It's called "Depth Of Field". You need to play about with the "Aperture" settings to achieve this. If your camera has an Aperture Priority mode, give this a try. The aperture is the "F" number. The higher the number, the smaller the aperture of the shutter opening, the less depth of field you get (Giving a blurred Background with sharp focus on your main object).
Took these on Sunday in 'auto' mode I half pressed shutter button on the particular car I want to take a pic of, 'followed' (panning is it called?) the car through the chicane and pressed button as they passed where I stood These ones came out ok for a numpty. Edited by: GVK
GVK - They look good mate! Try using shutter priority to lengthen the shutter a little to get a more streaked effect on the back ground. You do have to follow the car well so it doesn't blur too... This is one I took at the Rally a couple of weeks back, not brill as had to zoom a bit to get the right shot which makes panning more difficult!... By the way - Camera is a Fuji s5000. Here are a couple of my other favs
Heres a quick selection of some of mine (I have millions on my HDD). I used a Olympus C40-Zoom for all of these pics. Its now 3 years old. Taking good photos is something that you have to learn. When I'm out at a show or a meet, I'm always looking for shots that'd be slightly different from the norm - and I'm constantly noodling with the settings on my camera. The very best thing about a Digital Camera is that you can take as many shots as you like and delete the ones that are slightly 'off'... and quickly move on to your next subject. Try and look around a car (or your chosen subject) first. See what may or may not be in the background. Try crouching or lying on the floor for a better effect, or simply to get a better angle. Look for the detail in a shot, reflections or colours etc. Most of all, keep practising... you'll quickly realise what works and what doesn't. When I get some money, I will be buying one of these...
Bear, cracking pics as ever Al, mine's a Fuji S5100 so probably a similar camera to your's I will have a read of the instructions about the shutter priority, ta. I took a few that were zoomed in too close, would've been good pics had I not been greedy with the zoom
Are you sure? I thought the lower the F number the less depth of field ie F2 less depth of field than F16 (The higher the number, the smaller the aperture of the shutter opening is correct) A shallow depth of field will isolate the subject from foreground/background depending on point of focus. The effect becomes morepronounced the closer to the camera the subject and the longer the focal length of the lens. Practice panning at different shutter speeds, the longer the shutter stays open the more pronounced the blur. With a non-digital SLR you can zoom burst ie zoom whilst taking the pic, not sure if this is possible on a digital camera. On a DSLR with a manual zoom I'd have thought it possible. some panned pic's - Kames 2005 I'll post some better panned pic's when I've hosted 'em.
Pics as promised: As you can see the more blur the better it looks - as long as the subject is sharp!
and harry yes a longer lens gives a nice effect, i think music man uses about a 200mm? does look great this is with an 80
