Hi, when i take panning shots at around 1/50 at f4 from some cars in some shot the front of the car is very sharp while the rear is just motion blurred a whole lot. at the moment i can’t make 1/40th work, i do get some good shots but this issue has persisted for the past little while. for reference i shot around 2k panning shots in that past 2 months and around 100-150 keepers.
are there any suggestions for taking better panning shots of cars like settings?
are there any tips on how to make lower shutter speeds work? specifically when you see a ridiculously smeared background(like 1/10 second shutter) on a photo is it tool assisted?
and to make sure what is a normal keeper rate for you guys so i know how much i need to improve my technique.
any help would be appreciated thanks.
The way that the camera rotates with the car as you pan will mean that the front and rear of the car dont have the same movement as you take the shot. The closer you are the more noticable this will be.
If you take the shot as its at 90 degrees to you it will have minimal effect and you can get the sharpest pan but thats not always the best composition!
Keep practicing! I dont add anything in terms of motion blur in post, this one is 1/6th
https://www.robertborowikmedia.com/portfolio/G000079ZKvWEyTgU/I0000G1fxnynYAHY
See how the car is similar level of sharpness front to rear as the car is roughly 90 degrees to the camera.
If the shot was more of a three quarter angle of the car you would see that part that I pan with sharp and the rest increasingly blurry due to the different relative angle and speed of the car in the shot like this one.
https://www.robertborowikmedia.com/portfolio/G000079ZKvWEyTgU/I0000ON_y235x_08
Thats at 1/100th but you can still see how at that angle its not phyically possible to capture the car sharp front to rear, if you see an angle like that with everything sharp its done in post and not in camera.