Ian A Nichols wrote:
>I really must practise my panning!
Panning. Hmmm. Every time I've been to a race day I've found that it takes
at least half a roll to get that smooth, gentle swinging of the hips
(ooh-er!) back into sync with the bikes. It's not easy. The guys who do it
well use up a *lot* of film. They also practise regularly. IMO the required
shutter speed depends on how large they are in the frame, how fast they are
moving relative to your position, and to some extent, how long the lens is.
I find 1/125th is minimum with the 65-200, and 1/250th with the 400mm.
1/500th is a better bet, but you might be running out of apertures by then
if it's not so sunny. Of course, you could always dip to 1/30 or so and tell
everyone you're going for high art. When it works the 'impressionist' blur
of a good, smooth blurred shot is as rewarding as a pin-sharp one. Some of
my favourite race shots have quite a significant amount of blur. There is
one of World Superbike racer Scott Russell on this page:
http://www.v-four.freeserve.co.uk/castrol.htm
There are some of my own (panned) bike shots here:
http://www.mawddwy.freeserve.co.uk/bikes.htm
They are the few successes in a whole pile of near-misses. Keep trying.
Simon E.
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