Photographing"the lean"

[David Richhart]

I hope I get this link loaded correctly...



The image is the speeding racecar by Lartigue, and was taken in the early par t of the 20th century.

I know that the "leaning" spectators and the oval shaped wheels are the resul t of panning the camera while using a foacl-plane shutter set at slow speed.

I'm going to try this with my trusty old Speed Graphic. Does anyone have any experience with this technique? Can you give me advice on where to start with sh utter speeds? Does the panning have to follow the same direction as the shutters motion? What else do I need to take into consideration?

Thanks for any and all thoughts... -Dave

[M.]

Isn't it a great shot! Made by a ten year old kid. And the damnest thing is that he always claimed it was planned, not serendipitious. I've always wanted to duplicate the effect, but I get confused thinking about it, what with the image upside down on the film, and does the focal plane shutter move vertically up or down? I don't think it could be done with a modern SLR, as the shutter travels too quickly across the film aperture. The actual FP time on a 4x5 Speed Graphic is about 1/60 second, so you'll have to pan pretty quickly. Lartigue's film must have been very slow, so the actual exposure couldn't have been more than 1/100 tops, probably shot on a tripod with a pan head or the men couldn't appear so sharp, and panned slower than the car was moving which accounts for the elliptical wheels, (but why doesn't the car body appear to lean forward?). I think my first try would be with the Speed held normally, and shutter speed of 1/100 sec. Good luck Dave, and please let me hear by email how you come out. Mitch.

[M.]

I said 1/60, but you may be right about 1/50. I think it depends on the spring tension as well as the slit size. In the "drop-curtain" mode it's actually about 1/5 sec.

[Tony Brent]

There were some othr photos of that type back a few years. I think they might have been in the Speed Graphic book where it dealth with the back shutter. One of the topics was just this leaning effect, caused by the image of the moving object shifting laterally as the shutter travelled vertically.

If he had held the camera stationary, the car would still be leaning, but the people would be vertical. So this photo is indeed the result of panning the camera combined with the travel time of the shutter.

To get the same thing in a 35mm you would have to have one of the shutters that travels the short way of the film. Even then as the others said, it moves much faster than the Speed Graphic shutter.

The theory will probably drive you bonkers if you try to analyse it. Just go out to the race track and shoot some holders and see what you get.

[Sean Billy Bob Boy yates]

You guys are all wrong.

This was made with the proto-type of the justly famous and very rare ACME Camera. Although somewhat tempermental and prone to occassional violations of Newtonian physics, it was adapted and made famous by the staff at Warner Brothers.

Tex Avery was perhaps it's most justly famous proponant.

[TAN K H]

Dave

I might be wrong here, but if I recall correctly, Lartigue's camera had a horizontally travelling focal plane shutter. The SpeedGraphics have a vertically travelling one.

You could of course tilt your SpeedGraphic to its side.

[Doug Paramore]

Bill: The wheels are oval because the wheel does not spin in relation to the ground. The wheel actually pivots around the point that is in contact with the ground. The action is continuous, but the top of the wheel moves faster than the bottom. The shutter slit on the camera had to be moving vertically to get this effect. The 35mm shutters travel horizontally and have a back curtain, so this effect would be difficult except at very high speeds where the slit is very narrow and the camera would have to be on its side for a vertical shot and panned rapidly.

[Blake]

I like Rowdy's answer best.

[photoscientia]

The shutter has to travel vertically while the camera is panned horizontally to get the effect. It's pretty obvious that the bottom of the image was exposed first, and the top last. It doesn't matter what shutter speed you set within reason, the amount of leaning is governed by the panning speed and the speed of travel of the blinds, which is constant, not by the slit width. You could probably get the same effect with an old rangefinder Contax, or a russian copy, especially if the shutter was in the state that they usually turn up in.

Lartigue was given his first camera at the age of six, so he already had 4 years experience under his belt by the time this shot was taken.

[M.]

The interesting question here is why doesn't the gas tank (with the number 6) appear as out-of-round as the wheel. I think I was wrong, and he must have actually panned at car speed. Neat-o!