Focus Settings for Panning Photography? | Ask David Bergman

Today's question from Horacio G. -- “What is the best way to capture cars in focus while trying to do panning shots? Should I pre-focus somewhere on the road or use continuous focus and burst mode? After tons of tries, I’ve only managed to capture 2 photos of a car in focus while the background is blurry from the panning motion.”

SUBSCRIBE AND BE PART OF THE ADORAMA FAMILY:

__________________________________
✘ PRODUCTS USED:

Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS III USM Lens

MacBook Pro

✘ PRODUCTION EQUIPMENT USED:

Canon EOS R Mirrorless Full Frame Digital Camera Body

Canon Control Ring Mount Adapter EF-EOS R

Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8L II USM Zoom Lens

CLAR Illumi Max 500 High Power 5600K LED Light

Glow EZ Lock Octa Quick XL Softbox With Bowens Mount (48")

CLAR S30 Focusing LED Light 3-Light Kit

Zoom H4n Pro Audio Recorder, Black

#panningphotography #motionblur #adorama

__________________________________
00:00 Intro
0:40 Question about panning photography
1:24 What is panning photography
2:11 Best angle for panning photos
3:45 Lenses for panning photos
4:35 Shutter Speed for panning photos
9:23 Focus modes for panning photos
14:09 Settings summary

__________________________________
❐ LET'S GET SOCIAL ❏

❐ MORE ADORAMA ❏

__________________________________

One-on-One consultations with David:

Follow David on Instagram:

For a similar "Ask David Bergman" video like this one, click the link below:
Panning Perfection: Two Minute Tips with David Bergman

__________________________________
THANKS SO MUCH FOR WATCHING!

[hersh]

Unfortunately I'm a couple weeks late in watching this but I'm the one who asked the question! Thank you David for answering! One BIG thing I got from this is Focal length! The last couple times I've tried to get panning shots of traffic, I've been at a park but near the edge of the curb AND I was trying to shoot the cars nearest me. So right away, I was shooting at a wider angle. Lol

Thank you for answering, David! Can't wait to go back out there with new knowledge!

[thegougy]

for begginers: 1/30s 50mm, app 6-8 (easy since the background is blurred by movement and gives good DOF to focus) no need for expensive lens and open apperture, just find the right spot (for 50mm it is usually like 15meters.) Then try try try and you are good to go :)

[jpdj]

One shot was what we had in the film days. The most difficult in panning motion was to keep panning when you press the shutter release. If you shoot single shot film, train it without film. In digital we waste clicks and pixels. But you still need to train, as David says. The burst or continuous mode helps to keep panning when pressing the shutter release, as it defeats the instinct of keeping the camera still.

[MikeJamesMedia]

Thanks, David. Yep, they're tricky, but when you nail it, it was worth the effort. Take care!

[alexugljesic]

As car photographer, I would like to add some useful infos aside from Davids tutorial. First of all, shutter speed for panning is directly related to two things - speed of the moving car (or object), and approach or departure angle in relation to your camera. As David said, it s not same if car is making 10 or 100 mph. Faster your object is moving, shutter speed can be slower. From my experience, for car moving at speed of 60 km/h (cca 40 mph) you will be happy with blurred background with shutter speed 1/80 or even 1/100 sec, if you are panning object that is moving perpendicular to your camera. Steady tracking the object is most important. Slower moving object means longer shutter speed, and increasing risk of shaking your camera, and blurred pictures. If your object is moving diagonally, to your camera or thru the curve, you can use 1:125 or 1:160 sec, and with some practice you will get razor sharp front and moving rear of the car, or sharp rear and blurred front. For best results of a car that is directly approaching or departing, you can use short exposure (1:250 all the way up to 1:500 sec) and wide aperture, and simulate blur with small depth of the field behind the car. Car photographing rule says that wheel should always turn on the picture, or your moving car will look frozen in the picture, like it is standing instead of moving. Anyways, use fastest burst mode, and continuous auto focus with spot focusing. Also, if your lens or camera have image stabilization it's a good news, and you can go with longer shutter speeds. And don't worry, you can't expect every single shot sharp. With long exposure, you can count with very small percentage of good shots, but they will be very good when you get it. In the end, it takes lot of practices for good panning. Take your time, and don't be disappointed if you have small number of successful shots. For good practicing you can use street like David, or some empty road with the car that can go up and down in front of your camera. You can experiment with various car speeds and shutter speeds, and also focal lengths - try something between 100-150 mm for the beginning...

