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Archive 2015 · Practice with panning

  
 
beavens
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p.1 #1 · p.1 #1 · Practice with panning


UCI bike races are in town this weekend so I figured I could get some practice with panning.

I didn't think to bring a shorter lens (mistake!), so I had to do the best I could with what I had.

All manual/handheld.

Thanks!

Jeff




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Edited on Sep 27, 2015 at 11:27 AM · View previous versions



Sep 27, 2015 at 11:26 AM
beavens
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p.1 #2 · p.1 #2 · Practice with panning


Couple more.




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7




Sep 27, 2015 at 11:27 AM
WalterF
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p.1 #3 · p.1 #3 · Practice with panning


Nice job on the panning, #3 stood out to me as one of the better ones. Nice panning and left room for him to ride into.

#4 is the type of biking I like

Walt



Sep 27, 2015 at 11:38 AM
ben egbert
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p.1 #4 · p.1 #4 · Practice with panning


3 for me too. I think the idea is to have the subject frozen, or at least important features while the background is blured. Of course a bike rider is peddling like crazy so the legs will be blurred and the moving parts like the wheels.

The motorcycles show that effect.



Sep 27, 2015 at 04:14 PM
georgetd
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p.1 #5 · p.1 #5 · Practice with panning


In general, I think you have too much motion in the cyclists legs. But, I really like #5, showing the relative speeds very well. It's a great overtaking shot.


Sep 27, 2015 at 08:38 PM
AuntiPode
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p.1 #6 · p.1 #6 · Practice with panning


Sharper cyclists is what the pros seem to shoot for with panned cyclist images as I recall.

Oddly, perhaps, I found the spectators at races often more interesting than the riders.



Sep 27, 2015 at 09:42 PM
lylejk
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p.1 #7 · p.1 #7 · Practice with panning


Amazing how share the subjects were considering you did this manually. Thanks for sharing.


Sep 28, 2015 at 04:21 AM
beavens
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p.1 #8 · p.1 #8 · Practice with panning


Thanks for the feedback everyone! With a moving subject like a cyclist (opposed to something with more static parts like the motorcycle or a car) it seems like it would be difficult to get the entire body frozen.

I was under the impression that as long as you got more of the important parts sharp that you would still get that isolation but still with a heavy sense of motion (including the background).

It was a learning experience for sure, and went better than the first time I played around with panning.

Jeff



Sep 28, 2015 at 06:43 AM
RustyBug
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p.1 #9 · p.1 #9 · Practice with panning


Nice little set.

The key thing to notice here for your take away is (as noted by others) the difference in panning to create motion (i.e. the background / street) blur, and the shutter speed to capture / freeze subject motion.

Noting your ss @ 1/30 ... you could have your ss @ (arbitrary number) 1/1000 and still create background blur by panning (depending on how fast you pan). The creation of the background blur is more depending upon your panning speed than your shutter speed. Granted the combination will impact the magnitude of the effect, but the point is that the 1/30 SS is not a required speed to achieve the BG blur of static components, the panning motion will induce that. (Hold that thought.)

In the case of your motorcyclist, he is a relatively static subject within the linear motion of the panning. Thus, the 1/30 shutter speed incurs no motion blur, while the cyclists are not a static subject within the linear motion of the panning as their legs / feet are moving in both the horizontal and vertical axis. The horizontal linear panning motion matches up with the horizontal axis to reduce the relative linear motion to a "near static" state, but does nothing for the non-horizontal motion.

In that regard, a 1/30 ss is not sufficient to reduce the vertical motion within the cyclist (for which we have no vertical motion with the motorcycle, except the circular motion of the wheels).

That said, you might consider playing with your shutter speed such that you have a faster shutter to better freeze your subject's vertical motion. A modest change in ss to say 1/80 - 1/250 could be sufficient to more crisply capture the vertical motion of the rider components, while still allowing the panning to induce the static environmental elements to blur.

Also, bear in mind that you can "overpan" to create even more background blur. The accompanying risk with overpanning is that you then also induce a horizontal linear motion blur in your moving subject. With a corresponding offset of a higher shutter speed, that can become a wash, with the higher shutter speed still mitigating the vertical motion.

It might help to think of it a bit in terms of if you were using a flash to freeze motion, with it's short duration of illumination, but those areas that aren't frozen by flash with the lower sync of the shutter incur motion. The point being that there are TWO aspects in play ... one is the panning, one is the shutter. The panning ONLY addresses motion in ONE direction, the shutter addresses motion in ALL directions.

There is a ton of creatively liberty and license to how you approach panning. It isn't necessary to always "match" your shutter speed to your panning speed, particularly if you have omni-directional movement.

I've probably not said it very well, but the short answer is try a higher shutter speed and don't be afraid to "overpan" or "underpan" intentionally to coordinate with the higher shutter speed.

