Panning....? C&C please

furion23 · Jun 8, 2011

[deleted]

Compaq · Jun 8, 2011

I've been having a sort of panning fetish lately, and have been experimenting myself.

I'm assuming you only want comments on your photos purely on a technical level, so that's what I'm doing

First question, what's your exif data? That would help!

When panning, you must engage in a sturdy stance, looking quite stupid. Be ready for the guys in the cars to tilt their heads to look at you with a look that says "why is that pervy dude panning us with a what looks like a huge camera with mega lenses?. PERV!".

Once you've become comfortable with that, focus on your sturdy stance. Pan with your entire body, not just your arms. You want to move your camera in a motion that follows the edge of the road - no vertical movements with regard to the road, a straight line. I hope you see what I mean. Also, keep the focus point in your view finder on the same part of the car throughout the whole panning movement. Start to pan before you take the shot, and keep panning until after the last shot is taken - which leads me to your camera settings.

You may find it easier to get a keeper if you set your rebel to af servo mode. That means your camera continuously focuses on where you aim your camera. Also, I find I get more keepers if I set the camera to continuous shooting. I'm not sure how many pics per second you get with that camera, but I'd guess 3.5. I may very much be wrong. Another tip I heard on here (can't remember from whom) was to assign focusing to another button that the shutter button. It's easier, I think.

As for your photos, there's some motion blur in them. Beware of a too slow shutter speed. I've found that I can't go lower (yet) than to 1/40th on 50mm when cars move at ~50 km/h. You need to try and fail. Set your camera to either manual or shutter priority. (remember to check exposure when in manual).

Another tip is to find a place to shoot which has a background not too far from your subjects (cars etc). That'll greatly improve the motion blur of the background, as opposed to the background being hundreds of meters behind.

But as for your technique, remember the stance, hold your camera nicely and pan with your body. Perhaps try look through both the view finder as well as directly on the car with your other eye, it might help.

Your photos also seem a bit over exposed. Try to expose for your subjects. It's hard to not get a blown out sky, especially if the cars are dark. I'm not an expert on exposure, but I don't believe there's a way to get "proper" exposure for both the car and the sky when panning. There's no possibility for taking several exposures, unless you expose for the sky beforehand, and try to get a sharp panning shot in exactly the same place as your sky-shot. Must be panning for experts, anyway.

Practice, practice and some more practice. If you have a camera buddy, get together, pack food and water and go pan for hours. Just sit in a nice place and shoot. Mentally prepare to look through many shots afterwards!

edit: for the biggest panning effect, have your kit lens at 55mm

I hope there's something in here that helps :blushing:

KmH · Jun 8, 2011

Compaq said:
First question, what's your exif data?

Go to Opanda.com and download their free EXIF reader.

Using Opanda I can right click on his image and read the EXIF dtat for it.

Vtec44 · Jun 8, 2011

KmH said:
Compaq said:

First question, what's your exif data?

Click to expand...

Using Opanda I can right click on his image and read the EXIF dtat for it.

I was wondering how the heck do you read the exif data so quickly...

Thanks!!

Compaq · Jun 8, 2011

KmH said:
Compaq said:

First question, what's your exif data?

Click to expand...

Go to Opanda.com and download their free EXIF.

Using Opanda I can right click on his image and read the EXIF dtat for it.