OCTOBER 29, 2019

INTERMEDIATE

10 Tips for Better Camera

Panning
Perfecting the technique of panning to show
motion
Featuring NIKON AMBASSADOR DAVE BLACK

Okay, no one can guarantee perfect pans, but with practice, patience and a grasp
of the basics, dramatic images of subjects in motion are certainly well within
reach.

Panning is not about movement, it is movement, and that's what makes it

challenging: it's the following of a moving subject along its plane of motion. Most
often it's a horizontal plane with the subject a runner, a rider, a motorcyclist, a race
car. But it could be motion along a vertical plane; think of panning with a diver as
she goes from the board to the water.

In concept, panning is easy: set your shutter speed to freeze motion or blur it,
move your camera with the action and snap the shutter. But it's how you handle
the details of the concept that will determine the success of your images.

To get to the finer points of those details, we talked with pro shooter, and Nikon
Ambassador, Dave Black. Primarily a sports photographer, Dave is always
looking for a variety of ways to photograph action, and, he says, "Most of the time
following and capturing action means panning."

In their general order of importance, here's what Dave has to say about his
panning methods and techniques.
 © Dave Black

Dave panned with the surfer's movement and froze the action with a 1/2000
second shutter speed. "He was basically riding a similar style wave every time;
he'd paddle out, the wave would break and then he'd do it again." This image
and the following surfer photo are examples of situations for which Dave used
continuous servo autofocus. D3, AF-S VR Zoom-NIKKOR 200-400mm f/4G IF-
ED, 1/2000 second, f/6.3, ISO 1000, manual exposure, Matrix metering.

Choosing the Shutter Speed. The first thing workshop students ask Dave is
what shutter speed should they use to make their pans. "That depends on how
fast your subject is moving," he replies, "and how much motion or speed you want
him to appear to have." First, realize that panning with a subject applies even
when the desired result is a subject frozen in the midst of motion. "When you've
got a subject flashing through the frame, you can't stand still and hope to catch him
and freeze him," Dave says. "Pan with him and stop his motion with a fast shutter
speed." Slow that shutter speed and his motion isn't stopped, it's evident. But how
slow is "slow"? Some guidelines suggest starting at 1/30 or 1/20 second and
moving up or down from there. Dave's photos here show those speeds as well as
1/15, 1/6 and 1/4 seconds. As you've probably guessed, experimentation and
experience have a lot to do with your shutter speed choices, and there's no
substitute for a lot of shooting to build a memory database of what works best in
various situations. "My experience allows me to go way down in shutter speed,
lower than a lot of people go," Dave says. Regardless of the shutter speed you
choose, take this tip with you: "Start moving with your subject before you press the
shutter, and continue to move with him after you've pressed it. You want to follow
through, just as you would with a golf swing."
 © Dave Black

Simulating the sun, Dave had placed Speedlights to the right side of the
track, while sunshine streamed in from the left, behind the rider. "He's
coming around a corner and not moving very fast at all, probably not even
ten miles an hour." D3X, AF-S NIKKOR 24-70mm f/2.8G ED, 1/60 second,
f/8, ISO 100, manual exposure, Matrix metering; three Nikon SB-900
Speedlights, SU-800 Wireless Speedlight Commander.

Keeping Something Sharp. "You're striving to have something in the picture

sharp," Dave says. "A pan with everything blurry is annoying to people; something
has to be sharp to hold their eyes in the picture." If you're photographing, say,
track-and-field sprinters, panning with them and shooting at 1/1000 second will
freeze them. Choose 1/125 second, though, and focus on one sprinter, and his
face will likely be pretty sharp, but his arms and legs will be a blur of motion, as
will the background. "If you get two or three elements sharp, chances are you have
a keeper," Dave says.

© Dave Black

No Speedlights for this pan, but there's enough sharpness to almost have a
flash look to it. D2X, AF-S DX Zoom-NIKKOR 17-55mm f/2.8G IF-ED, 1/5
second, f/13, ISO 250, aperture priority, Matrix metering.
Using Flash. To guarantee that something will be sharp, use flash, and set your
Speedlight for rear curtain sync, a technique in which the flash fires at the end of
the exposure. When you combine rear curtain sync with low shutter speeds, a blur
effect resulting from the scene's ambient light combining with the flash gives you
flowing-light patterns following your moving subject; the subject's movement will
be frozen at the end of the light flow. Dave used rear curtain sync for all the flash
photos you see here. He also used three or four Nikon Speedlights for each flash
image, but it's important to note that in all instances, only one was needed.
Because he had multiple units in a FourSquare softbox already set up for other
applications, it was a lot easier for him to simply dial down the power output of
each Speedlight rather than remove units from the FourSquare. "In every case
where flash was used, one Speedlight would have done the job just fine," Dave
says. A final flash note: Dave sets his Speedlights for manual operation and
controls their output by increasing or decreasing their power.

