I belong to a wonderful online camera course called A Year With My Camera. There are many niche groups and one of them is the Urban/Street group. Each month the group is invited to practice a specific skill or theme. This month the invitation is to practice using a slow shutter speed. This enable us to photograph moving objects and get the subject clear with a blurry background so it is clear the subject is moving. One technique to do this is ‘panning’.
This technique can be used for anything that moves- such as birds, pets, children.
Here are some of my first attempts:
f/8, 1/20 sec, ISO 100, EC-0.3, at 30mm Shutter Priority Mode
You can see the subject is blurry, although the background is the affect I was aiming to achieve. I was too close to the subject for this shot to work.
f/7.1, 1/20 sec, ISO 100, EC-0.3 at 30mm Shutter Priority Mode
A better effort, the subject is sharp, but is not static, you can see movement.
How It Is Done
Settings:
Use Shutter priority and continuous shutter mode
Set focus to Auto Focus Continuous, and spot focus in center of frame
Shoot wide in order to crop as necessary
Shutter speeds:
Cars 1/50 or 1/00 sec . As timing gets better, reduce SS to 1/25sec
Aperture 1/4 and upwards to 1/8
Technique:
Point feet towards subject
Focus on subject before it arrives
Half press shutter button
Follow the subject at the same speed as it approaches and moves away -hand movement must match the speed of movement in frame as you pan along with them
Movement is in the hips not the feet to make movement smooth
Follow through with the pan- don’t stop when subject is in front of you
Use a zoom lens
This is one of those photography skills where practice and more practice really pays off!
Here are two excellent videos with examples of the technique
Here is the final image of the day:
f/5.6, ISO 100, EC-0.3 at 30mm Shutter Priority Mode
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