newbie ?

meltonfam

i currently help as an assistant for a local pro; she has graciously taken me under her wings to help me learn more. my question is this - she asked me to 'pan' some pictures at a local event this weekend - and my response was 'uhhh:huh ' so I did candids.

My question is this - i think of a 'pan' shot as where the subject is in focus but rest is blurred. what is the secret behind creating a shot like this so the subject is not blurred too?

TIA and any help is appreciated!

Shay Stephens

A slow shutter speed will blur the background as you pan the camera with the subject. It's simple to do, but hard to master because the subject is a high risk of being blurred too. So this technique needs a lot of practice. Getting the right shutter speed can be a balancing act too. You don't want it too long or too short. I like to start at 1/30 of a second and alter to taste.

One thing that can help is to use flash at the same time which helps to freeze the subject a little better.

Nikolai

Question

Shay Stephens wrote:

One thing that can help is to use flash at the same time which helps to freeze the subject a little better.

Shay, did you mean rear-curtain sync? Or it does not matter, really?

meltonfam

thanks for the help! i had to sneak out and try this before i replied - 1st) i can see where it is a balancing act! 2nd) is it best suited to use a prime lense for this effect?

I have a Tamron XR Di 28-75 and i set the focus to manual and tried at 28, 50 and 75 range. I had some that were at most a work in progress but can't help thinking a prime would almost be required or a faster zoom?

Shay Stephens

Nikolai wrote:

Shay, did you mean rear-curtain sync? Or it does not matter, really?

Doesn't matter much, or so I have found. Some may be more picky than me though

Shay Stephens

meltonfam wrote:

thanks for the help! i had to sneak out and try this before i replied - 1st) i can see where it is a balancing act! 2nd) is it best suited to use a prime lense for this effect?

I think any lens you have on hand will provide as good a result as any so long as you can get the exposure you need.

I have a Tamron XR Di 28-75 and i set the focus to manual and tried at 28, 50 and 75 range. I had some that were at most a work in progress but can't help thinking a prime would almost be required or a faster zoom?

Are you not getting the exposure you need? I am not sure what problem you are experiencing. Could you describe what is going wrong?

THE TOUCH

meltonfam wrote:

thanks for the help! i had to sneak out and try this before i replied - 1st) i can see where it is a balancing act! 2nd) is it best suited to use a prime lense for this effect?

I have a Tamron XR Di 28-75 and i set the focus to manual and tried at 28, 50 and 75 range. I had some that were at most a work in progress but can't help thinking a prime would almost be required or a faster zoom?

I'm not sure you understand the actual panning part. How are you photographing your subject?

Just in case - here's an example -

Have someone run across your field of view (in front of you), from left to right. Look through your viewfinder and track them with your camera and take a picture while your tracking. Make sense?

Does anyone have a sample - I don't.

meltonfam

i think I understand the panning part fine just can't seem to get the subject to be close to focused. what i think of panning is a picture i have seen where a person is running and only he is in focus - the rest is blurred.

here are two of my closest attempts
http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2006-3/1162917/IMG_5268.jpg
http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2006-3/1162917/IMG_5265.jpg

looking at the exif data on it - i think i had two things against me to start with - 800 iso and my canon should have been set to 13 for 1/30 sec instead of 0"3 - it was too dark apparently to see that correctly.

both taken at 50mm MF set to infinity. i did not use a very sturdy tripod so i will attempt again with better settings.

thanks for all your patience and help. i know this is not a easy one to learn but good to start somewhere!

Shay Stephens

Ahh, try auto focusing. Unless your subject is far away, it will not be in focus using infinity.

The other thing I noticed is that you do need ambient light to illuminate the rest of the scene. Enough light to add up to a normal exposure (+/- a stop or two) in order for the effect to work. Panning with a moving subject against a black background won't look very dynamic

meltonfam wrote:

i think I understand the panning part fine just can't seem to get the subject to be close to focused. what i think of panning is a picture i have seen where a person is running and only he is in focus - the rest is blurred.

here are two of my closest attempts
http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2006-3/1162917/IMG_5268.jpg
http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2006-3/1162917/IMG_5265.jpg

meltonfam

that makes sense - i was thinking the AF would be more of a hindrance in low light - but will give it a shot again this afternoon. thanks a bunch!!