. If I had looked with both eyes I would have seen him come (he went of the track, and in to me). Nothing worse then minor bruisers luckily for me, so I learned the hard way to have both my eyes open all the time

[MOmilkman]

as someone mentioned eariler keep your shutter speed low. 1/60 is good and 1/50 is better. But I wouldn't go much lower than that.
Take LOTS of shots. The majority of them with not be clear in the area you want it to be but every once in a while you will get one thats perfect. Most panning action shots involve a sport that repeats so if your trying to take a picture of a guy on a dirt bike coming back past the same point repetadly you will have several opportunities to nail it.

Other advice:

If you have a lens that has IS or VR. Turn it off. This will serioulsy hinder your panning technique as the camera is looking to reduce blur but you want the BG to be blurred. IS or VR will not help you here.

Use center weighted metering. So your exposure will be correct with the rider. it might not be in the BG but that is ok.

Heres a few of mine from a couple years back that I was pretty happy with. I haven't done it in a long time but would like to do it again. One thing that I've found hard about panning MX is getting the face of the rider in the shot because the rider is in front of you before it is the right time to snap the shot so you can get the nice blurred BG.

p.s. You don't need flash to accomplish a nice pan but sometimes it helps. I've never heard of flash being banned from MX as the riders say they never see it.

Happy shooting!


Exposure 0.017 sec (1/60)
Aperture f/20.0
Focal Length 70 mm
ISO Speed 800
Exposure Bias 0 EV
Flash Off, Did not fire


(lost my EXIF data on this one)

[mxfarsa]

Thank you for these helpful pointers, in sweden they generally don´t say much about flashes either but the lights are usually good enough. I am going to train on this panning technique and hopefully get some nice shots.

I´m trying to become better at photography - for the future
//thank you mxfarsan