Fun With Panning

Panning photography can be fun and frustrating.  Fun because you can make some fantastic photos that really grab a viewers attention.  Frustrating because it is not easy and takes some practice.  The good news is you can do this with most any camera that allows you to set the shutter speed.

A panning example. 1/15 sec, f/13 at 27mm (full frame equivalent)

Panning is a technique where the photographer pans the camera along with the moving subject keeping the subject close to the same position in the frame.  When done correctly, and with a bit of luck, you end up getting a relatively sharp subject but a blurred background, like the photo of the red Mustang.

Recently June and I were exploring downtown Knoxville, Tennessee around the Market Square.  It's a fun place to practice street photography, which is candid unposed photography of people, typically in an urban setting.  There are plenty of interesting people in downtown Knoxville on a Friday night, doing many different things.  One thing we saw lots of were people zipping around on e-scooters.  People on scooters make great subjects for panning because:

• They are slow moving
• They are on predictable paths
• The main subject is people

You can do panning with other subjects but faster subjects moving erratically are more difficult to photograph.

Too slow.  1/10 sec, f/14 at 53mm

Setting up the camera - You will want to be in Shutter Priority or Manual Mode.  For a slower moving subject, such as scooters and bicyclists, you will want a shutter speed between 1/15 and 1/30 of a second.  Using a  shutter speed slower than 1/15 will make it difficult to avoid motion blur in the subject, as in the motorcyclist above. You may need a faster shutter speed when photographing a faster moving subject.

Set the camera to continuous focus tracking so that it will adjust focus as the distance to the subject changes.  Using burst mode or continuous shooting mode will allow you to take many shots as the subject moves by you. 

1/18 sec, f/11 at 53mm

Setting up the shot -  you want to position yourself so your view of the subject is perpendicular to the direction of motion, as seen in these example photos. This will minimize the change in camera to subject distance and improve the odds that the camera will be able to keep the subject in focus.

Be aware of the background.  Just like any photograph, you don't want a bright colorful background to distract from the subject.  Also, watch out for objects in front of the subject as you pan.

I like to zoom out a bit and crop later to get a better composition.  As the subject approaches center them in the photo and press the shutter.  In burst mode, the camera will keep taking photos as long as you keep your finger on the shutter or the memory buffer fills up.  The key is to keep the subject in the same position within the frame.  It's not as easy as it sounds and this is the part that takes practice and a bit of luck.  Keep shooting while the subject moves past you.

1/15 sec, f/11 at 53mm

Go out and give this a try.  It will take a lot of practice so be patient. You can practice by heading to most any downtown area where there are cars or people passing by.  Add your comments to this post to let me know how you're doing.

Speed

While working through my backlog of photos from Korea I came across two that I thought would make a great illustration of something I talked about at the last Eastman Camera Club meeting.

We were visiting the historic city of Gyeongju South Korea with our daughter Holly and two of her friends Rhonda and Minseon.  One of the attractions is riding in these brightly painted horse drawn carriages that are festooned with Christmas lights and play really loud pop music as they go by.  No charming stroll through the park here.  They seem to challenge each other to see which one can run up and down the road faster.   We didn't take the ride but I did catch a few shots of them as the went by.

This first photo was taken as the carriage came nearer.  The shutter speed was a relative fast 1/100 of a second.  The carriage and driver with his cool sunglasses and pink cap are pretty sharp and in focus.  Although he was moving, you can't tell it in this photo.

Fast Shutter - Slow Speed

The second carriage was moving about the same speed, but the photo really has a feeling of speed.

Slow Shutter - Fast Speed

I slowed the shutter speed down to 1/3 of a second and used a technique called panning.   I panned my camera to keep the carriage as close to the same position in the frame as possible as it passed by.   When done right the background will be blurred and the subject will be sharp.   In this case I had my shutter a bit too slow for the speed of the carriage and was not able to keep from having some motion blur in the subject.   Being a horse drawn carriage on a bumpy road, there was more than just the horizontal movement.  The wheels are blurred due to their rotation, the trotting horse is very blurred and the lights show some motion blur.  Surprisingly the people came out pretty clear considering everything else in the photo.  This is not my best panning shot, but I really like the way it came out.   You get a great sense of motion and speed in this photo compared to the first.

Panning works best when the subject is moving parallel to the front of the camera and on a relatively straight path which allows you to predict where they’ll be moving to. If the subject is moving more at an angle they can move out of focus and you don't get the same effect with the background.

1/25 second exposure

The best shutter speed depends on how fast the subject is moving and how close you are. The faster the subject is moving the faster your shutter speed will need to be.   Experiment with speeds between 1/3 and 1/60 of a second.  If your camera or lens has image stabilization / vibration reduction then turn it off or turn it to Mode 2.   Set your focusing mode to lock on and continuously adjust the focus as the subject moves.  This is called AF-C on Nikon, or AI Servo on Canon.  You also want the camera set on burst mode.  As the subject approaches press the shutter button down half way to lock on the focus then press and hold it down to take as many shots as you can as it passes by.

This is a technique that takes some practice.  Luckily it's easy to practice.  Stand on the side of a busy street and take pictures of the cars that pass by.   Don't worry if you get some strange looks from the motorists.  Just look official.  You'll find they tend to hit their brakes as the go by.  Other practice subjects include bicycles, motorcycles and people walking or running.   There are plenty of examples online if you google photography panning.  Give it a try and have fun.