Panning: How to capture a moving target.

Panning - it can be done with many different subjects.

When something is moving across your field of view, you have two options in terms of capturing its image.  You can use a high enough shutter speed to freeze the thing in place as a moment in time, or you can follow it with a panning technique.  Of the two, I much prefer the panning method.

Panning is relatively simple, but you have to address a few issues if you want to do it properly.  The first, and main point, is that you must turn off any vibration mitigation mode which may happen to be running.  The reason is pretty straight forward; this technology is designed to prevent the camera from moving and you want it to move.

Some cameras / lenses come equipped with a modified vibration mitigation option which allows horizontal movement but reduces vertical changes in position.  This is the best of both worlds, as it allows movements to the left and right with no impact but compensates for any vertical displacement.  This doesn’t work, of course, if you are using a portrait format (shooting with the long axis vertically instead of horizontally), or if you are panning vertically as you may for a rocket launch.

The second thing to consider is the shutter speed to do this with.  There is a diminishing rate of return for quality inversely proportionally to shutter speed.  In English, this means that as the shutter speed decreases it is harder to get a clear image of your transversing subject.  That is because slight changes in position of the subject within your viewfinder will vary more and more, resulting in a blurry image.  Active vibration mitigation will help with this, but its use is somewhat limited.

In short, I like to use shutter speeds between 1/100^th and 1/160^th of a second.  The problem with this is linked to the fleeing speed of what you are photographing.  Shooting a slow flying bird, a slower shutter speed of 1/30^th of a second may be perfect.  A jet airplane taking off, on the other hand, may benefit from a shutter speed of 1/250^th of a second, or even faster.

When you are actually panning, it is important to proceed with a solid grip and with complete smoothness.  I like to pay attention to where the subject is in my viewfinder and follow it through its path.  I usually shoot multiple images, knowing that some will be better than others.  I also may turn focus tracking on or at least use continuous focusing to ensure that focus is sharp for the beginning of the exposure.

You will notice I have three images in my photo; you can use the exact same technique whether you are following bird, animal, fish, car, plane, or bicycle.  The method is identical. 

Keep on shooting.       www.ericspix.com