Creating a sense of speed!

     One of the reasons I badly wanted the EF-S 55-250 f/4-5.6 IS (or nifty 250 as some people are calling it) is because I am a fan of motor sports and wanted to capture images of cars whizzing past.  I'm an especially big fan of Formula 1 and have watched the Malaysian Grand Prix at the Sepang International Circuit a number of times (during the Michael Schumacher years).

     Every time I go to the race, I would take videos and photos, but I would always come home unsatisfied.  For one, the photos of the F1 cars were taken from too far away.  Another thing is that the Sony point and shoot camera that I use is just too slow to capture the action.  Whatever photos of the action that I did manage to capture is just one big blur.

     With the nifty 250, I'm able to capture images like the one below.  Notice that the picture gives you a sense of motion and speed.  The Harrier in the picture remains in focus, whilst the background is blurred, and so are the wheels.

Toyota Harrier whizzing by..  Taken with EOS 450D wearing the EF-S 55-250 IS.

EXIF: 1/30s f/5.0 ISO200 55mm (88mm @ 1.6x crop)

     So how is this achieved?  Well, here's what I did.

1. Set my camera to Tv (shutter priority)
   
2. Set shutter to 1/30
   
3. Set the AF to AI Servo
   
4. Frame the car and follow it - in the case of the photo above, I panned from left to right while consciously trying to minimize any vertical movements.  All this while, I keep the shutter pressed halfway so that the AI Servo keeps focus on the car.
   
5. Fully press the shutter release to capture the image when I feel I have a good composition.
   

     So that's how I got this picture.  You can do this with kids riding bicycles, birds flying, basically anything in motion.  However, some subjects, like kids running for instance, will likely result in the child you're trying to photograph being a bit blurred (see pic below).  This is because while the camera can 'freeze' the left to right motion, the child is also in motion up and down, hence the blur.

Not so clear because of up and down motion.  Taken with EOS 450D wearing the EF-S 18-55 IS kit lens.

EXIF: 1/30s f/8.0 ISO400 55mm (88mm @ 1.6x crop)

     So, that is how its done. Or at least, the way I managed to do it.  Again, I'm not a pro by any means, so you might want to compare notes with other photographers to see how its done.

     One final thing.  I started out this post by saying that the reason I wanted the 55-250 IS is to photograph sports cars in motion.  So how does this lens help me do it better?  Well, the key is the Image Stabilization logic that's in the lens.  The IS feature for this particular lens senses that you're panning in a particular direction, and stabilizes the axis that is not moving.  So the net effect is that it is easier to successfully capture this kind of shot.

     Until next time...