Panning Technique

[biggerry]

A short walk with Cam today in the lovely Centennial Park posed quite a number of people on push bikes, I have never given the old panning technique a go before and thought this place would definitely be a good location to practice such an technique. Whilst the exif data will be useless for yas since its a old manual lens, I was typically using 1/180 shutter, any comments, suggestions, criticism welcome. Also, if your looking for practicing this tech, i can definitely recommend this park, if you can put up with teh mutts, its the place to be!

Additionally, a lorikeet and cams very very inconsistent tokina lens...

'Look ma, no hands'



'you'll never spot me in here'


I am disturbed, i could see my belly button and the roof all in the one shot with this lens

[adame]

Loving the color in the lorikeet image mate

[aim54x]

Nice stuff there Gerry, especially that lorikeet, and there I was standing there with my baby 17-50 really annoyed with myself for not bringing my 70-300 Tamron.

Yeah that Tokina is a bummer....fun stuff though! Hopefully I will have a repaired or replacement lens soon though. Off in the post back to HK it is tomorrow.

[surenj]

Nice shots. Love that Lorikeet!!

As for the pans, did you try any with a longer shutter?

[aim54x]

These guys were moving pretty slow, and Gerry was using his MF 100-300mm so going slower than 1/180 may not have been an option for him.

[surenj]

These guys were moving pretty slow, and Gerry was using his MF 100-300mm so going slower than 1/180 may not have been an option for him.

Gotcha.
In that case, congrats for getting the focus right!!

Another question, if you were using autofocus, would you fellas use one focus point, or multiple, on the servo mode?

[Willy wombat]

When panning bikes I try to get 1/60 and under. Its harder, but you will get much nicer movement in the wheels.

Also try to watch vertical object in the background (like goal posts, etc). Panning works better with horrizontal aspects in the background.

[biggerry]

Gotcha.
In that case, congrats for getting the focus right!!

Another question, if you were using autofocus, would you fellas use one focus point, or multiple, on the servo mode?

thats a very good question, if it was an option, i guess i would be going with continuous focus with a single point, thats my first my first thought, however I am sure using manual would also be just as good after some decent practice...

Getting the focus with the manual lens was not too bad, i think pre-focusing at a desired spot would be the way to go then tracking them thru the trajectory and nailing at the prefocus location. I did not do this, i just fumbled my way through the focus from the first sighting all the way thru

I had a pretty low strike rate here, got probably 10-15 usable images from 30 odd images i guess.

When panning bikes I try to get 1/60 and under. Its harder, but you will get much nicer movement in the wheels.

Also try to watch vertical object in the background (like goal posts, etc). Panning works better with horrizontal aspects in the background.

1/60 gonna take me some more practice and substantially less coffee Great advice on the background and the vertical lines (goalposts) - did not even occur to me.

[colin_12]

You really did nail that lorikeet. Very nice.
Yes a self portrait of your belly button is a bit of a concern
Classic what are you doing look from the girl on the bike.

[biggerry]

Classic what are you doing look from the girl on the bike.

ta Colin, yeah she could have at least smiled for me! got more love from the lorikeet

[aim54x]

These guys were moving pretty slow, and Gerry was using his MF 100-300mm so going slower than 1/180 may not have been an option for him.

Gotcha.
In that case, congrats for getting the focus right!!

Another question, if you were using autofocus, would you fellas use one focus point, or multiple, on the servo mode?

I usually use Single Servo using one AF point (centre - centre) but it will be interesting to see what others are doing (esp the motorsport guys that frequent this forum). What I do is close the aperture down a bit (5.6-8) and then use that little bit of extra DOF to help stay in focus. I line up the object then lock...periodically pulsing the AF to keep in focus and fire away when I see the shot lining up.

Yesterday I was using my 50mm f/1.8 on the D60 (no AF) so I had the aperture closed down (11-16) and then using the rangefinder mode pre-focused on the approx point on the road before proceeding to acquire...track and shoot those bike riders.