Panning VS Non-panning

[limgt]

8208
Non-panning; SIA flight - Aperture Priority @ f/36, 1 sec, with 18-55 kit lens

8207
Panning; MAS flight - Shutter Priority @ 1/10 sec, f/25, with 70-300G lens

Both aircraft are taxi-ing very slowly during these sequences of shots - probably around 30km/h? (I'm n00b on airflight speeds like knots etc :p). It's the technique that brings out the quick movement :)

Both gave the speed/action movement feel, with the latter showing great detail of the subject. Non-panning shots are definitely easier to capture, you just have to experiment with the right aperture depending on ambient light, while panning requires continuous shooting and movement with subject. This one came out in focus and nicely blurred background :).

C&C welcomed.

[noordin]

Panning is certainly better. You want your subject sharp and in focus while your background blur to show movement.

Slow shutter effect is good if the background is interesting. Not suitable in this instance as you can see, there nothing interesting about the background. But if it were a a bicycle race for instance the slow shutter will make the people watching the race sharp while the cyclist blur passing that point.

[limgt]

Slow shutter effect is good if the background is interesting. Not suitable in this instance as you can see, there nothing interesting about the background. But if it were a a bicycle race for instance the slow shutter will make the people watching the race sharp while the cyclist blur passing that point.

Good point noordin :) Panning is the way out when the background is not interesting :)

[fabianaino]

pardon for asking a noob question.
I am using a D80, is there any panning mode I can select on the camera?:?

[kclau]

pardon for asking a noob question.
I am using a D80, is there any panning mode I can select on the camera?:?

select a slower shutter speed depends on the object you are shooting in Shutter Priority mode.click and follow ur subject.

[fabianaino]

select a slower shutter speed depends on the object you are shooting in Shutter Priority mode.


I see ...so do I need to pan the camera along with the main subject or ... ?
Sounds shaky ... is a tripod advisable?

[mki88]

Actually both shots work for me.

Non panning - Telling that the air-port is busy all the time. Air port is statically resting on the ground, while airplanes are flying in and out of the air-port.

Panning - The roaring airplane is about to airborne, dashing fast on the runway.

Both shots are good. A picture tells a thousand words.



fabianaino - Tripod is not advisible as it limit your movement of following the moving object. U need a low SS and pan it together with your moving object. It takes practise and experience to get a decent panning shot.

[adyzul]

Another noob question here....can a D40 with 70-300mm G lense take panning shots? It's only manual focus on the D40, that's why I'm wondering. Anyone can answer?

[Fishhook]

panning got nothing to do with camera or lens..its slow shutter that wont freez the image but to prevent main object from bluring you pan it. go and try:D

[adyzul]

Thanks fishhook.

[Norm]

Another noob question here....can a D40 with 70-300mm G lense take panning shots? It's only manual focus on the D40, that's why I'm wondering. Anyone can answer?

Can... What you need to do is pre-focus at a location
where you think the subject will be, then follow the subject and
start bursting the shutter when subject nearing the location,
and few more beyond it.

Using slow shutter requires small aperture, meaning deep DoF...
so blur due to miss-focus is minimised. What you need to practice
will be to get steady arms as robocop...

[tools4fools]

For myself I like the panning shot much better.

The shot with blurred jet is too much in the center of the image to show an airport with coming and going I think. I seems to cry 'I tired to shoot an aircraft but something went wrong'...

If I wanted to show 'traffic' at the airport I would want something like a row of jets on taxi way, shot from front with long tele and little DoF.

Showing traffic going in an out I could imagine a close up shot of a finger dock of the airport with the plane smeared as moving away. But the out of focus image should not be in center of image and the airpot building and dock should dominate the image.

Tripod actually can help if panning, in particular with a heavy telephoto lens; of course you wouldn't tighten the ball head; if done properly it can give you a smoother movement of the camera and this can help a lot in getting a good panned image when on tele.

On wide angle it seems much less important to me, panning is much easier with wide angle because of better DoF of lens, much easier to get important part of image sharp and in focus. Of course one has to get much closer using a wide.
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