If you've ever shot skeet, the "overswing" principle is somewhat relevant. The shot pattern covers the "inaccuracy", here we can use a higher shutter speed to cover the "mismatch" of the pan, rather than try and shoot for an exact hit ... if that makes any sense.

Taking a few shutter speed shots to learn how much is needed for the vertical motion, can be a clue to where you might want to set your shutter speed, then pan away from there. Freeze motion or reveal motion ... both have their place, just depends on which (and how much) you want to show us.

But, much like shooting a gun ... it's something that you just have to "get a feel for" through experience. I can't help with that ... but understanding the pieces of what is / is not happening, will hopefully help you "dial in" your experience a bit more readily.

Again, nice little set.



Edited on Sep 28, 2015 at 08:41 AM · View previous versions



Sep 28, 2015 at 08:23 AM
beavens
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p.1 #10 · p.1 #10 · Practice with panning


No Kent everything hit right home!

Increase both SS and panning speed to create background blur + sharp subject.

Thanks for the knowledge.

Jeff



Sep 28, 2015 at 08:26 AM
RustyBug
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p.1 #11 · p.1 #11 · Practice with panning


beavens wrote:
Increase both SS and panning speed to create background blur + sharp subject.


Man ... I wish I could learn to say things this succinctly.



Sep 28, 2015 at 08:32 AM
beavens
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p.1 #12 · p.1 #12 · Practice with panning


RustyBug wrote:
Man ... I wish I could learn to say things this succinctly.


I don't! You are the resident Photolosopher and your pontification must not be imprisoned by brevity.

Seriously though - more is better when it comes to tapping your gourd, Kent.

Jeff



Sep 28, 2015 at 08:37 AM
RustyBug
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p.1 #13 · p.1 #13 · Practice with panning


beavens wrote:
your pontification must not be imprisoned by brevity


You wax far too eloquently for this early hour.
That's probably the nicest thing anyone has ever said about my verbosity. Can I use that for my epitaph?

my "gourd" ...



Sep 28, 2015 at 08:44 AM
Shasoc
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p.1 #14 · p.1 #14 · Practice with panning


beavens wrote:
No Kent everything hit right home!

Increase both SS and panning speed to create background blur + sharp subject.

Thanks for the knowledge.

Jeff




Jeff, you have no control on the panning speed. The panning speed is dictated by the speed of the subject you are panning and how far you are from that subject. Panning means keeping the focus point always on the same point of the subject. That means that the panning speed is anchored to the speed of the subject. I do agree on increasing the SS to get sharper images. Your focus point should be anchored on a non moving part of the cyclist e. g. the face, so you will have the face sharp and in focus and the rest of the moving parts "in motion" (including the bg) if that is the effect you are looking for.
Socrate

Edited on Sep 28, 2015 at 10:11 AM · View previous versions



Sep 28, 2015 at 10:07 AM
beavens
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p.1 #15 · p.1 #15 · Practice with panning


Shasoc wrote:
Jeff, you have no control on the panning speed. The panning speed is dictated by the speed of the subject you are panning and how far you are from that subject. That means you need to keep the focus point always on the same point on the subject. That means that the panning speed is anchored to the speed of the subject. I do agree on increasing the SS to get sharper images. Your focus point should be anchored on a non moving part of the cyclist e. g. the face, so you will have the face sharp and in
...Show more

Roger that, Socrate!

I definitely need some more practice to see what works and what doesn't.

Thanks for the feedback.

Cheers,

Jeff



Sep 28, 2015 at 10:11 AM
RustyBug
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p.1 #16 · p.1 #16 · Practice with panning


Shasoc wrote:
Jeff, you have no control on the panning speed.


If you are trying to attain a "perfect match" of the panning speed to the subject speed, this is true.

In theory, if you had a perfect match to this, you could take a 1 second or a 1,000 second exposure and the relative motion would not be detectable (think astro-tracking). But, as with astro-photography, if the shutter speed is short enough to stay within the detectable limits of CoC and angular motion involved, then no motion blur is detected even without any panning / tracking to mitigate the relative motion variance.

My point with the skeet reference is that we have some latitude in how much under/over swing latitude we can use. The amount of overswing latitude we have with the shotgun is relegated to the factors of shot density, choke and guage. The latitude we have photographically comes in the form of our shutter speed.

The better we become at matching our panning motion speed to our subject motion speed, the less dependent we are on needing the shutter to freeze that motion. However ... our panning speed is only in one direction, so it cannot accommodate the other directions to a "perfect match" of relative motion to zero as it is possible to do so in the direction of the pan.

Thus, if we are going to use a higher shutter speed to offset the non-pan direction movement ... THAT increase in shutter speed, THEN affords us some additional latitude "wiggle room" to overpan or underpan when we don't get a "perfect match". If we underpan, then our background incurs less relative motion blur. If we "overpan" then our background incurs more relative motion blur. As such, we do have control over what our panning speed is, but it is in concert with the various pieces that are in play. We are not relegated to shooting only a "perfect match" of our subject speed for panning effects.

