Shooting on the roads

[Dr Frankenstein]

...with a camera, of course.

So I just came back from my first photo trip as a roadgeek and took back some pictures and videos of the new section of A-30, and A-730.

I realized that I have the worst car for filming. Manual transmission, inconvenient dashboard (can't put the camera on it), one wheel out of balance, etc.

I also realized that automatic mode on the camera wasn't the best for that either (I know, it never is for anything...), many signs were hard to read because of motion blur.

So, what are your tips for shooting on the roads (especially on freeways where you can't stop)? Both vid and photo, I'd be interested to learn to do that better (and help others learn as well).

[corco]

So I just came back from my first photo trip as a roadgeek and took back some pictures and videos of the new section of A-30, and A-730.

I realized that I have the worst car for filming. Manual transmission, inconvenient dashboard (can't put the camera on it), one wheel out of balance, etc.

I also realized that automatic mode on the camera wasn't the best for that either (I know, it never is for anything...), many signs were hard to read because of motion blur.

So, what are your tips for shooting on the roads (especially on freeways where you can't stop)? Both vid and photo, I'd be interested to learn to do that better (and help others learn as well).

My first two roadgeeking cars had manuals as well. It's not horrible once you get the hang of it. I'd recommend not starting on a freeway- start on roads with 50 km/h speed limits, get the feel for what your camera is doing, and work with it.

If you know your car, you should be able to make it work. The place it's tricky is when you're at a stoplight on an expressway and need to get up to 80-90 km/h or so and are expected to accelerate reasonably quickly and shift reasonably frequently. I'd often find myself between 1st and 2nd or 2nd and 3rd when it came time to take a shot of the reassurance shield after that light. If you stay in the right lane as much as possible, the expectation to accelerate diminishes, so you can hold off on shifting. My preference was usually to shift slightly before maybe I wanted to in order to get a shot of the sign- if I were only going 15 MPH and were in 3rd gear, that was weird, but at times I just did it in order to get a shot and keep accelerating.

Once you're at freeway speeds, if it's congested and depending on your car, I'll usually stay out of overdrive (the top gear, likely 5th or 6th if your car is newer) when I know a sign is coming up, but also remember that if your cars gear ratios are even slightly reasonable, you've got a good 20-60 MPH speed window where the car won't stall (that should get progressively higher as you go up through the gears), so if you need to slow while photographing you can hold off on shifting (or just push in the clutch)- I could drive my old Jeep at 12 MPH in 5th gear (the top gear)- probably not good for it, but in a pinch I could do it.

That said, when I'm driving and taking pictures my number one priority is to not modify my driving behavior in such a way that I'm not driving normally just to get a shot (if I'm on the freeway and there's a reassurance shield right after an interchange coming up, I may hold off on passing the truck in front of me until I get pass that sign, but that's about it or I'll give a little extra following distance to a truck in front of me to get an overhead shot). It's very important to remember that if you can't get the shot without doing something ridiculous, don't get the shot. You can always get off and turn around if you really want it. The last thing we need is a roadgeek dying because they were taking pictures of road signs while driving- I don't want to see anti-camera legislation.

I've never been able to get a hang of dashboard mounting. I still find it easier to shoot while I drive with the camera in my right hand, and then depending on the car either put it on my lap or in the cupholder when I wasn't using it. If you have a camera that turns on quickly, you should eventually be able to grab your camera and get a decent shot with as little as 5 or 6 seconds notice. If something happened that required my attention with the shifter, I'd drop the camera, but once you practice that should almost never happen. If you do it on automatic mode, then you have another variable to keep in mind for still shots, and that can only be a huge pain.

It's really just a matter of practice, especially with a manual. There's a lot of timing variables to keep in mind, and it is doable comfortably, but it's just a matter of getting experienced. I'd start on rural roads where you can vary your speed just to get a sense of the timing for when  you need to snap to get the shot, and then work your way up to more congested areas where you also need to concern yourself with rowing your own. When I started out I quickly realized that you'd almost drive past the sign before taking a shot, and then the shot would come out about right. Don't try to look at the screen for the shot or anything like that- in practice you'll get your hand positioning down so your hand automatically knows where it has to go to get a good shot.

