I thought I'd do a quick post on how to get the cool Panning effect I used on one of my photos recently.
Taking these shots can provide some great results but can be quite challenging, here is my process for capturing them.
1) Slow your shutter speed
I used a shutter speed of 1/20th of a second for this shot with an Aperture of ~6. ISO was set at a conservative 100. You don't want to have the shutter too fast or you wont achieve the blurry background, likewise if you have the shutter open too long it will be extra hard to keep the car sharp.
Obviously you should play around with your own settings to find what works best for you.
2) Track the object
This is the hardest part of taking these photos, you have to watch the car through your camera as it travels down the road, just as it gets in front of you, Snap! take the shot.
3) Keep following!
As you take the photo make sure you continue to follow through with your pan to try and keep the car sharp. This step will take you many many attempts (I took about 100 photos to get 3 or 4 good sharp ones).
At first it's likely to be easier to try and take photos of things further away from you as the object is easier to track as it goes by. As you get better try taking the photos of objects closer and closer.
Play around with different styles too, the photo above is just a car level with me. You can achieve some cool effects when the object is not right next to you (say a little further down the road) or maybe try standing on a street corner and getting cars as they turn.
Here are a few other examples that I've seen on the site...
If anyone does try this out it would be great to see your photos in the comments.
I use this a lot with rowing competitions. I either get close to the finish as that's where they are fastest, prefocus and then track them and when they pass I shoot.
Always a gamble if it comes out allright, especially because it's not just the boat moving, but also the people in it, and there's just a split second in which they actually freeze during each stroke. That's the best time to catch.
Good practice to stand near a road and trying to photograph and correctly time cars passing. They may just however thing you're trying to catch them speeding ;-)
I also really appreciate the repetition mode on my camera, shooting a few frames on one click. More chance that one will jump out.
I love going out and shooting on the side of the road for practice, you get some weird looks but thats OK.
When I do pans I shoot in speed priority mode cause each color car will need just slightly different lighting and the camera can make my adjustments quicker then I can.
Also I the speed you choose will also depend on what your shooting and how fast they are moving. If shooting a car going 80mph in a race 1/20 is way too slow unless you have one great steady hand, and if your shooting someone on a bicycle 1/100 is going to be too quick and pretty much freeze them.
Question for anyone. When panning, are you handholding the camera (and if so, how do you keep it steady while also moving the camera?) or using a ballhead tripod?
Yes, I've always been handholding the camera, I guess you could use a ballhead but it would make it harder to look through the eye-piece.
The trick is practice and having the shutter speed fast enough to be able to keep things sharp, whilst having it slow enough to blur the background. Play around with your settings and try and find that sweet spot.
Me too, always handheld. Works out okay somehow. And ofcourse there are always shots in which you just didn't manage to hit that weet spot of a sharp subject on a moving background, but you just throw those out and pretend you shot them all perfectly ;-)
Also, I think that when you pan you have to worry less about stability because you're doing a controlled motion. When trying to hold a camera still, you're fighting an uncontrolled motion, which is much harder. But that's just my theory on it :-)
Amazing, and great advice. Thank you! I experiment, but don't take notes and often don't remember how I got where I ended up. This will definitely help.
ok, i am so far from a professional! but i gave this a try today. The car didn't go so well and i thought perhaps a trip to the park might work - these are some of my shots:
Today I did my own version of fast photography - saw a bird fly across the sky and reacted quickly. I didn't have time to change settings or anything, working with a 35 mm f1.4 lens on auto settings. So I just panned and clicked! Not a slow shutter unfortunately, but an interesting effect nevertheless.
i'm an amateur and just had my first dslr. i'm trying to learn things by reading other people's tips & tricks.. i just wanna say thank you to everyone for their responses. already got my general ideas and i think i' gonna try it out some time.
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Always a gamble if it comes out allright, especially because it's not just the boat moving, but also the people in it, and there's just a split second in which they actually freeze during each stroke. That's the best time to catch.
Good practice to stand near a road and trying to photograph and correctly time cars passing. They may just however thing you're trying to catch them speeding ;-)
I also really appreciate the repetition mode on my camera, shooting a few frames on one click. More chance that one will jump out.
When I do pans I shoot in speed priority mode cause each color car will need just slightly different lighting and the camera can make my adjustments quicker then I can.
Also I the speed you choose will also depend on what your shooting and how fast they are moving. If shooting a car going 80mph in a race 1/20 is way too slow unless you have one great steady hand, and if your shooting someone on a bicycle 1/100 is going to be too quick and pretty much freeze them.
IDK how to link pics in the thread but here is my car set in my flickr account if you want to see some of my panning shots.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ms6-582/sets/72157620656616742/
This is probably the clearest shot I have taken,
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ms6-582/3928048738/in/set-72157620656616742/
Yes, I've always been handholding the camera, I guess you could use a ballhead but it would make it harder to look through the eye-piece.
The trick is practice and having the shutter speed fast enough to be able to keep things sharp, whilst having it slow enough to blur the background. Play around with your settings and try and find that sweet spot.
Also, I think that when you pan you have to worry less about stability because you're doing a controlled motion. When trying to hold a camera still, you're fighting an uncontrolled motion, which is much harder. But that's just my theory on it :-)
this was a lot of fun, thanks!
Michele Blue
I quite like the result. See it at http://picasaweb.google.com/mggrove/BirdInFlight#
Though, I didn't expect it to. I was in a car, moving at 80mph and the truck was also moving at 80mph in the opposite direction. Haha... http://i797.photobucket.com/albums/yy251/rahosa13/Deming3301.jpg
Though I did take a picture with kind of the opposite idea, and it came out pretty cool (car moving, clear background): http://i797.photobucket.com/albums/yy251/rahosa13/NewYork420.jpg
night panning
Day panning
@bardejov Great example.
@sparkle These shots are brilliant, and do different.
My attempt was at a racetrack for remote-control cars...
Great info.