Panning tips..

[slinky]

We're off racing next weekend at Santa Pod, i'll be taking the 350d with my new lens (70-300 sigma) so am after some tips on panning... my previous attempts have nearly got there, but I need a bit more!

I appreciate that pushing a 1/30 shutter speed when I really haven't got any experience with panning is asking a little too much, so I'll be speeding things up a little, but if anyone's got any tips I'd be greatful.

Cheers,

slinky
587racing.com

[fergusd]

Practice keeping cars in the frame until they are well past where you'd take the picture . . . take the picture but keep on panning . . . this seperates the act of pressing the shutter from the panning itself which I think leads to much beter panning . . . as ever smoothness is key . . . experiment with different shutter speeds . . . it's cheap to experiment on digital ;-)

Fd

[Furyous]

Slinky, try going up to 1/60 or even 1/100 and panning with the car.Does depend on your angle lots tho.

Will come say Hi on the Monday, subject to weather.

F

[F308 MAN]

i) go to the nearest motorway, sit on the banking and shoot 'til "the cows come home".
won't cost you a penny and it's better than practicing at the event itself.

ii) select 'A1 Servo' and 'continuous shooting' .... the first and the last of the burst may be a tad ropey but the middle shots should be reasonable.

iii) practice, practice & more practice.

d

[Gemm]

AF may not be fast enough to track the cars with the Sigma. If that happens, just switch to manual focus, pre-focus on part of the track where you want to take the picture, follow the car and press the shutter just before the car reaches that point. It might take a bit of practice to get the timing right.

Edited by Gemm on Friday 18th May 22:43

[trackdemon]

Try to remember the relationship between focal length & shutter speed. "They" say that for sharpness you need shutter speed faster than your focal length ie:

200mm = 1/200

However digital complicates this equation somewhat by introducing crop factors of depending what body you use - typically focal length x 1.3-1.6. E.g on my D200 a 200mm focal length will equate to somewhere around 320mm..... so for sharpness @ 200mm you will need at least 1/320 sutter speed.

However from what you say you dont want total sharpness, you want subject sharpness/background blur. The relationship between focal length and shutter speed is still important:

Shoot 1/30 @ 300mm whilst panning and you'll get loads of motion blur
Shoot 1/500 @ 20mm and you'll freeze the action

You want something in between these two extremes, so the first thing to decide is what kind of effect you want. You may want a slightly sharp subject with heavy background blur in which case 1/30 @ 150mm may work or you may want crisp subject with just enough blur to express motion in which case 1/125 @ 100mm may work - the mantra as with so many things photography is to try out different formula's and work out which you like most.

Regarding actual panning technique, again practice makes perfect however you'll give yourself a leg up if you remember these basic mantra's:

Pan all the way through the objects motion from start to finish, ideally releasing shutter somewhere in the middle. You'll receive the same instruction trying to shoot clay pigeons: I was useless, so photographic panning has taken quite some practice LOL

Elbows in. Swivel your hips. Firm stance. Legs poised. Be smooth.

You'll hear all of the above, and all are true (along with many others I'm sure I've forgotten). But putting it into practice takes, er, well, practice. You may be a natural but the only way you'll find out is to get out there and shoot. Get out there and get shooting!!!!

[trackdemon]

And of course post the results.

[Gemm]

trackdemon said:

Try to remember the relationship between focal length & shutter speed. "They" say that for sharpness you need shutter speed faster than your focal length ie:

200mm = 1/200

But surely that rule applies to static objects? For panned shots, it's dependent on the speed of the car and the distance to the car, so I'd personally forget about that rule. I'd say a good starting point is around 1/250s, then start experimenting with slower shutter speed, but if the car's doing 200mph, then you'll get a good blur even with faster shutter speed.

Edited by Gemm on Friday 18th May 23:33

[trackdemon]

Gemm said:

trackdemon said:

Try to remember the relationship between focal length & shutter speed. "They" say that for sharpness you need shutter speed faster than your focal length ie:

200mm = 1/200

But surely that rule applies to static objects? For panned shots, it's dependent on the speed of the car and the distance to the car, so I'd personally forget

Edited by Gemm on Friday 18th May 23:33

I'm pretty sure my post makes a lot more sense when its not chopped.

Edited by trackdemon on Saturday 19th May 02:08