If you do it without a mount, put a sheet or something over your dashboard that absorbs the light. I'm pretty bad about remembering to do this and some of my photos suck as a consequence. You'll also learn quickly not to drive west at night or east in the morning or in rainy weather (snow is usually a non problem, but rain is disastrous because it makes things darker). Never use flash. Just turn it off.  

Once you get the timing down, it's not distracting like talking on a cell phone. I'd actually compare it to driving a manual- you're engaging with the road by taking pictures of it, but what you're doing is paying attention to the road. Once you're good at it, you won't even have to think to take the picture- it almost becomes reflexive like shifting gears is. Your mind thinks "sign ahead" and then your hand takes care of the rest,  just like when you shift your brain says "shift" and then your hand and foot take care of the rest. It becomes a muscle memory. The only thing your brain should ever be thinking about in the context of photos is lane positioning- but hopefully your brain is doing that anyway when you're driving.

But that takes practice. Start out on slower roads with no traffic and work your way up to the Autoroutes. You'll know when you're ready.

Also, get your wheel balanced! When you have to get new tires and brake rotors because you let it go too long, that's going to cost a dozen times more than just getting it fixed now. If you can't afford to do it now, then don't put excess miles on your car by roadgeeking. You'll regret it later.

[Scott5114]

Generally rather than trying to deal with sitting the camera on the dashboard, I hold the camera and use the optical zoom to crop the dash out of the shot.

You want to get a black cloth or some sort to put over the dash, especially if you have a light colored vinyl dash. Otherwise, you will get glare on the inside of the windshield and end up with a vent or something in half of your shots. The flatter black cloth you can get, the better; a shiny polyester cloth won't work. You want something as pitch black as possible. I used a piece of craft felt that did a decent job, though I bet that velveteen or something like that would be even better. I secured mine to the dash with some Velcro, but since it can get up to 110° F here in the summer (so probably 130° F inside a closed car), the adhesive on the back of the Velcro squares kind of melted and got all over the dash. I doubt that would be as much of an issue in Quebec, though.

[hbelkins]

What I've learned:

1.) For videos, I use a ClampPod Pro that clamps to the overhang on my instrument panel on my dashboard.

2.) For still photos, I have a camera that has a manual focus setting. I have that set to "infinity" and I have also started using flash to act as a fill flash for backlit conditions.

3.) I have a black dashboard cover to reduce glare.

Since digital photos are free (no film to develop and no photos to print) feel free to experiment.

[Bryant5493]

For my vids, I have two wood mounts that I purchased from Hobby Lobby. They're velcroed together, so the camera sits up about four or five inches or so off of the dashboard. I then placed velcro on the bottom of my camera and the top wood mount as well... and voila! A lot of other roadgeeks have their camera mounted to a tripod on the passenger's side of their respective cars and have the legs spread far apart, so that it doesn't move as much... but it still will move. I've tried the latter (tripod); didn't work out for me.


Be well,

Bryant

[J N Winkler]

Does image stabilization offer any advantages for behind-the-wheel videography?

[Truvelo]

Does image stabilization offer any advantages for behind-the-wheel videography?

One of my lenses, the big 70-200mm f2.8, has image stabilization with two modes, normal and active. Active is for taking pictures from a moving vehicle. I took the picture below using the active mode and it came out sharp enough. Stabilization is really only needed on long lenses as the magnification often makes getting sharp pictures tricky unless you turn up the ISO to increase the shutter speed. One downside with stabilization is you need to give it a few seconds to work. In the case of my picture I could see the bend was coming so I pressed the shutter half way a couple of seconds before and then fully when the car was inline with the median. I was a passenger which helps with big lenses. I couldn't have done it with one hand on the wheel.

[hbelkins]

I would love to see some photos of everyones' various video camera mounting setups.

[Bryant5493]

^^

Here's mine:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jxPf2kSqJ04


Be well,

Bryant

[SteveG1988]

There is a easy solution, the little sister/wife/friend method. Just have them hold the camera. Yeah my first roadgeek photo stuff has not really turned out like i expected because i have a stickshift car.

[agentsteel53]

stick shift is definitely trickier than auto.  I would never attempt video in a stick shift; photos are fun enough in city driving...

