Panning

Learning goal

You will be able to set up, in a planned way, a panning shot that keeps the athlete sharp and turns everything around them into the trace of speed. You will calculate how much the background will flow from the athlete's speed, their distance, the focal length and the shutter speed, and choose a duration according to the streak length you want. On a sunny day you will cut the light with an ND filter so you can hold a slow shutter speed. You will use the lens's or body's stabilization setting suited to panning, and practice ways to keep the swing smooth. You will accept that in panning most frames won't work, and build habits that raise this ratio. You will watch how the shadow a helmet or a visor casts on the face reads on different skin tones.

The question

The club's bicycle race is on the city's coastal road. The club photographer shoots the racers from the side of the road, swinging their camera along with them, and on their screen the racer's face can be picked out, while the pine trees and the spectators have blended into streaks of color stretching from right to left. Your friend, on the other hand, shoots at a thousandth; in their frames the cyclists are upright and sharp, but the wheels have stopped, the trees behind are in place, the bicycle looks as if parked on the sidewalk. Speed is nowhere. The vehicle sharp, the background flowing: how?

Context

In the shutter speed section you first tried following a moving subject with the camera to show it sharp and the background flowing, turning the body from the hips and continuing to turn after the press (Lesson 8.5). Among filters you saw how an ND filter, which reduces light without changing its color, makes a long duration possible in the sun (Lesson 13.3). In the outdoor portrait you also solved the brim shadow a hat or a cap casts on the face in the high sun (Lesson P.7).

In that first try, panning was a method; in this lesson it turns into a calculation and a habit. Most sports photography freezes motion. Panning, on the other hand, is the way to show motion. A bicycle, a runner, a horse or a car moves at speed even in a still photograph, thanks to the streaks behind it.

Simple explanation

How much does the background flow?

Streak length is the length of the line a point in the background leaves in the frame in a panning shot. While the camera swings, everything stationary slides in the image at the same speed. This speed is the camera's swing speed multiplied by the focal length; the swing speed is found by dividing the athlete's speed by the distance. Imagine shooting a cyclist going twelve meters per second from ten meters away, with seventy millimeters on full frame and at a thirtieth of a second. The background slides about three millimeters across the sensor. This is a line about a twelfth of the frame's width.

This calculation lets you choose the duration according to the effect you want. At a sixtieth of a second the same line halves and the speed is only sensed; at a fifteenth it doubles and the background turns almost entirely into colored streaks. The faster or closer the athlete, the shorter the duration that's enough for the same flow. A slow runner may need an eighth of a second, while for a fast car a hundred-and-twenty-fifth can be enough. A slow duration also makes the wheels look blurred as if spinning; wheels frozen at a thousandth make the bicycle look parked.

On a sunny day a slow duration means too much light. At ISO 100 and in the sun, a thirtieth of a second calls for an aperture beyond the narrowest stop of most lenses. A two-stop ND filter reduces the light and keeps the aperture in a range where the lens stays sharp.

How is the swing kept smooth?

A panning stabilization mode is a stabilization setting found on some lenses and bodies that accepts the horizontal swing as intended movement and corrects only vertical shake. Normal stabilization can take the swing for a tremor, try to resist it and blur the subject. A panning stabilization mode, on the other hand, leaves horizontal movement free and corrects the athlete's and the camera's up-and-down wobble.

The swing itself comes from the body. The feet are planted facing the place the athlete will pass, the body turns from the hips, the elbows are kept close to the torso. Tracking starts while the athlete is far away, and they are held in the same place in the frame. The shutter release is pressed as the athlete passes right in front, and the swing continues after the press. Continuous focus and a tracking area don't let go of the athlete's face or chest through the swing. A tripod head or a monopod, used with a head that turns only horizontally, removes vertical wobble almost entirely and doesn't tire the arms when working with a long lens.

How many frames work?

Keeper rate is the ratio of frames in a burst where the athlete came out sharp enough to all the frames. In panning this ratio is low: at a slow duration the athlete's arms and legs move, the camera's swing doesn't exactly match the athlete's speed, and a vertical wobble spoils the frame. Even experienced photographers throw away many frames at a race.

