Want to look cool in your ride without breaking the bank on aftermarket modifications to go fast?
You don’t need those fancy turbos to go fast, all you need is a digital camera. Stop squinting your eyes, I indeed said a digital camera.
Blasphemy you say, well then divert your attention towards exhibit A:
It looks as if the ‘rolla is travelling at good clip, but a short look at the speedo tells the actual story.
Intrigued by the results? Let me show you how to do this on your own and be the coolest dude among your friends.
Things required:
1. A digital camera which allows the manual control over shutter speed and aperture (DSLRs work best)
2. A remote shutter trigger. (Optional)
3. A car.
Procedure:
First you need to fix you camera in a suitable place in the car with the windows and windscreen in plain view. You want to have a wide view of the frame, so zoom your camera OR lens all the way out. The best spot for the camera is between the head rest of the front passenger seat as shown. The advantage of this spot is that you can adjust the seat’s recline angle and position to frame the shot properly.
Now time to take some test shots. Set your camera into full manual mode and set the shutter speed to about 2 seconds and the aperture to about f22. The small aperture is used because the in the 2 seconds that the shutter will be open, large amount of light will go through the lens and if the aperture is also large it will allow even more light to be recorded and you will end with a completely white image. Once you are happy with the picture you are getting, it’s time to drive.
I suggest using a remote shutter release to trigger the shutter. I set the shutter mode to 2 second delay with the remote triggering the shutter. If you don’t have a remote shutter release, worry not, you can use the self timer of your camera.
Focus the camera manually. I liked to focus on the stationary object (the car) so that the background blurs even more.
Now start to drive the car. You don’t need to go very fast, similar results to the photo can be achieved by going between 5-30 km/h, trigger the camera shutter and hold still(see how my arm is perfectly stationary). After taking some photos check them out and change the settings if you are not happy with the results.
If you want more motion blur drive the car a little faster and/or slow down the shutter speed.
The most important part of your photo is the background. Make sure your background is interesting and stands out so that the motion blur is translated into the picture. Trees, buildings, cars are good things to aim for. Just remember to take loads of photos.
For more dramatic photos, change the spot where you place your camera. I placed my camera on a small tripod on the trunk of my car and came up with these photos:
Set up:
Results:
Tried the tutorial? share the results in the forums.
