P#27 Q6B: The What, Where, When and Why of Using Panning to Capture Motion
If you're not sure when or how to use panning when capturing motion in your photographs, this is what you need to know
Panning is one way to capture motion in photography, but it's not always the right way. How do you know when you should pan and when you shouldn't? And when you should, how do you go about panning properly? Brenda Tharp has the answers to these questions.
To Pan or Not To Pan?
Brenda Tharp: I like to pan when the subject is moving, like with birds in flight or if there are horses running in a field. Those are two examples where I will choose the pan with the subject. I can choose a faster or slower shutter speed and get a different effect in the pan process as well, which is really cool.
If I pan on a field of horses that were running and I shot with a fairly fast shutter speed, I can render the subject quite sharp and still have a feeling of motion with the background being blurred or parts of the animals having a little bit of blur.
If I go with a slower shutter speed when I'm panning on that same group of horses, I'm going to get motion within the animals as well because they're moving up and down and their heads and legs are all moving a little differently than their bodies.
Again, it has to do with what kind of effect I'm looking for that's going to help me decide whether I want to use a faster or slower shutter speed when I'm panning.
Audri Lanford: That's really powerful. What's the best way to achieve each of these effects?
Brenda Tharp: If you're looking to freeze the action, you need fast shutter speeds. In terms of freezing the action, you're looking at about 1/160th on up to 1/2000th of a second. That's really going to depend upon the speed of movement that your subject has.
With the crashing wave for example, 1/500th of a second will probably do the job but it all depends on your focal length as well. Therein lies the challenge. With motion, how fast or slow your shutter speed is is going will determine whether or not you're successful at freezing.
The longer your telephoto lens, the faster your shutter speed needs to be to freeze the action. That motion is enhanced within the frame of your viewfinder. You need a faster shutter speed to stop it.
If you photograph that same crashing wave with a 28mm lens, you may be able to get away with 1/60th or 1/125th to freeze the motion. You have to factor in the focal length that you're using. With digital it's wonderful because you can look at your preview and if you missed that wave, there's the next one coming in behind it. If you're lucky and you have a repeating subject, you can check out whether your shutter speeds are fast enough for the effect that you want.
It's kind of hard to put it all into one little nutshell because there are so many factors involved with panning in regards to your subject speed, your focal length, and whether you want to freeze it or slow it down.
I think that the most important thing remember you need fast shutter speeds for freezing. For going with the motion or for panning, you're typically going to use slower shutter speeds. Those slower shutter speeds will be anything from 1/30th on down to two to four seconds, again depending on the subject and the nature of the motion that you're trying to capture and express.
In Closing
When should you pan with your subject? It really depends on what's being shot. When a subject is moving, panning may be your best bet. Just remember, when you're panning you need to use slower shutter speeds to capture the nature of the motion and the subject.
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