So, first off, let me tell you a bit about the gear I used, before I tell you what my plan was.

Gear

Camera Body used lens

Nikon D5300 set to shoot in raw
Sigma 105mm f/2.8 Macro prime lens

Conditions

Sunny/ overcast - so, loads of light
Fast cars
Audience in front of me

Post production

Adobe Lightroom

The plan:

So every year I go to a Formula one race with a few of my best friends. This is the second year I brought my DSLR and I learned tons of stuff since I've taken photos last year. This time I wanted to try something new and special (to show my friends) and put my focus on panning shots of the cars.

Cars racing past you, with a whopping speed of approximately 280 km/h, that is!

So. What were my expectations. Zero. To be honest. I had no clue what to expect, so I just started playing with the shutter speed and tried to pan -as good as humanly possible- on our grandstand.

My first shot was so blurry! I was bummed out that it seemed so hard to nail it perfectly. Maybe I did expect it to be a bit easier.

Since I try to shoot exclusively in manual mode, because I have a bit of experience on how to balance the settings, I made it pretty difficult for myself.
Every time the cars went by I needed to re-tweak my settings after seeing a failed result (to read later that month; that the Shutter and Aperture priority modes do a lot of stuff FOR you but leaving the rest to the user to figure out).

For reference. And to visualize what the differences are. This first shot, A McLaren with a shutter speed of 1/125, aperture f/9 and ISO 100. Nicely frozen and with a little movement in the back on the Fly Emirates sign.

Playing with panning - image 1 - student project

Happy as I was with my results. I tasted blood and I wanted more of it. So I pushed my shutter speed a bit 'further' (lower actually).

This time, since we sat in front of the pit lane all the time, I tried my luck with a shutter speed of 1/100, f/13 and ISO 100 on a car leaving after a pitstop (to compensate for the slower shutter speed I changed the aperture from f/9 to f/13).

The result:

Playing with panning - image 2 - student project

Look at the people! They look so deformed and the DHL sign adds something to the speedy-feeling. BUT... The car is frozen solid. Yes!!

So these results show that with practice, this panning is actually doable. Next stop. Pushing harder on that shutter speed.

1/80 (f/16 (again changed to compensate for the amount of time I let light in) and ISO 100).

Playing with panning - image 3 - student project

This Ferrari almost blends in with the Fly Emirates signs. For as far as you can read the text on it. Can you tell how much people there are in the back? Right!! It's really difficult to tell them apart.

Now I'm pretty pleased -as a Dutchman- I got Max Verstappen on a shot that really worked out with even a lower shutter speed; 1/60 (f/16 and ISO 100).

Playing with panning - image 4 - student project

A mere 60th of a second I left the mirror up to freeze the moving car, but panning with it to make sure you can actually tell it is a vehicle :-).

When you look closer you can see the front of the car looks really good (it's not perfect). The rear however looks a bit shaky. I don't know exactly how that happened. It could be the forces the car is exerting on the asphalt it could be me turning the camera slightly because of the panning.

Anyway. Back home, when I browsed through all my shots I was pretty pleased with the results. Of course it's not professional work, but I could show my friends some really impressive photos that differ from the most shots people take.

All these photos have been retouched with Adobe Lightroom. So yes, some look different in colour then others. That's something I'm still toying around with. So mostly it's on purpose.

As a bonus I also found this -you could say, failed- shot of Max Verstappen and Kimi Räikkönen. When they left for the start they battled for their spots to go into the first turn. Obviously I was just starting and totally unprepared. But I think I like this shot the best. Why?

Shutter speed: 1/80
Aperture: f/9
ISO: 100

Playing with panning - image 5 - student project

...Because it's awesome in colouring, it has good contrast, it shows speed, sparks -need to say more- and it is actually telling a story in comparison to the other shots. This one makes you wonder which one of the cars won this little duel.

I added this last shot to show everybody that luck (or be it skill when you do this more often) can yield you shots which look far from perfect, because they're out of focus or something, still can be perfect in their own right. Because they add a certain feeling to it.

Hope you all liked this story and explanation of my p(l)an. If you want to know how I editted or cropped my photos, let me know. I'm more than willing to help you out!

- Jeff

Jeffrey Hoorns

Graphic designer

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