Motion blur (not in editing)
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What does anyone think about this picture? Any tips to keep the car sharp while everything else is blurred. I’m using a Nikon D50. I believe I was on 800 ISO.
Take the picture while traveling as close to the speed of the car as you can?
I’m sure your alderman would add another couple lanes for you.
Get the car further from the background and use a wider aperture? It’s not motion blur, but it might look that way, in the dark, if you squint right.
Have him drive even closer to the background so the difference in speed is more pronounced.
Set your camera on a tripod and pan along with the car, though that might only work with telephoto lenses. I’m not sure how distorted it’ll make it look having never tried it and using only reckless conjecture.
Faster shutter speeds will lead to less blur overall – you’ll need to balance that against the desired background blur.
Pan with the car, and be sure to “follow-through” (keep tracking the vehicle for a second or two after you’ve tripped the shutter).
Practice, Practice, Practice.
in front of the car i see a patch of light, if you’d taken the pcture with the car in that light you could have shot with your lens open more
I’ve had excellent results using a red-dot gun sight to track moving photo targets. Having both eyes open and on the target makes handheld tracking intuitive.
Examples: 
The red-dot sight: 
I’ve had excellent results using a red-dot gun sight to track moving photo targets.
Yeah, that might not be such a good idea at or near government institutions. Plus, a lot of people may get quite skittish when there’s a red dot pointed at or near them. I don’t want anybody confused for an assassin.
I’ve had excellent results using a red-dot gun sight to track moving photo targets.
Yeah, that might not be such a good idea at or near government institutions. Plus, a lot of people may get quite skittish when there’s a red dot pointed at or near them. I don’t want anybody confused for an assassin.
The red-dot sight does not project a laser dot onto the target. It is a “reflex viewer”: a small red-dot is projected on a semi-transparent screen inside the sight (the black cylinder part of the image to the right of “battery”. Looking through the sight, one merely has to keep the dot on the target (which is visible through the semi-transparent screen).
Encyclopedia Galactica: that is a nifty technique! I’m going to have to move equipment from my telescope kit to my camera kit and play around
in front of the car i see a patch of light, if you’d taken the pcture with the car in that light you could have shot with your lens open more
I thought about that but I was in the TN/NC mountains and I didn’t feel comfortable standing on the edge of a 200ft or so drop off. I’ll have to keep that in mind. More light, more practice. Why can they just load the professional photographer disk into me? Oh wait this isn’t the matrix, or is it?
I don’t know nothing about (man I start a lot of posts off with this disclaimer) ISO settings. But I play a lot with shutter speed when shooting moving cars. In sunny conditions I’ll set the shutter to 1/1000 and that’ll freeze pretty much everything. From there you can experiment with available light and aperture to get the preferred amount of blur; for example, you might want the car body to be crisp but the wheels still moving, so back off that 1/1000 to 1/640 maybe.
Bear in mind you’re taking advice from what is very much still an amateur, but an amateur who can fake it pretty good.
/off to do some light reading on ISO settings
Plus, a lot of people may get quite skittish when there’s a red dot pointed at or near them.
Don’t ask how I know, but a gunsight laser (like you’re thinking of) works like crap in daylight. That’s all Hollywood drama anyway, they’re only good for a few yards before they either fade out too much or shake like crazy from your slightest movement.
A cheap little sight and a hotshoe adapter is all it takes. Align the dot in the sight with the center of your viewfinder at maximum zoom, and you’re all set.
…for example, you might want the car body to be crisp but the wheels still moving, so back off that 1/1000 to 1/640 maybe.
1/640 may be a little quick for relatively slow targets like a car. I set my shutter to 1/400, ISO80 for airshow pics and it works really well. It’s fast enough to freeze the planes but slow enough that propellers have that motion blur.
in front of the car i see a patch of light, if you’d taken the pcture with the car in that light you could have shot with your lens open more
I thought about that but I was in the TN/NC mountains and I didn’t feel comfortable standing on the edge of a 200ft or so drop off. I’ll have to keep that in mind. More light, more practice. Why can they just load the professional photographer disk into me? Oh wait this isn’t the matrix, or is it?
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