Slow panning in bright sunshine

ukaskew

ukaskew

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Chris
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As I attend Castle Combe so often I love messing around and trying different things. Through a serious amount of practice I'm consistently nailing some pretty slow panning speeds (i.e. 1/30) on very fast sections of circuit whilst still keeping a good section of the car in sharp focus.

That's all well and good, but on really bright sunny days (yes, we do get a few!) it becomes very challenging to actually get the shutter speed down that far without completely blowing out a shot. On dreary overcast days 1/15th has given me some pretty nice results, but on days such as today 1/30 seems to be the absolute limit, and even then that gives a very washed out shot that is only borderline salvageable with some image editing to bring the colours back to life.

Sample Image at 1/30th - underneath the haze the car is actually reasonably sharp, but shutter speeds any slower completely blow out any detail on the car.

Has anyone tried an ND filter? Unfortunately my filter size is 105mm so they're not easy things to borrow (or cheap to buy!) so I've no idea if that would work or what the side effects may be. I'm at the absolute limit of aperture (f40 with my Sigma I think) and ISO so in-camera I can't see anything else I can try.

I can't think of any other options, apart from not messing around with silly shutter speeds on bright days of course!
 
Have you considered finding a faster place on the circuit for panning shots? If the cars are going faster you'll get more blur at the same shutter speed.

If you get a genuinely neutral ND filter (i.e. one that doesn't cause a colour cast) there shouldn't be any side effects in photos at all. It'll be a bit dimmer in the viewfinder and there'll be less light for the autofocus system but if it's full sunlit day anyway it shouldn't matter.
You could also consider using a polarising filter as they tend to cost in the region of two stops of light (in my experience), but obviously they do have other effects.
 
I second the CP idea, works well on the highly reflective surfaces of a car.
 
If you're really shooting at f/40 then diffraction is going to be making a big negative impact on IQ. No matter how skillful your panning you will not get a properly sharp shot at f/40 on a DX body. Personally I would not want to stop down below f/16 as a maximum, preferring f/11 or brighter if possible.

Also, if you're a spectator and on the wrong side of catch fencing you might have a job to make the fencing disappear at f/40 with a shorter lens and the cars close to you. I've bought an ND8 (3 stop) filter to help with this exact challenge, although so far I've not had the chance/need to put it to the test. I do think it's the right way to go. A CPL will only lose between 1.3 and 2 stops max, depending on brand and the light. 2 stops would only get you to f/20 instead of f/40. I think an extra stop of filtration could be worth having, to get you down to f/14 or so.

As mentioned, a CPL can bring other advantages in cutting reflections and enriching colours.
 
ND filters all the way.

CPL's cause problemos a plenty with the plastics used on proper racing vehicles.

ND is cheaper too!

105mm might be slightly more pricey than my fist full of 77's though....
 
Its a difficult one Chris. Its a problem i can familiarise with as my recent addition of a 17-40 will only go down to F22, so i cant get down to the slow shutter speeds i wish to on bright days.

ND filters should be the answer, unfortunately i haven't got around to trying this theory yet.

Maybe just shoot 'fast' shutter speeds like 1/50th (i know thats fast for you!)

See you at Thruxton this weekend?
 
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