Need help with panning shots. Advice?

[rainking]

Me and my buddy went out yesterday to get some panning shots of me on my motorcycle and we failed miserably. He was shooting at shutter priority and tried 1/30 all the way to 1/100. I wanted to be in focus and my background blurred out. Any tips?

Panning Shot - TedTucker's Photos

 

[Robin Usagani]

around 1/30 is definitely where you want to be unless the bike is going so fast. Since this is a set up shot I suggest just ride your bike at like 20mph with 1/30 shutter speed. People wont know how fast you are riding the bike anyway. Set the camera to burst mode, AI focus (Canon term, not sure what Nikon is), and turn on all of your AF points. Then just try to keep the bike in the middle of the frame while shooting (follow the bike while shooting). Just burst your shot so you take 4-5 shots and pray one is good LOL. Here is some of my panning shots.

http://www.thephotoforum.com/forum/...orum-photo-gallery/216765-how-my-panning.html

 

[o hey tyler]

You also can't pan the shot and have no reason to shoot at 1/30th of a second when he's driving towards you. Because any camera movement will just make the photo look blurry. Wheras if you're panning with him as he's driving parallel to you and your camera, he remains (mostly) in your focal plane. Your first few shots suffer from this, as well as any shots where the vehicle is angled at you.

 

[rainking]

around 1/30 is definitely where you want to be unless the bike is going so fast. Since this is a set up shot I suggest just ride your bike at like 20mph with 1/30 shutter speed. People wont know how fast you are riding the bike anyway. Set the camera to burst mode, AI focus (Canon term, not sure what Nikon is), and turn on all of your AF points. Then just try to keep the bike in the middle of the frame while shooting (follow the bike while shooting). Just burst your shot so you take 4-5 shots and pray one is good LOL. Here is some of my panning shots.

http://www.thephotoforum.com/forum/...orum-photo-gallery/216765-how-my-panning.html

1/30 came out blurry. It worked great on the cars though. I'm going twice as fast as the cars though. I can't really slow down because I need the speed to get down low (lean) since that was the shot I wanted. I had the camera's focus set to continues servo so that it AF and was using burst mode. Thanks for the tips though. Looks like yours came out great!

Here is what I was going for. This was me at tail of the dragon (North Carolina) taken by professional photographers on the good corners.

 

[rainking]

Like this picture: He is obvisouly panning since the background is blurry but I'm also blurry.

 

[o hey tyler]

To give you an idea of the shutter speed needed at the speed you were going, the photographer's shot that you posted he was using 1/160s @ 70mm (he was also at f/5, but that's not as relevant as the time/focal length ratio.)

 

[o hey tyler]

I've also heard it's a good idea to tuck your elbows at your side and pivot with your waist to get good panning shots without a tripod. Something you also may want to consider trying or having your friend experiment with.

 

[rainking]

I've also heard it's a good idea to tuck your elbows at your side and pivot with your waist to get good panning shots without a tripod. Something you also may want to consider trying or having your friend experiment with.

Thanks, I'll let him know.

 

[Robin Usagani]

It really depends on the subject how fast it is going and how much you are zoomed in. The cars I shot go really show (about 20-25mph) with about 60mm. Thats why I do it around 1/30. Just keep the shutter as fast as you can where you are still happy with how much the background is blured.

 

[MohaimenK]

Although I haven't practiced w/ panning much, but I have done shots with moving objects with higher shutter speed and one thing that helped me keep the subject on track is to keep my left eye open also and look at the subject from both eyes (one through viewfinder and one naked). Again, it may help you, may not. Let me know

 

[myfotoguy]

Some panning tips, some of which was mentioned above:
Myfotoguy: Panning to Capture Dynamic Photos

I hope it's helpful.

 

[gsgary]

around 1/30 is definitely where you want to be unless the bike is going so fast. Since this is a set up shot I suggest just ride your bike at like 20mph with 1/30 shutter speed. People wont know how fast you are riding the bike anyway. Set the camera to burst mode, AI focus (Canon term, not sure what Nikon is), and turn on all of your AF points. Then just try to keep the bike in the middle of the frame while shooting (follow the bike while shooting). Just burst your shot so you take 4-5 shots and pray one is good LOL. Here is some of my panning shots.

http://www.thephotoforum.com/forum/...orum-photo-gallery/216765-how-my-panning.html

1/30 came out blurry. It worked great on the cars though. I'm going twice as fast as the cars though. I can't really slow down because I need the speed to get down low (lean) since that was the shot I wanted. I had the camera's focus set to continues servo so that it AF and was using burst mode. Thanks for the tips though. Looks like yours came out great!

Here is what I was going for. This was me at tail of the dragon (North Carolina) taken by professional photographers on the good corners.

That shot was not taken by a pro it is not good enough, shutter speed was 1/160 and it's still not in focus, this was shot at 1/30 with an old Canon 10D

wouldn't you like a shot of you like this