Nantucket Triathlon

ghinson

Had the luxury of a Press Pass yesterday for the local triathlon. Long, hard day of shooting. Lots of event scenes, but I took a fair amount of the race time to try and improve my panning technique, which is not something I do very often. Here are a few pics:

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The guy in the red white and blue spandex is Sen. Scott Brown. (two photos)

For every good panning shot, I probably took 15 useless ones. Any good pointers on how to choose shutter speed according to the speed of the subject?

Thanks.

ian408

Looks like you caught some nice action

HoofClix

ghinson wrote: »

Any good pointers on how to choose shutter speed according to the speed of the subject?

Thanks.

I think these are pretty good..

Really, panning is a matter of percentages in that the speeds are so slow that your skill level will yield a higher percentage of hits the better and more steady you are..

So.. It's a matter of both how smoothly you pan as well how smoothly you press the shutter release. The real question is, how slow can you set your shutter speed before it no longer cover up an non-smooth pan and/or a jerky release. It takes practice, and some days are going to be better than others, like golf. Think of doing this with a galloping horse, where the motion you are following is not only moving laterally but vertically!

I ramble.. So to answer your question, see how low you can go. I like 1/50 for horses, but with no vertical motion in the pan, you might see how low you go before the subject is no longer recognizable, which for the art of it isn't always so bad!

As an aside, when I pan now I am using a monopod, not to support the camera, but to hold a weight at the bottom, kind of like you see in sports video. I set it short and hold the whole thing up in the air while I pan. This prevents the twist that comes with the shutter release. I also have tried setting my timer at 2 and 3 seconds so that the actual shutter actuation comes way after the finger release. You might find that you can get to 1/10 doing this!