PANNING TECHNIQUE

A couple of bicyclist shots to illustrate panning.....moving the camera at the same speed as the subject using a slow shutter speed. IF you can keep the camera moving at the subject's speed, the subject will be sharply in focus while the background is blurred. The slower the shutter speed...the more blurry the background. But you will get to a point where the shutter speed is too slow and the subject blurs as well. The faster the subject is moving, the higher shutter speed you can use.....trial and error.

This shot was made during a Cyclocross competition and this happened to be in a shady portion of the course....so I combined the shot with a flash using rear curtain sync. Rear curtain sync delays the flash slightly so background light is allowed to be recorded on the sensor. Normally, with regular sync just the subject would be illuminated and the background would be dark. Exif details may be seen at the right.

EXTRAS: Another portion of the race required the competitors to carry their bikes over obstacles that could not be ridden over. The last image show another technique to show motion.....camera steady, subject moving; background sharp, subject blurry. Opposite of panning.  Again, rear curtain sync was used to lighten the background.