Short Track Speedskating and Luge...

[drewsp75]

... last weekend, the International Luge Federation (FIL) World Cup and the US Short Track Speedskating championships were near by...

I tried blurred action with ST Speedskating... and had mixed results. Any suggestions for tack-sharp blurred-action?

[SmartWombat]

I think that first shot is good - apart from the hand placement in front of 235, and that's only bad luck.

[Photo-John]

What technique did you use? What kind of camera settings?

[drewsp75]

What technique did you use? What kind of camera settings?

Photo-John...

I was using an 80-200 f/2.8 lens at f/5, firing off with 1/80 shutter speed. ISO was at 1000. I guess I was expecting better motion blur.

[Danbaileyphoto]

Those look pretty good. You're asking alot- tack sharp blurred motion. Usually you can get one or the other. Fast shutter will get you sharp, slow and panning will get you blurred, although if you pan right, you can usually nail a section of the image that's sharper than the rest- essentially that part of the subject that is moving at the same relative speed and direction as your pan.

Also, you can help it out a bit by using a rear curtain flash. That gives you a blur and a sharp outline when the flash fires at it's short duration of around 1/1000 sec. Takes some experimenting to get the results you want, but it's the only way to combine sharp and blur in the same shot.

[cozmocha]

Any suggestions for tack-sharp blurred-action?

Photoshop can help some. I tried (I hope you don't mind) but with the small jpg files it didn't work as good as it usually does.

[SportsPhotography]

With shorttrack you want to freeze the action.
Your shutterspeed is way to low to achieve the thing what you want shutterspeeds of 1/800th would be a minimum with this explosive form of speedskating.
Although you find the picture a little bit off, you nailed it quite frankly to be honest.
You've got some movement in it and the blurred background, mainly due to the limited aperture but trust me that with speedskating/shorttrack high shutterspeeds, but this picture is one to be proud of.
Although I read the "dissapointment" about the hand, this is what shorttrack is all about.
The only thing I would like to add is that give the subject some more space ;)

[Chris350]

Also, you can help it out a bit by using a rear curtain flash. That gives you a blur and a sharp outline when the flash fires at it's short duration of around 1/1000 sec. Takes some experimenting to get the results you want, but it's the only way to combine sharp and blur in the same shot.

I wonder if short track is like luge and bobsleigh where they ban flash photography... I agree though a flash burst would stop the motion well, as would changing locations slightly so that he action is going more parallel to the plane of the pan. It's tougher to stop the subject against a blurred background when the subject is moving in two dimensions relative to the focal plane. In all the shot worked well. These take practice to get the subject to remain in the same relative position in the viewfinder throughout the pan. I usually shoot bursts when panning knowing one is going to work better than the rest. I use fill flash when ever possible too. This is an instance where VR/IS will help as well.