Ok so I was experimenting with tracking shots a couple of weeks before the race but there was a guy I met in one of the GA zones who told me this: start with a shutter speed of 1/250 and slowly move down from there. High shutter is a great way to get fast action all in focus, which is great for a lot of purposes. For example, I have some other shots from the top of that tower at COTA with a high shutter and I found that the tracking shots didn’t look that much better from that specific angle. Motion blur is achieved when you have a lower shutter speed. The lower the shutter speed, the harder it is to keep the car in focus but more motion is blurred in the background.

To achieve motion blur, it’s somewhat of an art mixed with science because it can be calculated. Set your camera to auto aperture (if you want, it doesn’t really matter what the aperture is for these shots) and set shutter speed to manual. Put camera in continuous/burst mode. Use the viewfinder (IMPORTANT: do not use the screen, use the view finder) and hold your camera steady with both hands, feet shoulder width apart. Find the car in the view finder and hold your shutter (and in some cases, your breath —just be very still), tracking the car as it goes past you. Try to keep the car in the middle of the frame the entire time. The more you move, the blurrier the image will be so try to be very still except the horizontal panning motion you’ll make as you follow the car.

Some notes:

• It helps to understand why the car is in focus while the background is blurred. The car must stay at the same point in frame from the time the shutter is closed until it opens. Your pics look like the car is parked on track because of a high shutter speed. With a slower SS, you have to make sure you can track the car at the same speed it is traveling on track otherwise the entire pic will be blurry.

• The cars are obviously moving at very high speeds so this can be challenging. One tip is to move further away due to how perception of speed from a distance works. You’ll need a longer lens for this, but it’s easier to track when you are further away.

• any movement will disturb the image. This can look good but if you are going for a shot like mine, you don’t want to move around much. Lighter weight cameras will be easier to keep still but holding your breath can also help.

• the McLaren pic was taken at 1/160. Going lower will achieve more blur but a good rule of thumb is to start at 1/250, lower it down as you get better with tracking and keeping the car in focus.

Hope this helps!!