panning

[davidhampshire]

surprised this goose the other day,   as it surprised me.    my first real effort at spur of the moment panning,   though;     k35mm f3.5 lens,  that's what i had on the camera,  not really expecting the bird,    actually i was surprised how clear the bird was in the shot,    iso 250,  1/200th s,  f8 maybe ( not sure ).   

[spyglass]

Panning is something that most people do not practice (myself included). When shooting moving subjects our first instinct is to increase shutter speed at the expense of aperture. The problem with this is that we do not always get the depth of field we need. Panning allows us to maintain a higher aperture setting which helps ensure that the subject falls in focus. The motion of panning and the resulting background blur supports the notice of movement.

I think you did well here David especially since it was "on the fly". 


Spyglass

[Ron Kruger]

What Spy said, plus SR works against you when panning. It's best to turn it off, but that's not practical on spur-of-the-moment shots, so I pan slightly ahead of BIFs, very similar to leading a bird with a shotgun, then slow down or stop the moment I press the shutter release.
The bigger the bird the easier it is to pan. The more they glide the easier as well.

[Pacerr]

A common habit many people have when 'panning', whether shooting a camera or gun, is to pan with the whole target whether it be an egret or an elephant.

Results will be significantly improved if you train yourself to narrow your "point-of-focus" to a specific detail of the target object. An eye seems to be the ideal focus target for photography for many reasons; or just the head if a bird is very small in the VF.

This does take practice to build a good habit but it can easily be "trained" without the camera present if you conscientiously practice it as you see birds in flight. Same with people and motor sports. Pick a specific detail to concentrate on for various types of subjects. I used to use the windshield wiper nut on autos for forward quarter shots.  ( Now, a good tip for beach-bikini volley ball shots is . . .   )

Same principle applies to reliably hitting a baseball or tennis ball. If you can't describe the spin on the ball at the time of impact you're not getting max performance. Lots of good visual-training advice is available in books on other activities.

H2

And remember, the 'time-of-flight' of a photographic "bullet" (photon?) at the speed of light is not the same as Ron's shotgun pellets so the technique for leading the target is somewhat different.

[davidhampshire]

ok,  thank you guys;    you know,   i'm thinking i don't need that shake reduction on all the time....       and i need to practice those beach-bikini shots,  now that you mention it,   pacerr....    course then i have to have shake reduction on again.....    dave

[Ron Kruger]

Or jiggle reduction. Where's my manual?