The Art of Panning

You know those photos where the subject is in focus and the background looks like it’s whizzing by? Think of a photo of a biker commuting to work down a city street where the buildings are blurred behind the subject. I recently posted an image like this on IG that got quite a few kind comments about being about to literally feel the wind and the joy in the moment:

The technique used in this situation is called panning. It’s not necessarily easy and it takes some practice, but it’s a fun and useful trick to have in your arsenal. It gives the viewer the feeling of movement, or motion blur. You can be moving with the subject to make this happen, or you can also set your camera to a slow shutter speed (ideally 1/60 or slower) and move the camera, or pan, with the subject as it passes you. You’ll want to focus on and frame your subject, then move your camera (and not yourself) to keep it in the same position within the frame. You’ll want to be in manual mode to make this happen intentionally. Try setting your F-stop to F16, ISO low, and shutter speed around 1/40 sec to give it a go. You may have to adjust a bit depending on conditions to get proper exposure, but that’s a good guideline to get going.

Here are some other examples from my practice during the same sledding adventure:

You can see I frequently prefer to edit in black and white with images when I’ve used panning, but here’s one in color:

Now, there are a few things I could have improved on in these photos. The thing that stands out most to me is that it would be nice to have composed the shots so the subjects were a bit more to the left of the frame, leaving more space on the right for the eye to travel in that direction. I feel like that would have enhance the feeling of movement. Part of my issue with doing this was related to lens choice. I only brought my 85mm and instantly wished I had something wider once I decided I wanted to pan. It was a small hill, so I felt a little constrained by a longer lens. But, perfection aside, I think the photos elicit feeling, and that’s my most important goal.

If this all makes some sense to you, great! Get out there and practice panning when you are in a situation where you feel like it will enhance your images. If not, I’m hoping to break down camera basics in future blog posts to help you get out of automatic and use your camera’s features to your advantage. Mentoring and group classes are in the works as well. So keep an eye out and stay tuned! Until then, I like the simplicity of the book “Hot Shots” by Kevin Meredith to start exploring camera settings and techniques, and I highly recommend the book “Understanding Exposure” by Bryan Peterson. I religiously used this book as a resource when I was teaching myself the nitty-gritty of photography.

Finally, I like using different techniques for unique shots during photo sessions, so feel free to reach out if you are looking for that in a family photographer in Columbus, Ohio or surrounding areas!