[SteveG1988]

I attemtped to use my camera phone (droid X so it does 720p video) and yeah that did not turn out well due to hand holding. The burlington bristol bridge is not friendly to stickshifts

[Hot Rod Hootenanny]

Before the end of print film, I had no problem driving (with a stick) and shooting photos....with an automatic camera. My SLR? I wouldn't even try it while driving an automatic tranny.
With this digital camera, I'm still trying to get a hang for it. I'm still having trouble getting signs lined up right and properly scaled, be it while I'm driving, a passenger, or just sitting still. 

[Dr Frankenstein]

Well, first of all, thanks everyone for the tips! One of my friends, who happens to be a journalism/photo/film geek, offered to redo my A-30 video shots by herself, so it may turn out to be actually decent. No promises, however. I already started editing my own shots.

corco:
I'll try doing some smaller roads. However I figured that it usually involves more focusing on the road (Sunday drivers, stops, signals, etc.) than on freeways. We'll see, now that I've got a little experience.

I got the shifting tricks pretty quickly; like you said, I just hold off on 4th while taking a picture but keeping the acceleration steady. I don't think I've gotten much over 3500 RPM, so that's still fine.

I think my driving behaviour was okay. A little more hesitant at lane changes, but nothing else. That was my number one priority too. I do remember passing someone quickly because a sign was coming, then realized I could have lived without passing. Wasn't dangerous, but I learned from what I did I guess... signs come faster than you expect.

Concerning the anti-camera legislation that nobody wants here, I've heard that when Quebec passed the cellphone ban, they actually banned holding any electronic device in your hand. But recent readings seemed to tell that only devices with cellphone capacity were banned. I'll have to check.

I keep my camera on most of the time, just leaving it on the passenger seat. I turn it off when I don't expect anything interesting anytime soon, but it does turn on quickly if I need it. I tried to put the camera's wristband on in case I needed the shifter quickly. Turns out it's more of a time waster than anything.

Aiming at signs is still a difficulty. Like you I figured out quickly that I almost have to drive past the sign to get a good shot, but I have yet to find a sweet spot, and to aim the camera properly. Rural roads may be useful to tweak that. Will sure try.

After reading your post, I checked my pics and vids. Doesn't seem like my dashboard reflects into the windshield much... but it's a pretty dark one. However, the actual dashboard did get into most of my shots. Will have to work on a different holding position.

Flash didn't seem to be that much of a problem, I didn't bother turn it off and it did go off a few times. I can't say it helped with signs in backlit conditions though; they probably were too far.

Oh, and I'm planning to fix my wheel, yes.

Scott5114:
Oh, cars do get very hot inside here too, during the summer months. I didn't have to cover my dashboard this time, I'll see how it works out at various times of the day.

hbelkins:
Those ClampPods look interesting, and my instrument panel has quite a big overhang to grip it on. I'll have to check into that. I'll check into setting my focus to infinity too.

SteveG1988:
Having the passenger shoot (or better, shooting as the passenger) is ideal in all cases, definitely.

[OracleUsr]

My choice of camera is a Canon DSLR (the original EOS-300D Digital Rebel, actually) with a 75-300mm telephoto lens.  To reduce glare, I attach a polarizing filter to the end of the lens.

I play it safe; if I can't pull over and stop safely, I don't take the picture.  I don't get a lot of pictures that way, but until I can get some kind of rig together for my dashboard, I have very few pics.

[realjd]

From the headline, I thought this was going to be a gun thread!

[J N Winkler]

Hold it between your thumb and forefinger and push hard to the side with your other hand.

[US71]

Most of my photos are "Stop, Jump and Drive" : stop the van, jump out for the photo, then drive on. A few are drive-by's, but I try to at least slow down. I also use a multiple shot setting on drive-bys, then try to time it so I get 2 or 3 shots then post the best one.

For movies, I have a monopod with a suction cup that attaches to the window. If I could rig up a remote control for my camera (Canon S3IS), I'd use the monopod more for drive-by photos.

[mobilene]

My previous car was a stickshift.  While I take 80-90% of my shots by stopping and getting out of the car, I did manage to shoot photos and video while shifting.  I just learned to hold the camera with my left hand and, at shift points, steer with my knees.  It wasn't ideal, but it did work.

