Panning motion

Joined: 01 Jan 2007 Posts: 34

For instance, I take a picture of a cyclist going by but would like to keep the subject in focus but at same time show motion by panning my camera as he goes by. (to blur the back ground)

Q.1 Tripod or handheld?

Q.2 How far should I pan?

Q.3 Use burst mode or not?

Any other suggestion would be appreciated.

Thanks

Joined: 03 Jan 2007 Posts: 85

ive been messing around with this lately too...

handheld with shutter of 1/20 - 1/40 and adjust the apeture to get the correct exposure

of course ive been testing this using cars driving by so with something moving slower you might have to go even lower with the shutter speed

Joined: 31 Jul 2005 Posts: 131 Location: Boulder, Colorado

Another thing you can do is a "drag shutter" exposure....Mount a flash on your camera and set your exposure time down to 1/15 or so, the flash will capture a frozen moment of your cyclist and the shutter stays open for your pan effect.

Joined: 01 Nov 2005 Posts: 62 Location: Manchester, UK

NguyDean wrote:

Q.1 Tripod or handheld?

Q.2 How far should I pan?

Q.3 Use burst mode or not?

Q1: Personal preference really. On a tripod you only have the one axis so you are less likely to have blur from up/down motion but I find it difficult to track the moving object smoothly on a tripod. I shoot most of my panning handheld. You may be a natural with the tripod so its worth a try.

Q2: Follow the subject for as long you can see it. Choose a spot on the subject (handlebars, helmet etc) and place it in the centre of one of the focus points in your view finder and track it keeping the area you are tracking as still in the view finder as you can. When you release the shutter be careful not to jerk the camera (my biggest problem) and continue to track the object even after the exposure is finished for a short time, following through like baseball or cricket.

Q3: Its up to you whether to use burst mode or not. How many times will the subject be passing by? 10 times - Maybe best to use burst mode to increase you chances or getting some good shots. 150 times - I'd concentrate on taking a good single shot each time.

Obviously use shutter priority mode, if you need to shoot at 1/20 or so you might need an ND filter if its a very bright day. I went to the Melbourne Grand Prix and the slowest shutter I could get was 1/60 cause it was so bright. Luckily cause the cars were doing 150mphish I was getting good shots at around 1/125 and even 1/250.

The thing with panning is practice, the more you do it the better you get. When I went to the grand prix my first few shots were useless, by the end of the day I was getting good shots pretty often. If you're going to an event try and practice on something of similar speed before you go.

Hope that helps some

Lee

Joined: 23 Mar 2006 Posts: 63

I tried this at the Indy 500 a little more than a week ago. I hand held the camera, set focus to manual at infinity and tried shutter speeds anywhere from 1/160 - 1/400. This pic is at 1/400. I got the tires and the background to blur a bit. This was quite challenging at nearly 200mph and a distance of about 40 yards. I followed the cars for about 100 yards and shot in burst mode. I still didn't get too many keepers.

Joined: 01 Jan 2007 Posts: 34

Thanks everybody that’s all good stuff. I’ll get out there and start practicing and post the results soon.

Thanks again
Dee

Joined: 25 Aug 2005 Posts: 594 Location: Sydney

fragileandys wrote:

handheld with shutter of 1/20 - 1/40 and adjust the apeture to get the correct exposure

I might disagree with this point. I think its more important to shoot based on the focal length. If you're shooting a longer lens 1/20 wouldnt result in many good shots (although, there'd be lots of movement).

For a beginner, I would recommend you start with 1/[focal length]. So when I'm panning with my 40mm lens, I start at 1/40 and adjust accordingly. If I'm shooting at 350mm, I would start at 1/350.

Thats just a starting point, and will show only a little motion. Start to slow the shutter down as you get more "keepers".

-Andrew