Panning shots - motion blur

[Bleedin' Bill]

A couple from Raystown Lake.

[ajdonner]

Originally Posted by ak greeff

these are the best ive gotten so far.

WTF? I don't understand. What's with the wheels? I mean it's clearly not keeping him from rocking his Mojo. But, why? $hit$ and giggles?

Back to our originally scheduled broadcast. Nice shots everyone!

[umarth]

My only decent blurred shot this year.

[Lewisnott]

what would be a good camera for this type of photography

[lelebebbel]

Originally Posted by ajdonner

WTF? I don't understand. What's with the wheels? I mean it's clearly not keeping him from rocking his Mojo. But, why? $hit$ and giggles?

Perfectly normal wheels. If you are referring to the apparent difference in size, I am willing to bet that this is merely a question of perspective (the back wheel is closer to the camera, which is why it appears to be larger).

Here is another example, which also happens to be a bit of a panning shot:

Cairns Smithfield DH3 - 14-08-2011 by lelebebbel, on Flickr

what would be a good camera for this type of photography

Any camera that allows you to manually set the shutter speed, which is pretty much any camera, except for the most basic entry level compacts or cell phone cameras.
It helps if the camera is quick with little shutter delay and can take rapid fire image sequences while accurately tracking focus, but with enough practice, you can do this with any camera. The key word is practice.

[Jasond]

Forgot I had this. I think I had the camera for a day or two when I took this. Still learning a lot.

[ajdonner]

Originally Posted by lelebebbel

Perfectly normal wheels. If you are referring to the apparent difference in size, I am willing to bet that this is merely a question of perspective (the back wheel is closer to the camera, which is why it appears to be larger).

Yep. I understand the effect that perspective has, especially at a close distance with an ultra-wide lens. I've held fish I caught at arms length when getting my picture taken. It just didn't look to me like this was the case given the apparent distance and position of the bike frame and rider. I thought it was funny looking and wanted to get the skinny! Perhaps, 'WTF?', set the wrong tone to my post...

[Eckstream1]

Deleted... Wrong thread

[csf]

some nice shots in here guys.

here's what I've found helps:

1. 1. usually 1/8s will give a nice blur and if done right the main subject will be adequately sharp
   2. to really blur the bg use a small f stop like f4 or smaller if light conditions allow.
2. using flash will help stop the action and create a sharper image and gives a different look than without.
   
3. it really helps to set these shots up in advance so you can find the location ahead of time where you want to take the shot. that way you can start tracking well ahead of that location and get a nice smooth panning motion
   
4. while holding the camera, keep your elbows in tight and follow through with the panning, i.e. don't stop panning once you snap the shutter.
   
5. as for focusing, you can either use manual and have your focal distance already set or use your auto focus tracking mode to stay locked on target.
   
6. practice practice practice!

[xcguy]

When I first tried panning I thought I needed my shutter at 1/30th for maximum background blur. I found I got that but it was tough to get the rider in "perfect" focus (first pic). Then I started shooting at 1/60th. Background not so blurred but a higher hit rate for biker in focus. Then I started shooting at 1/100th and higher because what I ultimately decided I wanted was biker in perfect focus, a higher hit rate, and just a bit of background blur (second pic which was shot at 1/640th). If these pics don't load in order, well you know what I'm talking about.

It's a combination of how smooth your panning skilz are, how far you are away from your subject, shutter speed and ultimately what you're going for and how necessary it is to get the shot the first time.

[lelebebbel]

It depends on what you want to achieve with the blur. If you have a busy background that you want to get rid of, you'll need a slower shutter speed. If you want items in the background to be recognisable, and just use the blur to imply motion, a faster speed will do.

Hit rates will be lower at slower speeds, image stabilization and camera support can really improve that though. Use a monopod. If you don't have one, use one of those cheap tripods and just extend one leg.
And again, practice. You need to track the subject perfectly in a smooth motion - not only to avoid motion blurring the subject, but also to keep the autofocus sensor on target and allow the camera to track focus.

Shooting race cars is great for practice

[grandsalmon]

[grandsalmon]

I was up on a stump, whipping that lens- come now...

[ieeee!]

Not panning? Well, not horizontally.

We've seen lots of examples of horizontal panning -- but don't forget about vertical, rotational, vibrational and fore/aft panning -- in all these, you pan the camera along with your moving subject.

This photographer demonstrates fore/aft panning and has kept near perfect pace with the subject -- resulting in that sweet spot of stillness relative to the subject, and movement relative to the surroundings... aka blur.

Nice example Grandsalmon!

Originally Posted by Pernicious

Not panning.

Originally Posted by grandsalmon

[bmike]

Good primer:

Mastering Panning – Photographing Moving Subjects

[dereknz]

These shots were taken on a full frame camera, manual focus preset on an area the rider will be going through, shutter priority with good depth of field at around f11 to keep the area you are panning on in focus. Focal length 72 - 83mm.

The closer you are to the moving object the more motion blur you will achieve at the same shutter speed

focal length 83mm, iso400, 1/125sec, f10


focal length 83mm, iso400, 1/80sec, f11


focal length 72mm, iso400, 1/80sec, f11