Panning: motion photography 101

[J-specCb4]

Panning, a photographic method in which you would follow a moving object with a camera as it zooms by; most of all examples on this board are cars.


* File size: 532495 bytes
* File date: 2007:06:10 23:29:01
* Camera make: Canon
* Camera model: Canon EOS DIGITAL REBEL XT
* Date/Time: 2007:06:09 09:43:11
* Resolution: 1024 x 671
* Flash used: No
* Focal length: 50.0mm (35mm equivalent: 148mm)
* CCD width: 12.16mm
* Exposure time: 0.0080 s (1/125)
* Aperture: f/5.6
* ISO equiv.: 100
* Whitebalance: Auto
* Metering Mode: matrix
* Exposure: Manual
* Exposure Mode: Auto bracketing

the above is an example with attached exif data,

shot at 1/125 of a second allows motion blur on the wheels and the background while if done right sharply focused on the vehicle....

while 1/125 worked out alright on the image above it may not work in every case, lighting, speed of vehicle and depth of field are all issues to be worked out.

when panning you want to keep the shutter speed above 1/60th of a second as much as possible as panning at a slower speed creates more blur and makes it harder to keep sharp focus on the passing vehicle. While in some cases photographers manage to keep a vehicle sharply focused at speeds of 1/15th and even slower, it can be very difficult depending on the speed of the vehicle and stability of the camera.

holding the camera to your face and prefocusing on the passing vehicle you would simply snap as many photos of the passing object as possible while turning to keep the object in frame. Keeping similar speed of the object is also helps insure sharpness....

there are many ways to apply this technique and knowing it and having good practice will help a photographer capture a great shot!

I would like for people to post up examples of panning that you capture!

[Accord R33]

Can you explain a good method on how to "pre-focus"? I tried this method for the first time the other day, with less than desirable results. I dont think i was going about it the right way though.

Here was my process/setup:

1. I was standing on teh side of the road with my tripod.

2. My friend was driving his car down the street passing me.

3. to setup, i had him stop right in front of me while i let the camera auto focus on him.

4. I set my shooting mode to continuous

5. Holding the same focus, i had him back up, and then start driving toward me at a pretty slow speed.

6. As he passed by, i would turn the head of the tripod and try to follow him the best i could.

Here was the end result:


That was the only picture (out of about 3 or 4 tries) that even came close. The shots where he was directly in front of me (where i was initially trying to capture) came out really blury.

Also, after i did this shoot i read up some more on panning, and it looks like the Rebel has a feature called AF Servo, where it will continously change focus on a moving object. Im going to try this next time, maybe it will help.

Another thing that may help is being in a moving car that is driving parallel to the subject, rather than standing on the side of the road.

One tip i want to give to anyone who is trying this for the first time, is that your subject does not really need to be moving as fast as you might think. In my picture above, it looks like he was doing 80mph, but he probably wasnt going faster than 5-10mph

[Accord R33]

here is a great online tutorial about the subject, though i assume people here dont have that kind of equipment:
http://www.morguefile.com/archive/cl...mff6726j4ncfa7

[TheNextAZN]

heres my pic for sharing


i love taking motion/pan shots. . here are my specs.

Canon EOS Rebel Xt
Shutter: 1/125
F-stop: f/8.0
Aperture: f/8
ISO: 100
Focal Length: 55mm

.. i find it alot easier to to panning shots by making urself into the tripod. I think it's way to hard to manage a pan with a tri-pod.

when i took this show i was kneelling with my elbow(camera hand) on my knee. I would use my left foot to push off causing my whole body to pan. This way i am able to control the speed of my pan, and still see though the view finder.

another good thing to do is focus ur eye on one part of the subject, and they to keep that in the center(or whereever..in my case right side ) of the viewfinder. in this case it was theamber corner. lol.. i didn't know eric(cali-racer) would throw out his drive-by "peace"

[J-specCb4]

yeah to prefocus your going to want to go into the menu setting on the camera and change the focus mode from one shot to AI servo what this does is when an image comes closer the focus will readjust on the point you focused on prior to shooting.... hope this helps.