STEP BY STEP

Catch someone speeding

1 Hit the road

You’ll need to find a quiet road, and you’ll probably need several passes of the car to get the technique right. Dramatic backdrops aren’t necessary here, because we’ll be blurring the background anyway, but interesting shapes and colours, such as a tree-lined road, work well.

2 Secure your camera

An essential bit of kit is the car rig. Essentially it’s a pole that is suction-mounted to the car. Once you mount your Nikon to the end of the pole, the camera and car move together, meaning the car remains sharp as the distance of the focus is maintained.

3 Take remote control

Use autofocus to focus on the driver then switch AF off. If your DSLR is Wi-Fi-enabled, you can trigger it with Nikon’s Wireless Mobile Utility smartphone app. Otherwise, you’ll need a remote release; if using a wired model, run the cable through the passenger window.

4 Attach a filter

Shooting at slow shutter speeds in daylight means you may be narrowing your aperture too far (beyond f/16 or so), causing the image to become soft due to diffraction. A variable neutral density filter enables us to darken the image to suit our desired shutter speed and aperture.

5 Set the exposure

Set Manual mode, a slow shutter speed – start at 1/5 sec – and a midrange aperture of f/11. Set Matrix metering and turn the variable ND filter until your Nikon’s exposure meter displays -1 stop to underexpose the background. Connect a Speedlight via wireless radio flash triggers.

6 Light the driver

Sit in the passenger seat and point the Speedlight at the driver. Manually set flash power – we set 1/2 power as it was so bright outside. Drive slowly and take a shot; the background will blur due to the slow shutter speed but the flash will freeze any movement in the driver’s face.