panning

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Pan Your Camera With Your Subject To Show Motion

Posted by scottbourne on July 9, 2011
Posted in: Tips. Tagged: , , , , , , , , .

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It’s easy to freeze motion with a camera. Usually, a shutter speed of 1/1000th of a second to 1/2000th of a second will freeze just about anything or anyone in place. But sometimes, that won’t matter. Some things that move should be shown moving. The problem is, you end up on the other end of the spectrum and the subject just looks blurry. The solution is to pan the camera with the subject to blur the background but yet, retain enough sharpness on the subject to convey the story.

The key to this is getting the right shutter speed first. Usually 1/30 to 1/60th of a second is a good starting point depending on ISO and the amount of ambient light. It takes several tries but start there. You don’t want a shutter speed that is too fast because that freezes everything. You don’t want one that is too slow because that makes everything too blurry.

The next thing to think about is focus. If you have fast autofocus, you should set it to work with moving subjects. If you don’t have AF you should manually pre-focus on a spot where you hope to intercept the action and go from there.

Once that’s all set, and you think you have the proper general exposure, you just have to practice moving the camera in unison with the subject.

I find that positioning myself at a 90 degree angle to the subject and background works best. I like to bend my knees in a wide stance so I can picture my body as a tripod with a head on it rotating through the shot.

Snap the picture at the point where you want the subject to intersect with the background. Repeat this using different shutter speeds until you get the result you want.

Be sure to try to keep the camera level as you pan with the action.

Sometimes you can use a flash to stop the action of the subject, while still blurring the background. This is a more advanced technique that I won’t cover here, but know that it is an option.

You should know that even the pros have to sometimes make several tries to get the shot they want. Be patient and work at it. It all boils down to timing. So make lots of attempts and eventually you’ll get the shot.

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Five Panning Photography Tips

Posted by scottbourne on August 24, 2010
Posted in: Tips. Tagged: .

Guest Post and photo by Nicole Young – Follow Nicole on Twitter

Panning is one of my favorite techniques to use when photographing fast-moving subjects. Basically what you are doing when you make a panning shot is you are following the subject and moving your lens along with them while pressing the shutter. Here are some tips for creating great panning shots:

1. Slow shutter-speed is the key. Using a slower-than-normal shutter speed will help you to effectively add motion-blur to the background. It’s usually a good idea to shoot in shutter-priority mode when creating panning photos.

2. The speed of the subject determines shutter-speed. Most of the time you won’t know exactly what your shutter speed should be in order to get a desirable image, and one factor you need to consider is how fast your subject is moving. To create a good amount of movement in the background and still keep the subject sharp a fast-moving subject will need a faster shutter-speed than a slow-moving subject.

3. Use a flash. Another useful tip is that if you have a flash or some sort of strobing light-source available then use it! It will help freeze your subject and allow you to use an even slower shutter-speed than without one. In the image in this post I wasn’t able to use a flash so I had to do my best to keep my camera steady and moving with the skater.

4. Follow-through to get the shot. Just like with kicking a ball or swinging a golf club you need to make sure that you follow the subject the entire way through the shot, and only stop once you are sure that your shutter is closed. This will help you get smooth lines in your background.

5. Use manual focus. If you know the spot that your subject will be passing by then pre-focus your lens. If you rely on auto-focus then your camera might not catch focus quickly enough, which means you would miss the shot altogether.

Panning requires a lot of trial-and-error, which I think is why I like it so much. You never quite know what you’re going to get and oftentimes you can be surprised when you review your shots. :)
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