© Dave Black

Rear curtain sync came into play for this shot. Dave used four Speedlights, each
set for one-quarter power, in a FourSquare softbox at camera right at the side of
the road toward the front of the rider, forming a triangle with Dave and the rider.
"I knew where to focus because I watched him drive through several times and
locked my focus on the tire tracks on the ground. I knew he'd be within a foot of
those tracks." D700, AF-S NIKKOR 24-70mm f/2.8G ED, 1/1000 second, Auto FP
High Speed Sync, f/4.5, ISO 800, manual exposure, Matrix metering; four SB-
800 Speedlights, SU-800 Wireless Speedlight Commander.

Making a Focus Choice. "I tell people to use whatever autofocus mode or
method they feel most comfortable with," Dave says. "When my subject has a
consistent line of movement through a specific area, I will sometimes use what
sports photographers call zone focus, which is an old photography term that
simply means the photographer will pre-focus on a specific area, lock focus on
that area and then press the shutter as the subject arrives in that area."
For this technique, Dave uses the AF-ON button on the back of his Nikon D-SLR.
He touches the button, achieves focus and then by taking his thumb off the button,
locks the focus. "This technique allows me to compositionally place the subject
anywhere in the frame," he says. And with small aperture f/stops, he's got some
depth-of-field insurance coverage. "With my focus locked, all I have to concentrate
on is keeping very level and steady and moving smoothly with the subject." For
subjects moving in unpredictable ways, he'll choose to track them using AF-C,
continuous servo autofocus. Finally, his focus choice has an effect on his framing
rate. "Using zone focus I'll generally shoot two frames as my subject passes
through the zone. If I'm using continuous focus, I might shoot a burst of five
frames."

© Dave Black

A basic subject, background, tripod-mounted camera setup that's ideal for

first efforts at panning. "He's pretty close to the wall and you can see the
speed effect of that short distance. If I know where a motorcycle rider is
going to be, I prefocus right on the pavement and lock the focus in. If I have
control of a subject, I'll set him in the spot I want and then lock focus on
him." D3, AF-S NIKKOR 70-200mm f/2.8G ED VR II, 1/15 second, f/10, ISO
200, manual exposure, Matrix metering.

Hand-Held or Tripod-Mounted? If your subject is on a predictable, "near perfect"

plane, a tripod is probably a good idea, and Dave uses a 30-year old Wimberley
head on his. But because sports and action events often aren't predictable, he
says hand-held is "really good for people to learn." He suggests a solid stance
with elbows and arms in, then a flexing of knees and a smooth swing of the body
to follow the subject. "It's not a pivot at the waist, but you should try that, too—or
whatever else you like. Most things involved in panning are a case of whatever
works for you, and the more you work at it, the more you'll discover what that is."
 © Dave Black

"You can run faster than he's going, but he's coming at an angle toward the
camera and I'm very close to him." D700, AF-S NIKKOR 14-24mm f/2.8G
ED, 1/25 second, f/11, ISO 200, manual exposure, Matrix metering; three
SB-900 Speedlights, SU-800 Wireless Speedlight Commander.
Speedlights at one-eighth power lit the side of his face."

The Matter of Distance... The farther the subject is from you, the slower it will
appear to be going and the easier it'll be to stay with during your pan. But the
closer it is to the background, the more pronounced the appearance, the visual
sensation, of speed. These distance calculations will have also have an effect on
your lens choices. "If you try to pan a sprinter from a spot near the track with a
50mm lens, it's going to be hard," Dave says. "It's better to get farther away, even
up in the grandstand a little bit, and use a 70-200mm lens. That way it will appear
that he's moving slower, making it easier to pan."

© Dave Black

The background here is a forest, and you're seeing bits of daylight sky
between branches and leaves. There's a curve to the track and the railing,
which accounts for the sharp-to-soft look to the railing. "Everything moves
here except the stirrup, the saddle and a bit of white design on his helmet;
all the rest is motion. I wanted the trees to be the dominating blurred factor."
 D3X, AF-S NIKKOR 24-70mm f/2.8G ED, 1/4 second, f/7.1, ISO 100 manual
exposure, Matrix metering.

...and Background. "The usual idea of needing a clean background when you're
shooting sports action doesn't apply when you're panning. It doesn't matter if
there's stuff back there—it's going to be in motion. And the more stuff, the more
motion."

© Dave Black

"At a Nikon-sponsored Mentor Trek workshop, I had two guys riding back
and forth for me. This is a good example of how the subject-to-background
and photographer-to-subject distance relationship works. I'm far enough
from him to be able to pan with him, and he's close enough to the
background to make it appear that he's moving really quickly. For this
photo I used Active VR because of the up and down movement of the
horse and rider." D800, AF-S VR Zoom-NIKKOR 70-200mm f/2.8G IF-ED,
1/15 second, f/22, ISO 200, manual exposure, Matrix metering.

