Panning Photography

The Magazine For Photographers
2 days ago
3 min read

What Is Panning Photography

Panning is a technique were you are trying to match your camera’s motion to someone (/something) else’s movement, with the goal of hitting that perfect moment where everything lines up, the subject’s speed, your own rotation, your shutter etc.

The key thing here is relative motion. Your subject stays sharp because, for a fraction of a second, you are essentially moving with them. Meanwhile, the world behind them sort of smears into streaks because it is moving relative to you. The better you match the speed, the cleaner and sharper your subject becomes.

The Technical Side

Most people start with “Use a slow shutter speed,” but that is only half the story. You are controlling three KEY variables at once:

Subject speed
Your pivot speed
Shutter speed

These three have to fall into harmony. If one is off, your subject blurs. If all three align, your subject is clear with the buttery streaks in the background.

A little guide on shutter speed vs subject speed:

Fast-moving subjects (cars at 50–80 km/h): 1/80s–1/125s
Medium subjects (cyclists, skateboards): 1/30s–1/60s
Slow subjects (walkers, dogs trotting, slow joggers): 1/10s–1/25s

What To Do About Autofocus

Make sure to use Continuous AF
Use Zone or expanded AF, not single-point, since your subject is moving you need flexibility.
Turn on tracking sensitivity if your camera has it, you want it to stay locked on your subject and not jump to something in the background.
Use Back-Button Focus so your AF isn’t tied to the shutter, this gives you way smoother tracking.

Stabilisation: ON or OFF?

This is sort of a fun one because it depends heavily on your lens.

If you have a lens with panning-aware stabilisation, turn it on, it stabilises vertical shake but lets horizontal motion through.
If your lens doesn’t have a panning mode, turning stabilisation off can sometimes give you better results.

Bottom line → try both. Different lenses behave differently.