Bring your photography alive with panning

One technique that is fairly easy to learn and can provide you with some stunning visual results is panning.    It can help you to imply motion, bring energy and excitement into your photographs.    This is one element of photography that can help to invoke emotion in your viewer and make your images stand out.    Here is a picture of a cyclist.   It is properly composed.   It is properly exposed.   The colors are well balanced.  What’s missing?

ENERGY! MOTION! EMOTION! Have a look out our cyclist for a moment.    He is riding a very high end bike.  He is decked out and ready to race.    Seems a little strange that he is out for a casual slow ride.  Have you heard the expression motion creates emotion?   Have a look at the photo below.

What do you feel when you see this?    Do you feel the energy and movement of the rider?    Is it more exciting than the first picture?     To me, one feels like a race while the other feels like the rider is out for a casual ride.    Both were actually flying by me at ~30km an hour.

All it takes to master panning is practice and patience.     I am sure there are many approaches and ideas of how best to execute this technique.   Here I will explain what works best for me but if you have a different technique that works for you or tips to share, please leave a comment.

Let start with getting the right settings on your camera.  While I typically shoot my camera in manual mode, shutter priority is the best choice when panning.    The primary concern is getting your shutter speed to a level where you can keep your subject sharp while blurring their background.   This will also allow your camera to adjust the aperture if the subject moves into different lighting conditions such as under a shaded tree.   I recommend setting your ISO as low as possible to reduce the potential of any digital noise.   One thing to consider if you do this is your might end up with very small apertures such f/19 so you’ll need to look out for lens dust in your final photos.   They are easy to clean up in Photoshop and well worth the lack of noise in the photo.

For shutter speeds, I have seen people use anything from 1/60 to 1 sec, for me I have found that 1/20 is perfect for me.   What works for you will mostly depend how steady you are holding your camera and how steady you can pan your subject.   Make sure your focus mode is set to AI Servo so your camera continually focuses as you pan your subject.    Lastly make sure your shooting mode is continuous.  Now let’s start some panning…

If your subject is approaching you from the left, plant your feet squarely in front of you as if you were looking ahead and then then the upper half of your body to the left to start tracking your subject.   This might be a little uncomfortable or seem unnatural at first but it will help you to track your subject smoothly and get better shots.  Think of your waist as a spring that is being wound up as you turn left and unwound as you snap right tracking your subject.     You want to do this with smooth and steady movement.    Try to avoid speeding up or slowing down if your subject is moving at a consistent speed and continue shooting a few shots after the subject has finished passing right in front of you.   This help you from jerking the camera to a stop on your last photo and missing your shot but you might also get a few extra keepers that you didn’t expect.  If you are having trouble keep the subject where you want without slowing down or speeding up try using a wider angel lens and crop the photo later.      Have a look at some of the results that you can achieve with this technique;

The great thing about panning it is doesn’t require additional equipment.   There is no set up time required.   Sometimes I am very busy with family and work commitments that I cannot dedicate the time I want to photography.   With panning, you can simply be out for a walk after dinner and stop on a near by corner and spend time minutes and go home with some amazing shots.   Giving panning a try, you’ll be glad you did.

 

  • Show comments (17)
    • March 08, 2012 at 2:38 pm, Patrick Pak said:

      Can you get this kind of effect with the Leica M9? Would love your sharing on this as focussing on pathfinder is already a challenge.

      Thank you for sharing your wonderful work

    • September 14, 2011 at 8:32 am, Dave said:

      Kai Jian – Both work fine. I think early evening is best during golden hour as the color from the lights you blur will blend very well the ambient light and make a nice effect.

    • September 14, 2011 at 8:29 am, Dave said:

      Glad it was helpful Sam…

    • September 12, 2011 at 10:52 pm, Sam Britton said:

      Of course. I should have known. Can you tell I’m still learning (after a year) the ins and and outs of this sensational piece of equipment? :) Thanks so much for clearing up my confusion, Jason.

    • September 12, 2011 at 9:10 pm, Kai Jian said:

      Is it better to do it at night or during the day?

    • September 12, 2011 at 4:39 pm, Dave said:

      Thanks for sharing Jason…

    • September 12, 2011 at 1:59 pm, Jason St. Petersburg Photographer said:

      @Sam — what Canon calls AI Servo most of the rest of the photography world, including Nikon, calls AF-C. I have a Nikon D300 just like you, and one of the main reasons I got that body was because of the great, very convenient dedicated switch for going from AF-C, to AF-S, to M focus modes.

    • September 12, 2011 at 5:44 am, Sam Britton said:

      First of all; thank you for your great tips and suggestions on the various topics posted here. I really appreciate your ideas. I’m shooting a Nikon D300. Am very interested in experiencing ‘panning” but am a little confused with one of your comments. You mention to make sure the “focus mode set to Al Servo.” I’m thinking that I either don’t have that on my Nikon or haven’t figured out where/how to find it. Can you give me some additional input? Thanks very much. Sam Britton – Michigan, USA.

    • September 09, 2011 at 11:30 am, Hanny said:

      I really love your pictures. Well done. I want to capture a photo like that but I don’t have an expensive dSLR camera, the only thing that I have is Digicam hehehe. Thanks for sharing! GOD BLESS

    • September 09, 2011 at 7:09 am, Dave said:

      Al Servo is Canon’s continuous focus mode. It’s the same as Continue Focus on Nikon if that is what you are using. Continuous Release is very helpful with panning as well.

    • September 09, 2011 at 4:31 am, Susan Cantan said:

      What is AI Servo? My options for Focus Mode are AF-A, AF-S and AF-C. I assume I’ll need to use continuous as the release mode.
      Thanks

    • September 09, 2011 at 4:08 am, 10 Things I Learned from Daily Shooting | | Photo Shoot Ideas said:

      [...] Panning is a great way to bring motion and movement to your photos to make them come alive.  If you don’t know how, read THIS. [...]

    • September 09, 2011 at 2:33 am, sandeep s shukla said:

      i am very much new to thi dslr culture and know a very little bit about this thing, i own a nikon D3100 with a kit lens a plan to buy a 55-300 mm telephoto ,but i need a guru for this who can teach me such nice things. by the way ur photographs were really superb. i liked them a lot believe me its not flattering i really liked them.

    • September 09, 2011 at 2:16 am, Jason St. Petersburg Photographer said:

      I found your site via the DPS article you recently wrote. I clicked through since I used to live in Tokyo and recognized many of the landmarks and areas seen in the photos featured in the DPS article.

      For some reason I had never tried a panning shot until last month. I will try out your tip of using shutter priority, especially for daytime panning shots.

    • September 09, 2011 at 1:30 am, Manu James said:

      I really liked the last picture and also the way you explained “how to do panning”.
      Thx for the tip.I am surly gonna try this :-)

    • September 09, 2011 at 12:41 am, Nike said:

      These are really great…will certainly try it!

    • July 12, 2011 at 12:19 am, Stéfan said:

      Thanks for the tips!
      The picture with the bicycle guy wearing the green jacket is amazing: it really looks like the man and his bicycle were cut from another picture and pasted on this blurry background!

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