Canon 2ti Help

Question

I need some help with night time car photos:
Equipment I have: Canon T2i, 18-55mm lens, 55-250mm lens, wireless remote and tripod. I like shooting in manual mode as it is a challenge.
So my question: I am at a car show full of hot rods and I want to take photos at night of them driving by. Problem is that even when I use a tripod they still come out blurry to the point of streaking. I do not mind the streaked photo as I have 2 cool shots I did, but I would like the non-streaked blurry free photo at night. Any help on this?
Also, for still, up close car photos I am looking at getting the Canon EF 50mm f/1.4 USM Standard AutoFocus Lens. I like the lower F/Stop and would use it instead of my 18-55mm. Is this a good idea?
Your help would be greatly appreciated.
Sincerely, Michael

Answer 1

A tripod will make sure there's no blur due to CAMERA movement... but wont do anything to help with SUBJECT movement.  If the cars are driving by and the shutter speed is slow then its going to be blurry.  But there are two things you can do about this.
1)  Learn to take "panning" shots.  Panning is (and you did say you like 'manual' because you enjoy the challenge) going to be another challenge.
You can imply motion in a still photo by showing effects which make it clear that the subject was in motion.  A time exposure of a waterfall renders the water in a blur -- making it obvious that the water is in motion (whereas a fast shutter speed would freeze every individual water droplet).  With cars (or really any object moving -- as long as it's moving in "more or less" a straight line) you can learn to follow the subject with the camera as you take the shot.
Here are two examples I took:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/thevirtualtim/6290685372/
And just in case that one wasn't obvious, here's a more obvious panning shot:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/thevirtualtim/8981989420/lightbox/
In the first image, the car isn't moving that fast, but I'm using a 1/50th second exposure and rather than holding the camera steady, the camera is "panning" to follow the car... giving a reasonably sharp image of a car (except fo the wheels) and rendering the background blurry.
In the 2nd image, the cyclist is actually moving faster than the car was -- and I'm going even a bit slower on the shutter at only 1/40th sec.
Panning takes some practice to be smooth and steady as you follow the subject.  It's probably best to practice during the day... start with a fast shutter and gradually just keep slowing the shutter speed.   With practice you should be able to get a "sharp" subject with a blurred background for a nice "motion" effect in your images.
2)  The other method is to use flash -- provided your flash is powerful enough.  The built-in pop-up flash is only good for short distances (it's not very large or powerful).  If you have an external flash, this may work well for you.
The shutter speed has to be at OR below the flash sync speed (and I cannot remember if that's 1/200th or 1/250th on a T2i).  But even if it's much slower (say... 1/60th) you may be surprised at how well the flash will "freeze" action.  This is because MOST of the shutter exposure time is just the time it takes for the curtain shutter to completely slide "open" and also completely slide "shut".  The flash can only fire AFTER the shutter has completely opened and must fire BEFORE the shutter can begin closing (otherwise any part of the sensor that was covered by the partially opened/closed shutter speed will be dark.)  The actual amount of time that the flash is providing illumination is remarkably short... often significantly less than 1/1000th second (which is why a flash can "freeze" action even when the shutter speed was much much slower.
But there is one tip... many flashes support a mode called "2nd curtain sync".  Here's the idea behind that:
Suppose you have a very slow exposure time -- let's say it's a full 1 second.
Normally when a flash is used, the camera begins opening the shutter and, after IMMEDIATELY after the shutter has completely opened, the flash will fire.  Meanwhile the camera is counting off the 1 second exposure time.  When the exposure is complete, THEN the shutter beings to close.  That's the default.  It's also known as "first curtain sync".
There is an option to use "second curtain sync".  In that mode, the shutter opens while starting the clock running on the 1 second exposure time.  When the curtain shutter has completely opened, the flash... does NOT actually fire.  Instead it keeps waiting... and in that last moment just BEFORE the shutter is about to close... THEN the flash fires.
This has two very different effects on any blur caused by objects moving in the frame.  
Suppose I take a photo of a car rolling slowly from left to right in a dim (but not completely black) location.  If my flash fires with 1st curtain sync, I'll get the full effect of flash on the car (creating a very vivid car) and then the flash goes dark but the shutter stays open as the car continues to roll forward.  So this "ghosting" or streaking of the car continues to expose on my sensor/film because there was some dim light.  
You will end up with a car... and a streak of the blurred car which is oddly IN FRONT of the car (and not behind it.)
BUT... if you use 2nd curtain sync... the dim streak exposes first (as the car is rolling) and THEN the flash fires and the shutter closes.  This causes the "ghosting" or streaking of the car to be BEHIND the well-illuiminated (when the flash fired) image of the car.  This makes it look like the car was in motion and looks a bit more like what you'd expect.  But you have to use 2nd curtain sync (which is NOT the default mode) to get this.
Tim Campbell
5D II, 5D III, 60Da