The key is in understanding relative motion (angular & linear) for assessing how much latitude we can afford ourselves variably from a "perfect match". We do this with our "regular" shooting in the form of trying to mitigate camera shake vs. focal length. Here we have the same principles in play, just from a different perspective of intentionally inducing camera motion vs. a static camera position. But, the principles of relative motion remain the same. How you apply those principles is a matter of command & control of your choosing.

That being said, the better you can have a smooth "perfect" match of panning motion to subject speed ... the more latitude if affords you at having a slow shutter or a fast one. The inverse corollary being that it allows you to "drag your shutter" even more to reveal that more motion is available to you. This would of course make the "cycling motion" of the legs even more prominent, as well as a stronger background blur in conjunction with the panning speed induction.

HTH




Sep 28, 2015 at 11:20 AM
Shasoc
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p.1 #17 · p.1 #17 · Practice with panning


RustyBug wrote:
If you are trying to attain a "perfect match" of the panning speed to the subject speed, this is true.

In theory, if you had a perfect match to this, you could take a 1 second or a 1,000 second exposure and the relative motion would not be detectable (think astro-tracking). But, as with astro-photography, if the the shutter speed is short enough to stay within the detectable limits of CoC and angular motion involved, then no motion blur is detected even without any panning / tracking to mitigate the relative motion variance.

My point with the skeet reference is that we
...Show more



Kent, looks like you are complicating a simple fact. If you want to get a sharp image you need to attain a "perfect match" of the panning speed to the subject angular speed. especially when you are using a slow SS. That means that your subject's angular speed regulates your panning speed. There is no other way around it. As a matter of fact if you get that perfect match, then the value of the SS is irrelevant, like you said, except for how blurred you want the bg. Higher SS gives you more room to get a sharp image, you don't need a perfect mach after all, but still you need to be pretty close to that perfect match, otherwise you'll get just a blurred image. I say this because, after years of practice, I have learned that lesson
Socrate

Edited on Sep 28, 2015 at 01:06 PM · View previous versions



Sep 28, 2015 at 11:49 AM
RustyBug
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p.1 #18 · p.1 #18 · Practice with panning


Shasoc wrote:

If you want to get a sharp image you need to attain a "perfect match" of the panning speed to the subject speed.


+1 @ the skill of achieving the "perfect match". It is indeed a skill that takes time to develop well.

Yet, when we are stationary and take a picture of a moving object, we do not have a "perfect match" of panning speed (camera speed = 0 ) to subject speed (think hummingbird wings or dog running or ), and can still achieve a sharp image of a moving object when our shutter speed is high enough to restrict the linear / angular motion to within the constraints of the CoC.

If your assessment that the only way of getting a sharp image is through the matching of camera motion to subject motion, then we'd essentially, never be able to see any sports images that were sharp without the use of panning technique.

The variance of (linear / angular) motion between the camera and subject is a relative one. Panning is a means of reducing (or increasing via reverse panning) that variance. Our chosen duration of the shutter (flash) can either hide or reveal any remaining (or induced) variance, at our discretion. Fortunately, we have the ability to choose our shutter speeds, and in doing so, also our camera position speeds ranging from rock solid tripod to wild panning swings and still achieve sharp images wherever our relative motion variance is below our CoC constraints.

+1 @ how far off you can be from a perfect match and still be sharp. Variables of camera to subject distance and focal length come into play with regard to your relative angular motion. We already know of this in our regular shooting, but its principle carries over as well into our matrix of possibilities:

1) Camera static + subject static
2) Camera static + subject motion
3) Camera motion + subject static
4) Camera motion + subject motion

In a "perfect match", #1 & #4 can have any shutter speed of their choosing and will not show any motion blur. In #2 & #3, the degree of relative motion is then relegated to be hidden / revealed based on that relative motion compared to our shutter speed (FL / distance / etc.) as it pertains to relative linear / angular motion. #3 is likely the most common use of a higher shutter speed to offset "camera shake" and retain a sharp image. However, it is but one application of the relative motion involved, and the fundamental principles of relative motion apply to all potential scenarios and applications.

While I certainly don't mean to "complicate" things ... relative motion is a rather pertinent concept to embrace.




Sep 28, 2015 at 12:13 PM
lighthound
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p.1 #19 · p.1 #19 · Practice with panning


I'm taking the easy way out and chose Image #4.

Nice set Jeff!

Dave



Sep 28, 2015 at 12:48 PM
beavens
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p.1 #20 · p.1 #20 · Practice with panning


lighthound wrote:
I'm taking the easy way out and chose Image #4.

Nice set Jeff!

Dave


Thanks Dave! Now I just need to find some more practice subjects so I can play around with different shutters.

Jeff



Sep 28, 2015 at 12:51 PM
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