Panning help

I went out to practice some panning shots at lunch. I threw most of them out. I was unable to get a clear car image except this one, which is sharp around the driver, but the front end badge work is terribly fuzzy.

Tips? Advice?

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short of redefining physics, thats how that shot is going to turn out. While it doesnt necessarily seem like it, the distance between the camera and the front of the car is changing at a different rate than the distance between the camera and the back of the camera. Furthermore, while the shutter is open, the car moves closer and doesnt change focus.

up your shutter speed a tad (and tell the driver to go faster) that would get you a slightly more in focus version of the above picture. also, taking a picture where the car stays the same distance from the camera while the shutter is open (think panning , focused on the door, as the car passes perpendicular to you).

keep up the work

V4her wrote in post #14238169
Tips? Advice?

It'll take more practice and experience to develop the smooth tracking motion and learn the best shutter speeds to generate useful panning images.

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Thanks for the help!

Practice! Practice!
And a few tweaks

It depends what subject you are photographing, what speed the subject is travelling at, what lens your are using and getting the right shutter speed / aperture to match to create the right motion blur. shutter speeds of 1/30 1/60 or even 1/125 aren't easy to get right. So apply the 1 over focal length rule explained below.
A common rule of thumb for estimating how fast the exposure needs to be for a given focal length is the one over focal length rule. This states that for a 35 mm camera, the exposure time needs to be at least as fast as one over the focal length in seconds. In other words, when using a 200 mm focal length on a 35 mm camera, the exposure time needs to be at least 1/200 seconds-- otherwise blurring may be hard to avoid. Keep in mind that this rule is just for rough guidance; some may be able to hand hold a shot for much longer or shorter times than this rule estimates. For users of digital cameras with cropped sensors, one needs to convert into a 35 mm equivalent focal length.
That will help with setting up the right shutter settings.
Now, Panning is a technique which requires mastering over time, its not something that you can instantly do and repeat. It require training you body to become familiar with the motion, thus it become almost automatic. What this will achieve is a smooth pan, something that is not easy to master.
Pick up the subject early, focus and pan with the subject, take them image when subject fills 2/3 of the frame, continue the pan after the shot, try and avoid stopping the pan or jerking at the edge will also aid in good results.
You are able to capture pans at slower shutter speeds, but to get everything right in the shot takes practice and a very smooth pan movement, taken at 1/100sec, but generally, I'm taking shots at 1/200 or 1/320 sec because of the speed of the bikes and slightly slower for cars....
1/100 sec

What others said: the car in your picture is moving at an angle, that's why only a portion of it is sharp.

Like in this slow pan picture - the car was moving away from me at an angle, so that's why only the driver is in focus.

Here are some boring follow-up shots

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This was shot at 1/125, and was the best one out of about 60 or so laps... I figured I get at least one good shot!

And as pete.rush said, it's not easy, but at least at the race I was at I had loads of time to practice.

IMAGE LINK: http://www.flickr.com/​photos/kenjancef/61873​10141/

rammsteinmatt wrote in post #14238269
short of redefining physics, thats how that shot is going to turn out. While it doesnt necessarily seem like it, the distance between the camera and the front of the car is changing at a different rate than the distance between the camera and the back of the camera. Furthermore, while the shutter is open, the car moves closer and doesnt change focus...

Yep. Spot on.
This is the laws of physics at work and is impossible to overcome. It's called the "parallax effect".
More on that here https://photography-on-the.net/forum/...d.php​?t=487139

I'm working on my motorsports photography too and have a few questions. I'm trying to get my panning technique down and I'm not doing too bad at it but what I'm not clear about is when you pan, or do you pan all the time in some way, shape or form? I like to get the wheel blur but get everything else crisp.

I have attached 4 photos (these are actually me on the bike at a track day). These were taken by a photographer who has done a number of track days and they turn out good and I would like mine to look this way as well.

Photo's 1 and 2 are what I'm trying to nail down. Bike and rider are still, but wheel blur and very minimal side to side background blur. I can only assume that these were taken somewhere are 1/400 or so shutter speed, but not sure? The part of the track where these were taken is fairly slow speed (35mph) so does that contribute to an easier shot, but I'm assuming when taking this shot you still have to pan or "track" the rider, snap the pic and follow through with your pan? The third photo is a higher speed section of the track, probably 60-70 mph, so at the same shutter speed but having to pan faster gets the background more blurred? The last photo is one that confuses me, I believe this is coming out of a very low speed turn on the track (around 15mph). I notice very little background blur in relation to panning, but there is some blur due to depth of field. If you look at the front brake disc, you can see that there is motion blur there, so I'm wondering how this shot was captured to again get the bike and rider crisp, but still get the blur in the wheels?

Thanks in advance to any advice you guys can give, greatly appreciated

This was taken with a lens set at about 200mm. Can't remember the shutter speeds but it's like the others have said. I probably took over 1000 pics on the day and only used a handful.

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flyinlow007 wrote in post #14350073
Photo's 1 and 2 are what I'm trying to nail down. Bike and rider are still, but wheel blur and very minimal side to side background blur. I can only assume that these were taken somewhere are 1/400 or so shutter speed, but not sure? The part of the track where these were taken is fairly slow speed (35mph) so does that contribute to an easier shot, but I'm assuming when taking this shot you still have to pan or "track" the rider, snap the pic and follow through with your pan? The third photo is a higher speed section of the track, probably 60-70 mph, so at the same shutter speed but having to pan faster gets the background more blurred? The last photo is one that confuses me, I believe this is coming out of a very low speed turn on the track (around 15mph). I notice very little background blur in relation to panning, but there is some blur due to depth of field. If you look at the front brake disc, you can see that there is motion blur there, so I'm wondering how this shot was captured to again get the bike and rider crisp, but still get the blur in the wheels?

I think you pretty nail it on your thoughts on how these were likely taken. Panning is certainly easier when the object is moving more slowly, and when it's moving across (roughly) the same plane relative to the photographer. It's also harder to pan at longer ends of the zoom, since any roughness in the motion will cause the object to move around in the frame more. As a few people have pointed out, be ready to shoot quite a few frames even after practice. Lots aren't keepers.

What's the general view regarding IS for panning - Switched off or on in panning mode?

spw wrote in post #14650319
What's the general view regarding IS for panning - Switched off or on in panning mode?

It doesn't matter. The most important factors are the ability to smoothly track the subject and the selection of a useful shutter speed.


Panning image from a Canon 18-200mm image stabilizer lens with the stabilization on.

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