RustyBug Offline Upload & Sell: On
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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
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