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How to: shoot a "Panning" motion photo!
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Wearing your helmet like this is really asking for trouble...
User spreketek on flickr shot this awesome photo with an S95:
This technique is called a "panning" shot, used to capture a swiftly moving subject in focus, while blurring the background.
To achieve this, you might need to set your camera to a slightly longer shutter speed. Autofocus on your subject and then track it with your camera as you release the shutter. The idea is to keep the subject in the same position in the frame.
Spreketek adds these tips for the S95: "try setting AF Frame to center (small size) and Servo Focus set to On. remember to set the IS to panning. keep the subject within the AF frame box when panning the camera. practice is key here. i still discard a lot of failed tries but sometimes i get lucky. =)"
These settings are all found by pressing MENU in one of the non-Auto shooting modes...
AF Frame: Center
AF Frame Size: Small
Servo AF: On
IS Mode: Panning
It may also be helpful to set the camera to continuous shooting to try to get a few attempts at the same subject before it disappears. -
I've tried a few times, but to no avail... The day was too bright, and every image i took turned out overblown (or is there a workaround to this)... help!
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Hm, I haven't really experimented with panning yet, but I wonder if a negative exposure compensation would help. Or a neutral density filter if you wanna get real fancy?
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Wow, cool. I was wondering what the Panning thing at the IS Mode meant.
Just tried this with my hand, moving the camera and my (other) hand simultaneously, lol. :D -
Not really sure. Maybe it only stabilizes the lens vertically?
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@solarshooter -
You are right, p165 of the .pdf s95 manual: "Panning: Image stabilization only counters up and down motion. This option is recommended for shooting objects moving horizontally"
Here's one of my attempts at it:
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Very cool, I haven't seen too many panning shots with great blurred foreground like this.
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@Hitman Awesome! May I ask how many shots you took until the picture was that crystal clear?
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@stst - I only shot 4 pictures in total before I got this one. I didn't have that much time to shoot stuff since I was just walking from the bus to my grandparents place for dinner...
I must say though, that ever since I havent had much luck with panning motion in manual mode. There just seems to be too much light on a sunny day in order to allow for a slow shutter speed, even with an aperture of f8, iso 80.
Does anyone know if there is a way to acces the exposure compensation in manual mode? or should I be using the shutterspeed priority mode? -
@Hitman Earlier on I used filters to get the desired effect. I would use shutterspeed or shoot manual.
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Thanks for the tip!, for now I'll try fidling with the settings a bit, and maybe stick to the cloudy days for panning motion.
I believe lensmate makes a filterkit especially for the s95.... another item added on the wishlist I guess :p -
How you do reduce shutter speed without letting in so much light it that wrecks the picture?
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@s95owner Either by increasing the f stop, lowering iso or by taking pictures on a cloudy day ;)
Or offcourse stst's suggestion of using a neutral density filter! -
My first attempt on a panning picture...
The focus was in center, later I discovered i can set tracking focus :P -
I've read this thread, but I still don't understand how to make such a panning shot. And I'd really like to try!
Can anyone offer a fool-proof explanation for what I should do? First of all, I can't even find the so-called "panning IS mode". Where do I select this mode?
And then what should I do? -
@Froggy
It's all up there at the top...what are you having trouble with? "These settings are all found by pressing MENU in one of the non-Auto shooting modes..." Under the camera settings. You then shoot your image with a long-ish shutter speed while moving it to track your subject. -
These are two shots I took after reading this thread while visiting my mother in law. They are shot from her Condo's Living room window through a screen. This is truly the best point and shoot I have ever owned. -
@prfstrkr You dont need a tripod to shoot a panning motion shot. If you have one it can definately help reduce vertical shake, but if you dont, just click menu and select IS mode and set it to panning. This will greatly reduce vertical shake, all you have to do is track the subject in your viewfinder and make the shot.
good luck! -
@prfstrkr Let us know how it went!, or even better, post a picture ;)
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those pics are great, I think Froggy you may have missed this bit..
"These settings are all found by pressing MENU in one of the NON-AUTO SHOOTING MODES..." - I couldn't find it either because I was in AUTO mode, doh! -
This is really beautiful. I wonder if I should use Tv mode or Av mode. If in Tv priority mode, would you specify an appropriate value as a slightly longer shutter speed?
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@xieqiao The brighter the outside conditions the more limited your options for a long exposure time get with this camera. The first picture in this thread by spreketek was shot at S 1/15th-F8,0.
In the picture I posted above it was a cloudy day and I found myself shooting at S 1/50th-F 3,5. I myself like to shoot in P or M mode most, but if having to choose between tv or av I'd go with tv and find a shutterspeed at which the pictures dont turn out too bright, while getting that nice blurry background when moving.
The best advice I can give you however, is to get out there and just play around with the settings until you get the result you're happy with!
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Well, I finally tried the other day. I found all the settings alright - thanks! I tried to photograph cars on the motorway. But I didn't get the desired result at all. Perhaps the day was too bright - or perhaps I was too far away from the subject? Do you need to be fairly close? I still want to make sure I understand it right: Should I track the subject in the AF frame and keep the shutter button pressed half-way down while I follow the subject and then when I think I've got it, press the shutter button all the way? Is that how you do it?
