A few hundred shots, and a little luck!

JustJazzie · Jul 21, 2014

Well, I decided to give a go at some panning. My favorite panning shots are pretty much impossible... I think they take a special set up....You know, the kind where your subject is tack sharp, but everything else is blurred? Anyways, This seems to be the best of the bunch, all things considered I am pretty happy with it! Throw any C&C you might have my way please!

Iso 100
f16
1/25

This guy was harder to catch, since his speed is VERY sporadic. So this was the best/only salvageable panning shot of him.

lambertpix · Jul 21, 2014

That's really pretty good, IMO. A shutter speed of 1/25 is pretty slow for panning, and your subject isn't on a smooth road - he's bouncing along on the grass, which will impact your ability to get a crisp shot. I might be completely out in left field on this, but one of my first reactions was that he was facing the wrong way. I never really expected I'd be predisposed to expect L-to-R movement, but I guess I am. By all means, take that with a grain of salt, though.

Kendall9991 · Jul 21, 2014

Looks good

Derrel · Jul 21, 2014

Good panning shot result, Jazzie. My one tip is that the key is to keep the camera moving along as the shot is tripped off. On slower pan shots, there's a tendency to slow the pan as the mirror goes up, which spoils the shot. I shoot a fair amount of panning. I shot a few hundred frames that way this weekend at Sand Lake, one of Oregon's largest 4-wheeling and off-road recreation sites. I used mostly 1/125 second on vehicles going 25-40 MPH, worked well, and that speed is fast enough that the camera can fire at full firing rate (frames per second).

Panning like this, directly across the frame, and at close range, 1/25 second with that size motorcycle seems about perfect. You can ALSO go for a much slooooower, bluuuuuuurier, more-impressionistic looking panning technique, usually at 1/6 to 1/15 second or so. To do that though, you almost want to sight over the top of the pentaprism, so you can KEEP the camera tracking along exactly at subject speed; with the mirror up and the finder torally BLACK, it's challenging. But now that we have autofocus, you can put the camera on group AF, and shoot that way, and not really worry too much at all about focusing. In this slower way, the subject is much less clear, much more blurry, more abstracted.

I like a wide range of panning looks...there really is a lot of range to it, from blurry, very watercolor-like renderings, to less so, to yours, to actually very static, yet still panned shots, done at speeds like say 1/400 second of very fast-miving objects like racecars or hydroplane speed boats or aircraft seen low, like at airshows.

IzzieK · Jul 21, 2014

How many shots did you come up with in total with this one, Jazzie? I know it is hard to pan especially going right to left...go out a little bit near the side of a road and practice panning both ways...always go for the leader of the pack, meaning try to concentrate on one person or one car at any one time...two way road ways are easier....gauge which way you wanted to practice, L-->R or R--L. Good practice method. And you can also choose angles while practicing and then low or high shots...

BTW, good start on that shot. Fast action, start with Shutter Priority to get the hang of it. My camera is forever positioned on single shot, cloudy WB and spot metering. + I got too used to fast moving action shots I am now used to manual settings for all my shots. If you are just starting on actions, Shutter Priority is a good start, my friend...

JustJazzie · Jul 21, 2014

lambertpix said:
That's really pretty good, IMO. A shutter speed of 1/25 is pretty slow for panning, and your subject isn't on a smooth road - he's bouncing along on the grass, which will impact your ability to get a crisp shot. I might be completely out in left field on this, but one of my first reactions was that he was facing the wrong way. I never really expected I'd be predisposed to expect L-to-R movement, but I guess I am. By all means, take that with a grain of salt, though.

:Giggle: The boys chose their direction, and for these, I was stuck sitting since I broke my ankle. SO I hobbled to where I could and parked it, couldn't really change perspective.

Kendall9991 said:
Looks good

Thanks!

Derrel said:
Good panning shot result, Jazzie. My one tip is that the key is to keep the camera moving along as the shot is tripped off. On slower pan shots, there's a tendency to slow the pan as the mirror goes up, which spoils the shot. I shoot a fair amount of panning. I shot a few hundred frames that way this weekend at Sand Lake, one of Oregon's largest 4-wheeling and off-road recreation sites. I used mostly 1/125 second on vehicles going 25-40 MPH, worked well, and that speed is fast enough that the camera can fire at full firing rate (frames per second).

Panning like this, directly across the frame, and at close range, 1/25 second with that size motorcycle seems about perfect. You can ALSO go for a much slooooower, bluuuuuuurier, more-impressionistic looking panning technique, usually at 1/6 to 1/15 second or so. To do that though, you almost want to sight over the top of the pentaprism, so you can KEEP the camera tracking along exactly at subject speed; with the mirror up and the finder torally BLACK, it's challenging. But now that we have autofocus, you can put the camera on group AF, and shoot that way, and not really worry too much at all about focusing. In this slower way, the subject is much less clear, much more blurry, more abstracted.

I like a wide range of panning looks...there really is a lot of range to it, from blurry, very watercolor-like renderings, to less so, to yours, to actually very static, yet still panned shots, done at speeds like say 1/400 second of very fast-miving objects like racecars or hydroplane speed boats or aircraft seen low, like at airshows.

Thanks for the tips! I will see what I can come up with next go around.

IzzieK said:
How many shots did you come up with in total with this one, Jazzie? I know it is hard to pan especially going right to left...go out a little bit near the side of a road and practice panning both ways...always go for the leader of the pack, meaning try to concentrate on one person or one car at any one time...two way road ways are easier....gauge which way you wanted to practice, L-->R or R--L. Good practice method. And you can also choose angles while practicing and then low or high shots...

BTW, good start on that shot. Fast action, start with Shutter Priority to get the hang of it. My camera is forever positioned on single shot, cloudy WB and spot metering. + I got too used to fast moving action shots I am now used to manual settings for all my shots. If you are just starting on actions, Shutter Priority is a good start, my friend...

I came up with a good chunk of keepers in general from the day, but there were less than 10 decent panning shots of the bunch. These were the top 3, and really since the boys were just making circles, they all look about the same :giggle: I dont really have time to go through anymore right now, since my body is telling me its time to go put my foot back up! Perhaps there will be more in there that I missed when I review again later.

vintagesnaps · Jul 21, 2014

It takes a lot of practice. A LOT OF PRACTICE! at least for me it did LOL. I've done sports although haven't used panning a lot, but it took time to get decent at it. You don't have to take (or record) a picture every time (of course I learned on a film camera so just didn't put film in and kept practicing!). I'd practice the movement - you need to keep moving the camera after you release the shutter, follow thru with the movement.

This by the way turned out pretty well! nice color, nice background, he's positioned in the frame in a balanced way with some space in front.