Panning is Easy

Panning is tracking moving subjects while you shoot them at fairly low shutter speeds. The tracking keeps the subject sharp, and the camera movement blurs the background. Like so:

I kept the motorcycle and its riders at the same spot in the frame, so it is mostly sharp. But because I moved the camera to achieve that, the background is blurred (streaked, to be exact).

When I show a panning shot to another photographer, I often get comments about how difficult it is. That's nice to hear, but here's a little secret: it isn't.

Panning is easy?

Really. Think of it this way: you're extremely good at tracking without a camera. You do it every time you look at a moving object. Now just do it with a camera in front of your face. You will not need very much practice; it's really the same thing. (It's a little harder with an LCD screen at arms length; I find that a camera with a viewfinder makes this a lot easier.)

Once you're tracking your subject, the only remaining thing is to press the shutter at the right moment. You know, composition and the like. This can be hard with a mobile phone or a cheap point and shoot camera, as they have an annoying delay between pressing the button and taking the picture. With a responsive camera, this too is no big problem.

So why don't mine come out?

Because you're not shooting enough. The problem is that to get a bit of blur in the background, your shutter speed needs to be quite slow. Typically, too slow to get reliably sharp subjects. You will get some unwanted motion blur, be it due to a little wobble, your heartbeat, or not perfectly tracking the subject. To illustrate this, the image above is shot at 1/30th of a second. For a static subject and the same lens the rule of thumb is to use 1/50th or faster. So the shutter speed is too slow for a static shot, and for panning, you're doing something even more difficult: move the camera smoothly and at the right speed to track the subject.

That's why a lot of panning images don't come out. Simply too much blur, because the shutter speed is so low. The solution is simple: shoot a lot of images. Most will be garbage, but mostly likely there'll be few acceptable ones too.

So that's it, this is the key skill of panning: shoot A LOT. Much more than usual. And there will be some gems. Just don't show all the garbage to anyone and you'll be admired for your amazing skills:-)

Over time, your skill will improve, and so will your hit rate. Or better, raise your standards with your skill level, so you keep a similar hit rate but with higher quality keepers.

OK, so how do I do this?

Gear and settings:

• Preferably, use a responsive camera (no long shutter lag) with a viewfinder. Not required, but it saves on practice and improves your hit rate.
• Set the camera to a mode where you determine the shutter speed (typically, T or Tv); of course, full manual will work if you prefer that. If your camera does not offer that level of control, you're mostly out of luck. All automatic modes will try to avoid slow shutter speeds, so you'll have to shoot in circumstances dark enough to force a suitable shutter speed.
• Set the camera to continuous auto-focus, if possible. Don't worry too much about that - nobody will notice if the focus is a little off. Motion blur and the likely small aperture will hide that.
• I usually stick to single shot mode and try to time it well. Burst modes (where the camera rapidly fires off several shots) generally don't work out for me. They make tracking much harder because the viewfinder or screen blacks out or freezes each time it takes a shot. And unless you have a very fast burst mode, timing your shots to hit the subject in the sweet spot can be hard too. One case where I find this a price worth paying is for running animals or people. Their posture changes a lot between shots in a burst, and I found it very hard to catch the right moment by hand. Your mileage may vary, so give burst mode a try and see if and when it works for you.

Start out simple.

• Pick a simple subject - you want predictable and straight movement, and not too many distractions around. Something like cars or bikes on a straight road.
• Pick a fixed focal length. Zooming in and out will make it a little harder to get the framing right - remember that the subject will probably be coming closer or moving away! It will also affect the optimal shutter speed. So keep it simple at first, and don't zoom. Start with a middle of the road focal length (say 25-50mm on a crop DSLR, 40-80 on a full frame DSLR).
• Pick one shutter speed. Say 1/30th of a second. Try it out, and adjust as needed. If everything is one messy blur, pick a faster speed (say, 1/50th). If the background isn't very blurry, pick a slower speed (say, 1/20th).
• Pick the spot where you want to capture the subject. Get in a stable position as usual, and then twist your upper body towards your approaching subject.
• Pick and focus on your subject before it gets there, and track it a little past there. And obviously, press the shutter button when it passes the right spot.

