panning

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kay2301

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Hi, at college we got to have a shot of panning, although i have tried already from my negs they dont look like they turned out. Going to dev them next week to see. The settings i used were around f11 @ 1/60th and f8 @ 1/30th, should these have turned out ok. I know when i pressed the shutter button it took the shot quite quick, i thought it would stay open for a while when i was going along with the subject!!!!!!!

Im quite confused with all this:thinking:

Any help apreciated

Im gonna try with another roll of film this weekend
 
am also interested in this (sorry can't help!)

How do you get panning shots were the car for example, is perfectly sharp, and the rest of the background is a beautiful blur

My theory is practice and matching the panning speed perfectly
 
I'm guessing the shutter stayed open for oooooh, I dunno, maybe 1/60th or 1/30th? :D

You need a nice long smooth movement of the camera, releasing the shutter at the point at which you frame it right and carry on with your smooth movement past that instant to ensure you've got it.

Takes a lot of practice... I'd try either faster shutter speeds or practice with digital :D
 
desantnik said:
I'm guessing the shutter stayed open for oooooh, I dunno, maybe 1/60th or 1/30th? :D

You need a nice long smooth movement of the camera, releasing the shutter at the point at which you frame it right and carry on with your smooth movement past that instant to ensure you've got it.

Takes a lot of practice... I'd try either faster shutter speeds or practice with digital :D
Click to expand...

What he said :D
 
so my shutter was too slow then. Im getting so confused with the speed i should be setting it at. Shall i try 1/125 then. I was told by my tutor to go for 1/60 or 1/30 but everything looks the same lol

thanks
 
1/30th is really quite slow for a first time effort. With practice it's possible but it's difficult
 
What are you shooting? the quicker the subject the easier it is as you can get good effects at 1/125.

This was shot at 1/400 at Olivers Mount on the start/finish straight and it's still got pretty good blur(Ryan Farquar-bloody quick on a 600)
 
I was shooting cars on a long main road, thats the pics i need to get lol.

gonna try again i think at 1/125 and then again at a slightly slower speed at 1/60, see how it goes, do u think f8 will be ok?
 
kay2301 said:
so my shutter was too slow then. Im getting so confused with the speed i should be setting it at. Shall i try 1/125 then. I was told by my tutor to go for 1/60 or 1/30 but everything looks the same lol

thanks
Click to expand...

It depends what subject you are photographing, what speed the subject is travelling at, what lens your are using and getting the right shutter speed / aperture to match to create the right motion blur. shutter speeds of 1/30 1/60 or even 1/125 aren't easy to get right. So apply the 1 over focal length rule explained below.

A common rule of thumb for estimating how fast the exposure needs to be for a given focal length is the one over focal length rule. This states that for a 35 mm camera, the exposure time needs to be at least as fast as one over the focal length in seconds. In other words, when using a 200 mm focal length on a 35 mm camera, the exposure time needs to be at least 1/200 seconds-- otherwise blurring may be hard to avoid. Keep in mind that this rule is just for rough guidance; some may be able to hand hold a shot for much longer or shorter times than this rule estimates. For users of digital cameras with cropped sensors, one needs to convert into a 35 mm equivalent focal length.

That will help with setting up the right shutter settings.

Now, Panning is a technique which requires mastering over time, its not something that you can instantly do and repeat. It require training you body to become familiar with the motion, thus it become almost automatic. What this will achieve is a smooth pan, something that is not easy to master.

Pick up the subject early, focus and pan with the subject, take them image when subject fills 2/3 of the frame, continue the pan after the shot, try and avoid stopping the pan or jerking at the edge will also aid in good results.
 
thanks for the advice, gonna have a play tomorrow and see what i get
 
Depending on how close the subject is and how much it changes distance to the camera(ie how much the focus system needs to work to track the subject in), you might also want to forget AF tracking and just pre-focus on a point and release the shutter at that point.

I've found that works much better at very slow speeds, but you do need to watch your depth of field to ensure you're not asking too much to get your pre-focus nailed right.

Any non-smoothness in the movement of the subject itself will also introduce problems too... if its accelerating hard, braking hard or going over bumps, it will all effect your efforts at really sloooooooow speeds.
 
Another point to note is when you press the shutter button the camera will shake ever so slightly. If you hold the shutter for multiple shots the 2nd shot will be smoother and last one will be a wee bit blurry too as the camera will shake again as you release the button. So for a 3 shot burst the 2nd one will be more sharp.

Possibly not ideal if you're shooting film though.
 
steve172 said:
Another point to note is when you press the shutter button the camera will shake ever so slightly. If you hold the shutter for multiple shots the 2nd shot will be smoother and last one will be a wee bit blurry too as the camera will shake again as you release the button. So for a 3 shot burst the 2nd one will be more sharp.

Possibly not ideal if you're shooting film though.
Click to expand...

i never heard that before (never shoot in burst either) but at the speeds used in panning i wouldnt have thought that really was an issue.
 
Agree with the advice given so far, make sure you not snatching the camera as you click but practise a smooth movement that you continue with even after the shot is taken. Also agree on the shutter speed, here is one I took at the britsh motogp this year @1/320" this is on the dunlop straight and believe me these guys are really moving on this section of the track.

I am happy with the blur but it could of been sharper and I think a slightly faster shutter speed would of maintained the blur in the wheels and background whilst making the main image sharper.

IMG_0200_edited-1.jpg
 
follow through..
 
You are able to capture pans at slower shutter speeds, but to get everything right in the shot takes practice and a very smooth pan movement, taken at 1/100sec, but generally, I'm taking shots at 1/250 or 1/320 sec because of the speed of the bikes

IMG_9314copy1.jpg


1/320 sec
IMG_9025copy1.jpg


or even 1/640 sec, but still generate motion blur
IMG_0603copy1.jpg
 
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