The following is a direct copy and has been Pasted in for future reference from the Art of Photography coursework PDF Doc. (pasted in Maroon)
10 – 12 photographs – prints needed to note results
Next, do the same kind of thing while following the movement with the camera. Take the camera off the tripod for this (or loosen the tripod head), and simply swing it so that the moving subject stays in the middle of the frame. This comes naturally as a technique to most people, and is known as panning. Again, compare the results of different shutter speeds. 1/60 sec or 1/30 sec will give a fairly sharp image of the subject, while the background will be streaked. This is an easy way of freezing the essential movement in photography. Having assessed your results in a technical way, sit back and choose the one from each of the two series that you actually like the best. Is it the sharpest version? Or do you think that some slight blurring gives more of a sense of speed? Sometimes the amount of sharp detail that you get in a photograph is less important than the overall impression. Write down your thoughts in your learning log referring to the prints by the numbers you have given them. File the prints, and order the digital files in a folder (or place the negatives or slides in a file, if you used film).
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Equipment
Nikon D4
Nikon D800E
80/400 f4.5 lens
70/200 f2.8 lens
Method & Approach
In this exercise I originally found a place at the side of a busy road and set up. I found that I was too close to the moving traffic and I was not getting the desired effect of the blurry background. I had a rethink and in the end it was almost staring me in the face when I discovered the upstairs bedroom window. The only downside was a tree very close to the back of the house causing a bit of a visual obstruction but the positive was it offered a great vantage point being elevated and also being off the road. Being that I didn’t need a tripod for this exercise it worked out reasonably well. I first took several picture with the D800E with a 70/200 lens attached but after a while I decided to use my D4 with an 80/400 attached, it proved to be a much faster combination.
Please see pictures and captions below.
Note – all pictures have been compressed hence there will be a quality reduction when enlarging.
This picture was taken with the Nikon D800E with a 70/200mm lens and aperture setting of f4.5 with a speed of 1/25th sec. The shot has a desired effect showing a background of movement but suffers from lack of subject focus.
This picture was taken again with Nikon D800E and 70/200mm lens with the aperture set to f4.5 and a speed of 1/20th sec. The camera speed is slower than the previous picture and visually brings more drama to the background, especially the car captured behind the subject on the other side of the road.
This picture again was taken with the Nikon D800E and 70/200mm lens combination but this time even slower than the two pictures above, the aperture was set to f7.1 and a camera speed of 1/15th sec. The subject is slightly more in focus (that’s the blue car) and I have also managed to capture a car behind in almost perfect focus.
This picture was taken using the Nikon D800E and 70/200mm lens with the aperture set to f5.0 and a speed of 1/25th sec. The camera speed is slightly faster than the above picture and offers better subject focus but not so much background movement. As I mentioned above in my method & approach, the tree was a visual obstruction and the picture would definitely look better without it being there.
This was my last picture using the Nikon D800E and 70/200mm lens combination, the cameras time settings here are slightly slower than above and the aperture has been opened up to compensate to f5.6 with a speed of 1/20th sec. The subject is in reasonable focus with the foreground and background visually blurred as desired.
This picture was taken with the Nikon D4 and 80/400mm with an aperture setting of f9 and a speed of 1/25th sec. Because this camera is much faster, I decided to try some of the cameras on board settings. I switched to continuous focus and with that set the camera to 3D track, I also put the camera into burst mode and as we can see this picture sits much sharper within the panned effect.
This picture was taken with the Nikon D4 and 80/400mm combination with an aperture of f9 and a speed of 1/30th sec. Its not quite as sharp as the picture above but is still sharper over the D800E combination.
This picture was again taken with the Nikon D4 and 80/400mm, with an aperture setting of f5.6 and a speed of 1/25th sec. With the D4’s speed now set to give me the optimum panning result at 1/25th sec I took two more pictures, this time only adjusting the aperture. In this panning shot its sharp enough to see the passengers facial details.
My last picture with the Nikon D4 and 80/400mm lens was taken with an aperture setting of f5.0 and a speed of 1/25th sec. Again a sharp panning shot, sharp enough to see the passengers facial details but unfortunately the tree is partially included.
What have I learnt from this exercise
From this exercise I have learnt it takes practice and patients to master the art of a good panning shot and once the camera is set up to suit that particular shoot the pictures then start to come.
My Reflection
I do have previous experience at taking this type of picture but I have never tried it with my two current cameras and my reflection is definitely biased towards the D4 for this kind of sports / action related photography.
With relevance to the question in this exercise, which style of picture do I prefer
a) A blurred subject with a sharp background.
b) A sharp subject with a blurred background.
My answer to this is I like them both, they both have their merits. The sharp background and blurry subject is typical of when and how to shoot movement in water i.e. streams and water falls. Whilst a sharp subject and blurry background i.e. panning is for emphasising movement in another way such as motorsports and track events.
stingray493 