newbie!

[barra]

How's it goin?I'm new here and thought I would introduce myself.My name is Barra from Ireland and recently aquired a Canon Eos 500D.Just started messin around with my camera takin a few shots of my friends car for a calender and soon realized how much fun it can be and was hoping to take things to the next level.I would say I'm still only in the experimental phase of photography and not sure what works and what does'nt.

I do have a question though,has anybody got any tips on panning without a tripod?I'm goin to a car show in two weeks where there will be pro-drifters and would really like to get some nice shots.

I've added a photo from said photoshoot and would love to get some feedback on it.Thanks for reading.

[Pete28]

Hello and welcome!!! I am a beginner also and have found some great information on the board. The one thing they may ask you to do is to post your picture in the critique section of the forums. This way it is all about feedback for you and your shot. If you have pictures to show like the one you included for feedback that is the only place they will critique it for you. Again welcome aboard and look forward to some more car pictures!!

Pete

[barra]

Cheers pete

[Doug Sundseth]

On panning: Generally, what you want is practice.

When you're practicing, you'll want to start your pan before you press the shutter release and continue it past the end of the exposure. You'll probably want a continuous focus mode set on your camera, so that you can start focusing early in the pan and have a good focus when you press the release. Finally, you'll want a shutter speed that is short enough that you can get the subject sharp enough, but long enough that you can motion-blur the background and the wheels to get a feeling of movement.

The shutter speed you choose will depend on how good your panning technique is, how fast the subject is moving, how close you are to subject and background, and exactly what look you're going for, so it's kind of hard to suggest a specific speed. (That's one of the big reasons you'll want to practice.)

HTH

[RichardTaylor]

@barra

You may find this panning tute (on this site) helpful.

Panning: Motor sport

[bdbolin]

Welcome to the forum! Your attached image is pretty awesome, but these are my suggestions: Be aware of the first point of focus that a viewer will see. It looks like that image was HDR, or just highly edited, but regardless, the top left corner is much brighter thus affecting the point of focus.

My eye went directly to the top left, even before looking at the car.

Sweet image, don't take any of this the wrong way! Forums are to critique, not criticize!

As to panning, try resting your elbow on a stable object and pivot upon it. Take a deep breath, hold it, shoot/pan, and then exhale... just like a pro sniper. haha. When you are panning, make sure the focus point is on the same position on the object (such as the front headlight of a car) throughout the panning.

Cheers, and good luck!