Sports shooters! A question on panning

[freeformula]

I've been trying to perfect my panning technique and I want to get the effect of blurred motion while the subject is clear. For the top image of the windsurfer, I used a shutter speed of 1/100 and an aperture of F/14 while panning to follow the movement. Was the shutter speed to slow? The windsurfer came out blurred as well. What's a good shutter speed to use?

The bottom image of the kitesurfer used a 1/1600 shutter speed and F/4.5 aperture. It was ideal to capture the shredding of the water, but I'm going after the feel of motion. Any advice?

[hungryalien]

well besides shutter speed and all those.. you still need to practice your panning. specially if you are doing slower exposures. if you can follow the motion perfectly, then you should be able to get shaper images and blur backgrounds on image 1.

lucky that you are using digital cam, you can review it right after the shot and adjust accordingly..



f10 and 1/40

[randytamayo]

Nice shot Kai, and congrats on American Photo! (tama ba?)

[freeformula]

Great shot Kai! Galing! If you're joining the CM funrun to Caliraya this Sunday, you can take pics of the windsurfers and kiteboarders

Thanks for the advice, will keep on practicing!

[bagwis]

Originally posted by hungryalien
well besides shutter speed and all those.. you still need to practice your panning. specially if you are doing slower exposures. if you can follow the motion perfectly, then you should be able to get shaper images and blur backgrounds on image 1.

lucky that you are using digital cam, you can review it right after the shot and adjust accordingly..



f10 and 1/40

Wow! Nice shot, hungryalien! Idol! Is AI Servo the best focus mode to capture shots like these, Kai?

Thanks!

[super_ed]

try using a tripod so as to chase the moving subject with smoothness. shooting cars will be a good practice.

[hoho]

Originally posted by freeformula
I've been trying to perfect my panning technique and I want to get the effect of blurred motion while the subject is clear. For the top image of the windsurfer, I used a shutter speed of 1/100 and an aperture of F/14 while panning to follow the movement. Was the shutter speed to slow? The windsurfer came out blurred as well. What's a good shutter speed to use?

The bottom image of the kitesurfer used a 1/1600 shutter speed and F/4.5 aperture. It was ideal to capture the shredding of the water, but I'm going after the feel of motion. Any advice?

Use a slower shutter speed, try using shutter priority and try to set slow shutter speed of about 1/45 or less, the slower, the more blurring. The top picture looks like it isn't the shuter speed, but more like a focusing problem.

A great way to practice is hanging around a busy street. Or a carousel.

Check this out. The top photo was taken with a 24mm lens, and the carousel shots were taken with a 105mm lens.

Photo 1:
Aperture: f/22
Shutter: 1/45s
Lens: 24mm AF-D

Photo 2:
Aperture: f/16
Shutter: 1/25s
Lens: 105mm AF-D Micro

Photo 3:
Aperture: f/16
Shutter: 1/15s
Lens: 105mm AF-D Micro

Hope this helps.

H

[vicicasas]

Originally posted by super_ed
try using a tripod so as to chase the moving subject with smoothness. shooting cars will be a good practice.

More than a tripod, I think a monopod is the way to go for panning shots of sports action. But if you can get away with doing it handheld, even better. It's all about practice, practice, practice. If you can get away with it, swing your entire torso, not just the camera.

Sample photo attached. I shot this at Speedzone at the Fort, handheld, don't remember my shutter speed, (the image stored locally on my hard drive didn't retain the EXIF) but I think it's probably around 1/60th.

Attached another sample, this one taken near the American Cemetery. I'm sure Kai and Mike Llorin have loads of other exotic car panning shots as well!

[Edited on 11-8-2004 by vicicasas]

[mgd]

A tip my teacher gave is to position your body at the the expected "finish" position.

[hungryalien]

Originally posted by bagwis
Wow! Nice shot, hungryalien! Idol! Is AI Servo the best focus mode to capture shots like these, Kai?

Thanks!

was using M-anual mode rather than A or S. since the scene was extremely backlit. took a few test shots to adjust the best exposure and fine tune as i shoot along.

it wasnt on best focus mode, but rather center focus with tracking.

i find using tripod or monopod harder than handheld. but you do need real steady upper body to pull it off at lower exposures.