Help understanding how to shoot through fence

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D-pearce92

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Dex
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Hello all

I have seen shots taken through fences that you will never know there was a fence and i would like to know how you do it, if possible in a simple way as if you were teaching a baby :). I have heard people use av mode but wouldnt this result in no movement of the vehicle, i have heard people say they use shutter priority using speeds of 1/60 but wouldnt this result in blurs of cars because of your not panning, Im using druids at brands as an example as this the closest circuit with fences to me plus i know many people go there and take shots at that spot.

Many thanks for reading and hopefully helping me

Dex
 
The mode you use isn't important, it's the exposure settings that matter and you can get the same settings in any mode depending on how you manipulate it. Personally I almost always use manual mode so I've full control over everything.

You need to think about two things.

1) Depth of field
You want the fence as out of focus as you can get it.
Ideally you want a wide aperture setting for a narrow depth of field. You also need to be as close to the fence as possible (I do dummy pans to get myself into a position where the lens hood will very nearly touch the fence) and you want the subject to be as far away from the fence as possible so that the fence is as far outside of the in focus area of the image as possible.

2) Motion blur
The panning technique will blur the foreground as well as the background so running slow shutter speeds will reduce the visibility of the fence. Bear in mind that any bits of the fence which run parallel to your panning movement (generally the horizontal parts of the fence) won't really be affected by the motion blur so try to position them above and below your subject to reduce their impact.
 
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The other thing thats important to make the fence disapear is the light shining on the shiny metal fence... thats not good.

You need to either find a spot where the fence is in shadow (the exit side of Druids after about 11am) or make the fence not so shiny... which of course I can't condone as it is criminal damage but you see a few people at Brands with cans of black spray paint doing just that...
 
hold the lens hood up to the fence and make sure the centre of the lens is central to the hole. then zoom in far enough so that your narrow angle is inside the hole.

I0000_jKebOQV7yI.jpg


there are other ways to eliminate the fence but personally i dont do them, because although you cant see the fence on a full size image, you can often see it on the thumbnail.
 
Wow brilliant image Gary, what number would give a me wide aperture setting, sorry for the nooby question but i dont understand apperture and when i google it and look in some magazines it completely baffles me.

Many thanks for your help

Dex
 
The aperture is the f/ number, the f means focal length (the mm value the lens is set to) and the / means "over" (divided by) so the smaller the number after the f/ the wider the aperture is.

For example:
f/4 on a 200mm lens is 200/4 = 50mm
f/8 on a 200mm is 200/8 = 25mm

You should really learn the exposure settings and what they do before you start worrying about using them to do tricks like making fences disappear.
I started with this site.
 
Or a good quality DSLR with a lens that goes out to f2.8? My personal choice.

And yes, I have use BOTH methods. Wide open, high shutter speed, head on. Ultra slow stopped right down, pan. Both work. VERY different images.
 
I find that when I focus on the cars on track, the fence is barely visible anyway
 
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