A roadgeeking friend of mine uses this suction-cup mount on his windshield to hold his camera.  He says it is extremely strong -- he's even clamped it, camera attached, to his car's front bumper, and driven around taking video that way.

http://www.amazon.com/Delkin-Devices-DDMOUNT-MINI-Knuckle-Suction/dp/B002K8Q0EU/ref=wl_it_dp_o?ie=UTF8&coliid=I2CTXK0DKRID00&colid=WAUX67671ZV7

I intend to buy one of these and, when on road trips, mount my backup camera to it and rely on that camera for rolling shots.  (Yes, I take two cameras on the road.  Last thing I want is to have made a long trip out to where I want to start shooting only to find my camera has crapped out on me.)

I have to add a word of strong caution about shooting while driving.  Be careful.  I wasn't careful enough while exploring the National Road in 2009 and it cost me my car.  Here's the story, well, except that I don't tell that I was crossing into Ohio from WV on the NR and had just shot a rolling photo of the old abandoned iron bridge that stands alongside the current bridge.  Most expensive photo I've ever taken.  It's also why I said "previous car" at the top of this post, and not just "car."

http://jimgrey.wordpress.com/2009/06/08/and-so-ended-our-vacation/

Peace,
jim

[OracleUsr]

I stop at the side of the road and shoot straight through the windshield.  Having a polarizing filter on my telephoto lens helps.

[1995hoo]

I have two six-speed manuals and a five-speed and my camera is a DSLR. I seldom try to take pictures when driving unless my iPhone is handy. What I've done lately when I knew I wanted a picture of a particular sign is to turn on the iPhone's video camera, put the phone in its holster, and clip it to the passenger-side sun visor. Then when I get home I download the video, pause it at the point I want, and take a screenshot I then crop and save as a new photo.

This works best when you know you'll come up on something you want to photograph, of course. But I still find it easier on the fly than using the DSLR with a manual shift. Also, while the video can be a bit bouncy (especially in the RX-7 since it's tightly sprung), the screenshots aren't.


Edited to add: If I'm going on a longer drive to an area I don't visit very often, I try to remember to set the iPhone camera to video mode so that I can pull it out more quickly on the fly. I figure the odds of being able to get a satisfactory screenshot from a longer video are higher than the odds of getting a still picture with it, though in either case of course the photo isn't as good as I might get with the DSLR.

[Crazy Volvo Guy]

I've gotten into the hang of shooting my DSLR blind.  It didn't work well at first, but it didn't take me too long to start getting decent shots.

[formulanone]

My personal vehicle is manual, but the rental car I have for my travels are automatic. I shoot with a DSLR, about half blind, and some through the viewfinder (if there's no traffic around, conditions a re safe, I'm wide awake, and generally if I've been on that road before). I also use a polarizer, except if I'm driving in a direction away from glare, or in a car with no glare (that's rare).

I don't know how some of you shoot when there's snow on the road, the few times I've had to drive in it, I'm too scared I'll crash. If my car's stopped, then maybe I'll take a few shots. Like anything else, I just use caution and best judgement. When in doubt, get out of the car and take a picture, or drive around again to get the best and safest shot.

Manual transmission driving takes some time to perfect, it may take 3-6 months until you're no longer solely thinking about when gear to be in, when to press and release the clutch pedal, and how many revs do I need to prevent zinging the engine too close to the redline...practice makes perfect. Many years ago, I had a job delivering newspapers in a manual car; my motions became non-conscious after a while. Yes, it sounds like more like a multitasking disaster waiting to happen, but driving for pleasure on a curvy road with a few tight curves on it makes it all worth it (camera not in use, though)!

[corco]

I don't know how some of you shoot when there's snow on the road, the few times I've had to drive in it, I'm too scared I'll crash. If my car's stopped, then maybe I'll take a few shots.

The same way I do when there's not snow on the road- carefully.

[Dr Frankenstein]

I use a DSLR and shoot blind too. It takes a while to get used to, but it works well. I've used a compact camera a few times too.

I've been experimenting with night shooting over the summer. ISO 3600, 1/60th of a sec and HID headlights. With good timing, no flash is required. However I can only do it as a passenger since it's just impossible to do it blind. Autofocus won't work well.