Motion in R/C Car Photos

[bkdonnelly]

I stepped up from a Minolta X-370 to a Canon D30 about a year ago, and still feel like I have just started my learning. I primarily take pictures of soccer and marching bands, all for fun. I stopped by an R/C car race the other day and happened to have my camera with me. I used my Canon F4 70-200 and positioned myself at the corner of the track, about 10-20 feet from the main line so I could get cars negotiating turns as well as making passes at near top speed. Much to fix I know, but I'm interested at the moment with correcting the blur - or lack of it. These cars go *very* fast (modified class 1/10th scale electrics), but my sad pictures eliminate any sense of motion. I had hoped to see that the car would be crisp and bright (a problem for another day), and the wheels and background would be blurred. I panned as each car made its pass, but I didn't get the background blur that I wanted. Speed was set to 1600 - probably way too fast, right?

So what would you recommend for me to achieve my goal of a crisp car body, but a strong sense of how fast these things go?

[SunnySideUp]

I not the pro in the group and am just learning, so I do a lot of playing. You are going to have to get to no more than 1/250... If I were you, I would take the same shot 10 times, each time stepping down when you review your photos. That way you can see the difference. When I do bicycles, I run the range from 1/250 to 1/60.

[SmartWombat]

So what would you recommend for me to achieve my goal of a crisp car body, but a strong sense of how fast these things go?

Slower shutter speed, and slower ISO setting will help.
My picture is at ISO 64. 1/80 second, f11
That meant I had to do just as with a real car picture, pan with the model while shooting.
That's how I got the blurred background and the model sharp, while having some blur in the wheels too so that you get a sense of motion.
Does it work?

I just cropped this down in a hurry to give you an example. I shot it much wider, and you can see the reflection of the car on the wet tarmac.

[bkdonnelly]

Slower shutter speed, and slower ISO setting will help.
My picture is at ISO 64. 1/80 second, f11
That meant I had to do just as with a real car picture, pan with the model while shooting.
That's how I got the blurred background and the model sharp, while having some blur in the wheels too so that you get a sense of motion.
Does it work?

I just cropped this down in a hurry to give you an example. I shot it much wider, and you can see the reflection of the car on the wet tarmac.

Excellent, this is exactly what I was looking for! I'll give it a go this weekend - they're racing again on Sunday.

[SmartWombat]

You're welcome.
What you learn on the small cars will apply to their bigger cousins too.

You may well want/need to increase shutter speed up to 1/125 second for the faster cars.
That was obviously not a racing car !

I've got Jordan F1 cars in various scales, as well as lots of smart cars.
You've given me an idea ... I'm wondering about using r/c cars to practice panning for real racing.

[Ouvinen]

You might want to try some slow sync flash too. You get pretty close so reach shouldn't be a problem.. Here's one pitlane shot with slow sync. Should work with R/C cars too...

[bkdonnelly]

Here's what I came up with this weekend. Set the D30 for 100ASA (as low as I can go), shutter at 1/125, and aperature set at 14. I shot about 150 pictures, with probably 10% or less coming out as keepers, but I'm pretty happy with that. The big problem was learning to pan well, but I got better as the races went on. The slow sync flash example looks terrific - may have to try that too.

[bkdonnelly]

Shot again this weekend at a regional race nearby. Camera set for 1/125, aperature at 13, ASA at 400 (very overcast day). Getting better at panning, I'm up to about 20% usable photos. Thanks all for your help - your advice was exactly what I needed.