As you get better at this (easy doesn't mean no practice) you can start complicating things. Using different focal lengths. Try wide angle or tele. Try subjects coming around a corner. Try it at night, with or without flash, as in the images below. Squat down for a low perspective as in the top shot here (squatting makes the tracking harder). Try smooth backgrounds; try busy and colourful ones. Try athletes or animals, where the posture (and thus the precise timing) is crucial. There is no end.

And remember, nobody needs to know you threw out 100 shots to get that one nice one.

This is a 0.3 second exposure, hence the massive blur. I've used flash here to get a sharp image of the motorcycle. If you look closely though, you can see the blur of the motorcycle created throughout the entire 0.3s exposure.

A night shot. It doesn't need to be perfectly sharp to work! This is 1/4th of a second, and I'm using my tripod as an improvised monopod (legs folded in).

Butter Tea

Getting ready to distribute butter tea; at a festival in Jambay Lakhang, Jakar, Bhutan.

Bhutan is very welcoming to the visitor. At this busy local religious festival (with just a minor sprinkling of tourists) I was offered some butter tea and chili rice, just like all pilgrims and locals that were there for religious reasons.

I must admit that the butter tea can be an acquired taste. This one was - very pungent, creamy, and salty. The chili rice is just that: white rice spiced up with some chili, served in your bare hand.

Making Tarmac

Manual Roadwork, near Mongar, Bhutan.

These guys are making tarmac by mixing hot molten asphalt with grit. All day long. Roadwork is quite hard, slow, manual work in those quarters. But quite photogenic too...

To get this, I moved around them go get the smoke to be backlit by the sun. Then it was a matter of waiting until the smoke, their bodies and the shovels created a nice composition - I wanted those diagonals.

Monk in Punakha Dzong

This is in a 1000 Buddhas temple in the monastery that is part of Punakha Dzong, Punakha, Bhutan. The photo-gods were with me that afternoon.

I was walking down a corridor soaking up the atmosphere and gorgeous architecture of the Dzong (a fortress, combining a monastery and government quarters) when I heard 'come' out of a room I passed. This monk was waiting for me there. I put my camera down and had him explain me how to pay my respects to the Buddha. He explained a bit about the room and the 1000 buddhas. I was just beginning to wonder how to bring up the subject of a picture - always a bit difficult when it comes to religion - when he pointed to my camera, still sitting on the floor, and simply said - 'camera'. I snapped this portrait.

One that should not have been, as ISO 800 was not good enough: 1/5th of a second is a tad slow at 127mm... But as said, the photo gods were with me. Good karma. It's not critically sharp but I doubt you'll notice on the web. Love this shot anyway.

(I took two more almost identical shots, seconds later, at more reasonable shutter speeds, but you can see his smile slowly drop. Expression over perfection, for me.)

When I was about to say my goodbye to him, he referred to me as father. A touching end to a brief meeting I will remember for a long time.

If you have more than 12 great pictures, your standards aren't high enough

If you set out to select your best images for a trip, a subject, a year, or your whole career, how many do you end up with? If it's more than a dozen or so, your standards aren't high enough. Raise your standards, be more selective, and reduce the number. Your work justifies a higher standard. And the result is a stronger collection.
Obviously, this idea is based on the famous Ansel Adams quote:

Twelve significant photographs in any one year is a good crop.

In fact, the idea came to me when discussing making a selection of twelve for a ten-day photo tour. What if you have more? Well, Ansel Adams thought he made twelve in a good year. So if you think you made more (let alone more in ten days) you should raise your standards.

Which is easier said than done, of course. I find it very hard to get down to a suitable small number. Especially when things are still fresh.

The image above is one of my dozen for 2012.

All lined up

Rangjung Woesel Choeling Monastery, East Bhutan.

I had taken a shot of this group before, reflected in this same flooded courtyard. I'd even shown them the shot (to little reaction). But when I saw them coming along the wall, next to the water, I dashed like a madman to get the water between them and me. I guess you can see why. One of my favourite shots from the trip.
(About 50ft behind me, Mark Stennett was doing the same, but the extra distance gave him a cleaner shot: head-on, and all six of them evenly spaced. Ah well:-)