Panning to Caputure the Moment
By .Rich Silva
8 Jun 2009
Often, action is occurring right before your eyes. Capturing a snapshot of an event is as simple as pressing the shutter button on your camera; however, showing a sense of motion in the image takes a bit more thought, planning, and skill. All of which are attainable by a little practice, knowing your camera, and understanding the relationship between ISO, Shutter Speed, and Aperture.
My passion is automotive and aviation photography, but these techniques apply to any fast-moving sport—or even the fast moving toddler. This technique, commonly referred to as "Panning", requires the photographer to keep the moving subject still in the viewfinder while the subject is moving by them. By keeping the subject still, and by using a relatively slow shutter speed, the relative movement of the background will blur-out, all while keeping the subject tack-sharp. This effect works because you are keeping the subjects relative motion essentially zero by panning the camera and tracking the subject in the viewfinder, thus the relative motion of the subject is zero. The subject does not move in the viewfinders, but the background is whizzing by. The trick is to click off a couple of images while you are panning the camera with the subject.
In order for the panning technique to really show the relative motion of the subject, the shutter speed has to be relatively slow. Relatively is the operative word. Shutter speeds for fast moving objects require a faster of the "Slow" shutter speed, say 1/90th to 1/250th; while slower moving objects will require even slower shutter speeds, around 1/20th to 1/60th. These shutter speeds are by no means a hard and fast rule, but rather are determined through practice, experimentation, and constant review of the images in the camera's LCD.
Controlling aperture has the benefit of helping keep your images sharp. Recall, aperture controls the depth of field of an image. A large aperture (F2.8 – F5.6) results in a shallow depth of field, where only a small portion of the "Depth" of an image is sharp. A small aperture (F8-F16) allows for more of the image to be sharp, foreground to background. Therefore, when panning, it is best to keep the aperture as small open as possible. This will help keep more of the subject in focus as you have move depth in your image.
Of course for any set ISO, the shutter speed slows as the aperture is decreased (e.g. smaller). What this means—as the aperture of the lens is closed in order to increase the depth of field, the shutter must stay open longer to let the required amount of light to the sensor for the exposure. Therefore, keeping an eye on your shutter speed and aperture is crucial, and by adjusting the ISO for the light levels, you can keep the shutter speed relatively low and keep the aperture small.
So you have the basics, now you have to go out and shoot, practice, shoot some more, and get some really exiting movement in your images. Good Luck!
2 responses
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Rey mos gave props (9 Jun 2009):
interesting technique which i want to explore in the future as soon I got my SLR.
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Mei Teng Wong said (9 Jun 2009):
I like using this technique in my photography. See some of my work below:-
http://jpgmag.com/photos/1675885
http://jpgmag.com/photos/1673238
http://jpgmag.com/photos/1673201
