How slow can you go?

Track day at Bira today, which means that there were around 40 bikes out on track to photograph. I enjoy these days because I am under no pressure to provide photographs, which means I can play around and not worry about how many usable shots I get.

It’s very easy to photograph a moving object if you set the shutter speed high enough. This is at 1/1600 of a second:

It’s very sharp. It is also very boring. So you have to slow down the shutter enough so the object stays sharp, but the back is blurred, like this at 1/100th of a second:

1/25 of a second may be a little too slow:

I use the track days to play around with low shutter speeds, giving a very low success rate (if your panning isn’t perfect, everything is blurred), but some pleasing shots.

I managed to get the panning just right on the next one at 1/125th. The central frame and the riders boots are pin sharp, but the rest of the bodywork and the rider are bouncing around in the very high speed corner. It’s amazing how little things like this can make me happy…

Loads to work through, but I like this next one the best; because it features more than one rider, because I got the panning right, and because it is a most excellent shade of green. Be warned, it is bigger than normal should you choose to click on it:

Anyone who has bothered to read this far may care to know: 300mm at F8, 1/250th.

Comments 🔗

2009-06-21 | Santi says

No babes?

2009-06-22 | Spike says

They were moving too fast to capture with a slow shutter speed.