PAN OF ACTION

Mike Harris goes trackside to prove that you can shoot great motorsports images with entry-level kit

- Mike Harris

1 HOUR

On one level, motorsports photography is extremely accessible: you simply buy a spectator ticket, find yourself a decent vantage point with a low fence, and fire away. However, the long lenses and beefy cameras that many pro and enthusiast motorsports photographers swear by cost a pretty penny. So what if you're working on a tight budget, or you want to find out if motorsports photography is your thing before investing in top-tier kit?

To prove that you can get great motorsports photos without spending a fortune, we took an entry-level DSLR, the now-discontinued Nikon D3400, and a Nikon AF-S DX 55-200mm f/45.6G ED VR II lens to Thruxton Race Circuit in Hampshire, UK. Note that on any camera with a APS-C senor, the crop factor will give you extra telephoto reach, which is invaluable when you're shooting distant subjects, which will often be the case with motorsports. On our D3400, the 55-200mm lens is equivalent to 82.5-300mm, thanks to Nikon's 1.5x crop factor for DX sensors.

To get great motorsports images you'll need to master the technique of panning, which involves rotating your body to track a moving subject as you press the shutter button. Performed correctly, and with a suitably slow shutter speed, this will surround the sharp subject with streaks of motion blur. The slower the shutter speed, the more intense this will be, but the harder it is to keep the subject sharp.

HOW TO SHOOT MOTORSPORTS WITH ENTRY-LEVEL KIT