Hi All,

The hardest part of a schedule to keep is the early part. Once it becomes a habit it is just that, a habit. That said, tonight’s post is a tip/technique called panning. 

Panning is fairly simple with practice and will offer a creative solution for conveying motion in a still photograph and can also give you a last trick for the end of a shoot when the light may be really dim. Here is how it’s done :

1. Set your camera at a slower shutter speed than you would normally handhold.

2. Follow a subject moving laterally in your viewfinder (on the screen for those of you using a consumer digital camera) with your camera. This technique does not work on subjects moving toward or away from you. You must move the camera with the moving subject.

3. Make your exposure (push the button) at about the time the subject is directly in front of you. Do not forget to follow through with the motion like a golf swing or a quarterback does when he releases the ball.

4. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat.

It may not work on the first try. Try also to lower the shutter speed below what common sense would allow. Sometimes great things come when you’ve got nothing to lose.

If a child is running like a madman and you can’t slow him/her down then this is a good technique. Even if it’s high noon and the sun is killing you all you need to do is drop your ISO, drop your shutter speed to about 1/30th and stop you lens down ( make the F number get bigger ) to the correct exposure and follow the above instructions.

Another (demonstrated in the accompanying photograph of my great friend and photographer Marcia of the Art of Photography fame) situation is when the light drops. In this case you raise your ISO, set your aperture wide ( to allow all the light you can) and adjust your shutter speed to whatever it takes to make a correct exposure (as long as it doesn’t climb past about 1/30th).

I hope this is easy to follow. If you have any questions then comment them and I will answer . 

Thanks. I hope this helped.

Sincerely,

Keith