Trackday photos

[armando_m]

Original post in the help section, posting here by suggestion of smartwombat, hope you do not mind the repost.

This is my first time with a DSLR on a sports event,
getting the photos of moving subjects is quite harder than I initially thought
panning while close to the cars is a bit unnatural as I have learned with time, avoiding blurry pictures, that when you press the shooter the camera has to be still, on my attempts being close to the track I got many photos of half of the car

Here are the photos from the help section along with smartwombat comments:
#1

A few notes:
Black Audi: 1/500 shutter speed is a little too fast for good background blur, they're just not driving fast enough

you are right, they might be doing 100km/h tops

#2

Blue Audi 3/4 front: I'm surprised you have such a small DoF at f/11, shutter speed is about right for their speed here, though slower would be better.

I was using a polarizer filter, completely forgot it was on, checked the original photo for the focus point, I had it on far edge of the front bumper, right below the head light, additional blurriness maybe due to me zooming out as the car was approaching , I was doing to many things at the same time

#3

Red (golf?): Now it's getting difficult. Your pan was timed perfectly for the front wheel, you can see the hub is sharp. This is where you can get great effects!
When they're close the panning speed (angular velocity if you get technical) is very high and you need to practice, practice, practice to get it right.
Pick an off-centre focus point, and nail the driver's head with it and let the front and rear of the car blur away. Or as you've done here use a focus point right on the edge and pan on one of the front wheels, with a very slow shutter speed it's great for dramatic pit stops.

yup a 1985 Golf , which was as fast as the 1.8 turbo VW with it's normally aspirated engine. This was a "lucky" shot, the only complete car I got while standing near the track.
On this one I had the focus point on the front fender.

#4

Blue Audi side on: Well done! You can tell the panning speed is right because the wheel centres are sharp and the spokes are equally blurred all round the wheels.

Thanks !! On the previous photos I had the focus point toward the front of the car/one side of the visor, on these photo I decided to have the focus point right in the middle, zoom out a bit more and crop in PP, allowing me to pan the car more easily, this produced better results than trying to fill the visor with the cars.

Thanks for the comments!!

Here are a few more photos:

[Jimmy B]

For your first outing shooting moving subjects I wouldn't be unhappy with them. There is so much to play with with moving subjects, Keep at it !
Jimmy B

[armando_m]

Thanks for the comments

I was thinking on practicing on the side of the road, I do not need to wait until the next event

[SmartWombat]

Yeah, though be ready to answer questions about why you're photographing them.