Tips on...<Panning>

Select a location

You want a location that offers a relatively homogeneous background but not a solid color. A bald white sky wont show paning streaks.

The background can be a hue of colors with a dominant one or a mix of colors, but look for a palette that contrasts with the subject

Avoid isolated vertical objects such as telephone poles, with vertical energy that will break the flow of the panning

Select a position that allows the subjects line of travel to be roughly parallel to your cameras imaging plane

Use your whole body

Start by aiming your feet where you think the pan will end. Next from your hip, twist to point toward the oncoming suvbject. AS your subject passes by simply unwind around your body's center of gravity. Panning happens in the torso, your arms, wrists and hands are stationary.

Hold the camera level and as tight in as possible, dont move your feet.

Practice untwisting in advance, and as your suvbject approaches try to pick it up before opening the shutter

Set the shutter speed

Its critical to use shutter priority or manual,. Shutter speeds can range from 1/125 down to 1/8 secs depending on the spoeed of the subject. The slower the shutter speed the more dramatic the shot but also the fewer successes you will ge.

For cycling 1/15 or 1/30 should be good.

Set an ISO that provides good exposure at one of those speeds.

Turn autofocus off

Pre focus manually on the subject's mark

Shoot in continuous mode

Fire off as many shots as possible during a single pass of the subject

One reason to use manual instead of shutter priority exposure is to ensure that the exposures in these sequences will match

If subjects are still not sharp here are some other tricks

Set a higher shutter speed

Hold the camera tight bracing your elbows against your body

If you use a wide angle lense and get in close to the action you will increase your chance of success. Also both to sharpen and to open uo your subject, pop a flash

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