I haven't experimented with different exposure times or shutter speeds so perhaps this is what I should be doing? -
@Froggy Yo'u can shoot panning motion from quite a distance, I've shot succesfull ones from over 40 meters away. The trick is to follow the subject in the center of the frame and to fully press the button while maintaining the same tracking motion with your camera.
If the pictures come out too bright, try adjusting aperture, ev compensation and shutterspeed. If all fails, try again at the end of the day when the sunlight is fading.
Good luck! -
You should keep in mind that the most important factor when taking panning shots is the shutter speed. Therefore you should use Tv mode so that you can directly control it. The camera will then set the correct aperture (not really critical in this type of shot) for the exposure, which you can influence with the ISO setting if you need to, depending on the prevailing light. Shutter speed needs to be slow enough to blur the background as you move (pan) the camera but fast enough so that the subject is not blurred by relative camera shake.
I would suggest you try 1/100th of a second as a starting point for things like fast moving traffic, then maybe try coming down to slower speeds when your technique improves. Image Stabilisation should be set to 'panning' or off. (Menu button and scroll down to IS Mode)
Your stance is also important... stand comfortably and well balanced, facing the point where you intend to press the button - swing from your waist towards the oncoming subject, track it carefully as it comes towards you and continue to follow through as it passes you after you take the shot.
Ideally, you should pre-focus the shot by pointing the camera at the point where you intend to take the shot, press the button halfway to lock the focus (and exposure) then holding the button in this position, track your subject as above and fire the shutter at the appropriate position. Hope this helps.
This picture was NOT taken with the S95 (with my 20D with 70-210 lens) but was taken at 1/100th of a second. Included here to illustrate the point.
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I took another crack at it today and wanted to experiment a bit more with blurred foreground, this is the best one out of 12 pictures I shot in total. I used photoshop and HDR efex pro to create HDR out of a single shot:
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I guess the reason we use the above-mentiond technique is just to create a motion effect through blurred background (which by the way can also be created using a DSLR camera with long focal length, but it will not be so vivid). S95 with limited DC hardware cannot normally get effective Bokeh (shallow depth of field) for portraits, but with creative control, we can do something extraordinary.
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@xieqiao I dont think the panning motion shot is just a matter of DOF. Especially in fast moving objects it is the nice parallel movement of the background that gives a feel of speed, movement and direction of movement. if it where just DOF you could still freeze a fast moving object but you would lose the feeling of movement and direction.
just my 2 cts. ;) -
In my view, depth of field is not really a factor at all in this kind of shot.
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My first attempt at panning. I got the instructions on how to from here....:-)
Its not great, but I am pleased!
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@Babes - Interesting shot - certainly conveys lots of movement. Is it the result you wanted? You seem very close to the subject (or maybe you have cropped the shot?). It doesn't look as if you were panning in exactly the same plane as the car's movement. I note also that you were using a shutter speed of 1/30th which may have been a tad on the slow side.
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I was walking and heard the car come up from behind. I turned around quickly and snapped the photo. So I was actually not going with the cars movement, but against it.
The shutter speed, I got from some other website....and just wanted to test it. I have another photo. Being further away, different location and this time moving the camera in the direction the car was going.
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@Babes - This one was shot with a shutter speed of 1/250th of a second - too fast to really blur the scenery and give the feeling of movement. At that speed you also freeze the motion of the wheels going round. If you want to perfect this type of shot, you need to use Tv mode, which will allow you to directly control the shutter speed with the camera's front ring. For fast moving vehicles I would suggest you start at 1/100th - see my picture further up this thread. It's hard to get the framing right when panning with this type of camera , but ideally you should try to get a little more space in front of the subject than behind, so that it is moving into the shot, not out of it. Hope that helps.
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@ all of you thanks for the compliments, it was a ''Tour de Norway'' for kids they had to do three rounds on a 500 meter track. The picture is 1/30th of a second, f/5.6 and iso 80...post processed with photoshop I upped the contrast, sharpness and saturation. @Babes he was going as fast as he could go, it was also raining a bit.
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Panning shooting is the first tip i learned from this community ... :-)
I think the effect is almost right. 1/30 s, f8 and ISO 80. Now i think i could've chosen a better background to make the motion more dramatic. ;-) -
Hi everyone! After reading this thread I immediately took down notes and tried to do some attempts at motion panning today. I just bought a s95 yesterday and so excited :)
1/100, ISO 80, IS Panning Mode, SERVO AF On
(I'm just reading the settings off my camera in Tv mode lol)
I'm a total noob at photography and only P&S-ed before this. Sadly I don't know why my background doesn't seem as blurry and I don't know if I'm doing it right. Would appreciate any advice on this! Thanks :)
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@liahz Don't give up just yet:
this camera has a pretty wide angle so for the motion effect, shoot at 1/50-1/30 of a second...next have it on manual mode as you can also control the aperture...the highest on this camera is f/2.0 the lowest is f/8.0...I case you dont know what those numbers mean: f/2.0 makes the image brighter but leaves it less sharp whereas f/8 makes the Image very sharp but the image is darker
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