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- Simon
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Congrats on your technique then, it's not easy getting anything sharp at 1/30. Personally I need more practice.
I think my problem is I don't stand close enough, so I'm using too long a focal length which makes it all the more difficult. I agree the high aperture isn't ideal. I was at Oulton a couple of weeks ago for the NSSCC (one of which cars your shot features) and the sun was so bright then I couldn't have got the shutter speed down to 1/30 regardless of aperture!
I was thinking a polarising filter would give about the right amount of light absorption whilst improving contrast, so will give it a shot when I'm down at Croft for the next race in the championship.
Polarisers can do some pretty strange things to cars running with Perspex or other lightweight glass alternatives, producing a strange rainbow effect. In my opinion, unless your shooting road cars they're best avoided. With the right ND filters, I can shoot as low as 1/5s and still keep the aperture below f8
750 Motor Club at Croft Circuit by Simon Harrison, on Flickr
However, panning at anything below 1/100s takes a lot of practice and things get exponentially harder as the shutter speed drops. As far as image stabilisation is concerned, I've always felt it was just fighting against me when panning quickly rather than doing any real good.
All my shooting is from the public areas. You don't need to fill the frame. In fact IMHO the best shots don't, and in many instances have an (slightly) abstract feel to them.
Cheers,
Simon.