The VR Edge. "The VR [Vibration Reduction] feature in various NIKKOR lenses

makes panning a lot more consistent and much easier to accomplish," Dave says,
"and your percentage of good pan pictures increases greatly when you use it."
The VR function offers two setting choices: Normal and Active. Dave uses Normal
for most panning circumstances. Active VR is recommended when a photographer
is shooting from a moving vehicle—boat, bus, helicopter—but Dave often uses the
Active mode when he's photographing horses. "Even though I'm just standing
there, the horse and rider are kind of moving up and down as they gallop. There's
a vertical change in the subject's plane, and I find that in cases like that, Active VR
works better for me. I'd say that if there are a lot of moving parts to the subject, like
a merry-go-round, try Active, but with a motorcycle rider, a guy running, a race car,
Normal is best."
 © Dave Black

For this image Dave chose continuous servo autofocus because he

couldn't predict the positions of the riders as they raced around the
velodrome. Four Speedlights in a FourSquare softbox, each at one-eighth
power, were positioned upper left of the camera. "To create this pan-zoom
image I zoomed the lens from 400mm to 200mm as fast as I could, hand-
holding the camera, panning and zooming as I took the shot. With rear
curtain sync, I knew some elements were going to be sharp." D3S, AF-S
VR Zoom-NIKKOR 200-400mm f/4G IF-ED, 1/6 second, f/13, ISO 640,
manual exposure, Matrix metering; four SB-900 Speedlights, SU-800
Wireless Speedlight Commander.

Practice... "It's always best to practice these techniques and choices—shutter

speed, tripod versus hand-held, Normal and Active VR," Dave says. "I'd start with
something fairly slow and manageable. It might be a nice idea to pan with some
cars out on the highway, or shoot some track-and-field events; even get somebody
to run or ride a bike by you 20 times on the street so you can get a feel for it."

© Dave Black

Panning needn't be applied only to sports; it can work for nature subjects as
well. In this case persistence paid off, as Dave estimates he shot 30 to 40 tripod-
 assisted images before getting a keeper. "There's just enough beautiful motion
from me panning right to left with the water. None of the other photos—panning
left to right, right to left, with the waves, opposite to them—looked like this. With
all the techniques there are to help you get a better pan, there are still often
mysteries as to why the pictures look the way they do. This is one of those." D3,
AF-S VR Zoom-NIKKOR 200-400mm f/4G IF-ED, 1/30 second, f/18, ISO 200,
manual exposure, Matrix metering.

...and Persevere. Don't be surprised if you take ten, 20 or 30 pan pictures to get
one really satisfying result. Even with all his experience, Dave didn't accomplish
any of the photos here on the first try. One of the motorcyclists rode through the
scene ten times; one of the cowboys, 20 times. "Find an opportunity where you
can do a lot of repetitions, like a bicycle race," Dave suggests. "They'll go around
the track for an hour, and that's a lot of time to practice and perfect your technique.
That's how you learn what shutter speeds work for what effects. A slow shutter
speed pan with action can be one of the toughest pictures to achieve. Don't give
up." [Try this at home: practice panning as cars or bicycles ride by —Editor]
 Recap: Panning Essentials
SPEED. Use slow shutter speeds to depict motion. How slow? Check
Dave's choices in the file data, but experiment and practice to see what
works best for you.

SHARPNESS. Something—almost anything—in the photo should be

sharp; more than one element doesn't hurt. Blur means motion, but all blur
might be interpreted as a mistake.

FLASH. Using your Speedlight guarantees a point of sharpness. Use it

with rear curtain sync for a dramatic depiction of motion.

FOCUS. Dave likes to lock focus on a zone through which his subject will
pass, or use continuous servo autofocus when his subject or subjects are
moving in unpredictable ways—but it's best to experiment with all focus
methods to find your comfort zone.

STEADINESS. If there's a predictable path for your subject, a tripod's a

good choice. When there's random or unpredictable movement, hand-held
is the way to go. Practice to perfect steady, smooth moves.

DISTANCE. Subjects far away will appear to be moving more slowly than
those close up, thus making them easier to pan with. The closer your
subject is to the background, the greater the visual sensation of speed.

VR. Use it.

PREPARATION. Practice on easy subjects to get started: cars on the road,

joggers, skateboarders, bike riders, your dog chasing a ball. It's the best
way to determine the shutter speeds, focusing method(s) and pan
movement that will do the job for you.

There's a treasure trove of tips, techniques and images at Dave's website,

www.daveblackphotography.com.
Featuring

DAVE BLACK

As a freelance photographer for over 30 years Dave’s work has primarily centered on the
sports industry for such publications as Sports Illustrated, National Geographic, Time,
Newsweek, ESPN, Olympian Magazine, Parade and The Wall Street Journal. The list of
events he has covered includes the Masters, Kentucky Derby, NASCAR, National Football
League, and 12 Olympic Games. Known for his creative use of Speedlights and in
particular with the artistic technique of Lightpainting, Dave’s portfolio continues to broaden
into the commercial and advertising industry, Learn more about his work
at www.daveblackphotography.com and view his ambassador page.

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