[kanthu]

F9 to F16
SS 30 to 125, 125 for race cars.
Auto IsO 100-800
Continuous low, Pan along for nice shots.

[utdrsy]

Some great tips! I love panning, especially now I have good autofocus. Before I did, I would lock the focus on a single point - still getting results.

Another thing I’ve been doing to help is letting the ibis correct only for vertical movement, although I don’t know how much that is gaining me.

On the subject of using panning at the finish line, check out Cameron Spencer’s iconic shot of Usain Bolt at London 2012! Runners are interesting to pan: the better their technique, the less they bob, and the better they can be panned! Enjoy your panning folks.

[GTOAJ]

I did all my motorsports shooting in the manual focus days, for panning shots i would pre focus on the middle of the track which worked very well as an aid to getting the panning shots sharp. For artistic effects you could stop and restart the pan. Interesting information, Thanks David.

[bertiefigueres]

Thanks for your video David. I always learn a lot from your videos and find that you explain things very well. Thanks.

I like to go do the London Marathon to shoot the wheelchair competitors as they pan very nicely. I found a location with a nice background and shoot from the opposite side of the road. I use my 80-300mm lens because it's what I got, but I'm shooting at about 150mm. The Nikon VR on my lens recognises panning and I think it really helps. I also found, strangely enough, that for wheelchairs, 1/30s was about right. Below 1/30s you get lots of rejects, above that you freeze the action too much.

For focusing, the Nikon Continuous 3D, where the camera seems to be able to move focus spots as the subject moves around the frame, does a good job.

As for aperture, I used quite a small aperture (high number). The logic being that you want to get plenty of depth of field so it is forgiving of any focus errors, but at the same time the panning will blur out anything in the background anyway, so too much depth of field is not a problem because the motion blur does a good job of isolating your subject from the background anyway.

Thanks again for all your great videos, David. I have learned a lot. Thanks.

[andrewhayward]

Thanks for sharing the frames that didn't quite work out.

[adventuresofjandk]

Love it. Have been wanted to do this type of photography.

[NickBelt]

It’s all in how you track the moving subject, keep the tracking speed up with the moving subject and your hit rate will go up. I use the guide line option in my EVF and it helps

[robertleeimages]

Late to the party, but just this past weekend I went to a motor racing event to try my hand at panning photography. My kit was a 200d with a 55-250mm lens and got some cracking images(there's one posted on my channel) my settings in the sunny aussie environment were 1/60 to 1/125 at f11 to f16

[brad_in_yyc]

Was just recently working on some panning with friends and it definitely is difficult. One thing I noticed, is not everything needs to be tack sharp to look good. But you definitely want certain points to be sharp. Someone running for example. Hands and feet blurred is great but keep that face in focus.

[marktomphotography]

A suggestion for more leeway in getting a good composition is using a high megapixel camera and wider lens to give extra lateral space. And then crop in for the desired composition.

[bansheebug]

Great great video.
What about IS ? Do you have to switch it off or use a kind of Sport mode or can we assume that recent gears 'know' you are panning ? Thank you.
Have to practise now...
Stay safe.

[Unclelarry]

Panning is tricky and seems like hit and miss for me. Thanks for the tips.

[RBRCH]

Thank you for this video, very informative and good examples. I have been trying these shots lately and had some nice results. But one thing i keep running into is that the car is sharp at the focus point (say the middle) but is not sharp front to back. In your taxi examples you see the same. Text on the door is tack sharp, taillight and decals on the back end of the car arn’t. How would you explain this? And can i avoid this? Does it have to do with path of motion? Best results when shooting exactly perpendicular to the motionpath maybe?

[markuskrafczinski]

Hi David, thank you for the detailed description of the process and its variables and the useful information! Should you turn off the IBIS while panning? Thanks and take care!

[AlbertArt]

Nice. I think Mark Wallace also did something similar.