The rate rises in three ways: shortening the duration a little, taking a few frames on every pass with burst shooting, and choosing a spot the athletes pass through on every lap and rehearsing the swing there again and again. The athlete's helmet or visor is watched too. In the high sun, the shadow the helmet casts on the face can make the eyes vanish completely on dark skin; on light skin, meanwhile, the difference between the shadow and the sunlit chin splits the face in two. Choosing a bend where the athletes pass facing the sun opens up the shadow.

Visual evidence

Your friend stands at the exit of a bend on the coastal road where the cyclists pass on every lap. Here the sun strikes the cyclists' faces from the front. They set the camera to a thirtieth in shutter priority, fit the two-stop ND filter on the lens, and turn the stabilization to the panning setting.

The club's fastest, a woman cyclist with short hair and dark brown skin, enters the bend. Your friend frames her from afar, turns from the hips and shoots a burst as she passes in front. In three of the ten frames the cyclist's face and chest are sharp, the wheels spinning circles, the pine trees and spectators behind horizontal green and colored streaks. In the other frames either the face has softened with a vertical wobble or the camera has fallen behind the cyclist.

In a test where they shot the same cyclist on the straight before the bend, with the sun at her back, her helmet's visor had buried her eyes entirely in shadow. At the exit of the bend, though, the sun falls on her face. The warmth of her dark skin, her determined look and the drops of sweat on her cheek stand out.

Common mistakes

Summary

In panning, the background flows by the camera's swing speed multiplied by the focal length and the shutter speed; a slow duration is chosen according to the streak length wanted and held in the sun with an ND filter. A panning stabilization mode, turning from the hips and continuing the movement after the press raise the keeper rate, but it is accepted from the start that most frames won't work. A spot where the athletes pass facing the sun opens up the shadow the helmet casts on the face and keeps different skin tones in their own tones.

Mini assignment

In this assignment you will practice panning at the side of a road.

1. At the side of a safe road where cyclists, runners or cars pass, choose a spot where the passes repeat and find the direction where the sun strikes the faces of those passing.
2. Shoot the same passes at a sixtieth, a thirtieth and a fifteenth of a second, with panning stabilization and turning from the hips; use an ND filter if needed and compare the streak lengths.
3. For each duration, count how many frames out of a ten-frame burst come out sharp and write down the keeper rate; if you will share people recognizably, get their consent.

Check yourself

• At which duration does the streak length give the feeling of speed best?
• What was your keeper rate at each duration?
• At the spot facing the sun, did the faces escape the helmet's shadow?

Glossary

Mini quiz

1. In panning, what does the background's streak length depend on?

• A) Only the aperture
• B) The camera's swing speed, the focal length and the shutter speed
• C) The ISO
• D) The white balance

2. For the same cyclist, what does lengthening the duration from a thirtieth to a fifteenth do?

• A) It roughly doubles the streak length
• B) It halves the flow
• C) It freezes the background
• D) It makes the cyclist sharper

3. How does a panning stabilization mode differ from normal stabilization?

• A) It corrects all movements
• B) It corrects only horizontal shake
• C) It leaves the horizontal swing free and corrects vertical shake
• D) It turns stabilization off entirely

4. How is the shadow a helmet casts on the face opened up?

• A) By shortening the shutter speed
• B) By choosing a spot where the athletes pass facing the sun
• C) By removing the ND filter
• D) By swinging the camera faster

Answers

1. B — Every stationary point slides at a speed equal to the swing speed times the focal length, for the length of the duration.
2. A — When the duration doubles, the path the background slides doubles too.
3. C — It doesn't take the swing for a tremor; it resists only the up-and-down wobble.
4. B — When the sun strikes from the front, the visor's shadow pulls back from the upper part of the face.

Summary card

• Streak length = swing speed × focal length × duration.
• Duration by effect: a sixtieth hints, a fifteenth streaks.
• An ND filter in the sun; keep the aperture in the sharp range.
• Panning stabilization mode, turn from the hips, keep turning after the press.
• The keeper rate is low: shoot a burst, rehearse at the same spot; catch the face turned to the sun.

Bridge to the next lesson

At the end of the race, the club's fastest crosses the finish line just a hair behind. Your friend has already got her sharp panning frame, but the real moment comes after the line: she gets off the bicycle, takes off her helmet and throws it to the ground, then hugs her friend who won the race and laughs. The club photographer has already turned their camera to shoot not the race but that hug. Why does the celebration after a goal matter? The next lesson takes up how the reaction is as much a story as the action, and catching moments of emotion.