Panning is a technique I have never tried before. To develop my skill, I went to a nearby water sports centre where, I knew, water skiers would be practising by making circuits of a lake hanging on to ropes attached to a pulley system. I found panning very difficult regardless of the assertion in the course materials that this is a technique "that comes naturally to most people"; I am clearly in the minority. I had to take a large number of images before I started to consistently 'lock on' to the skier with the camera and I was never sure that I was getting the effect of speed in the background while keeping the subject reasonably sharp. I felt that there needed to be less distance between me and the skier and, also, between the skier and the background. In addition, the skier always seemed to be going too slow. When I had a look at the images on the computer, they were better than I predicted, but this is a technique I am not confident with and I need to practise it further, perhaps with the subject closer to the camera and even more close to the background.
After I had been panning for a good while, a water skier came up to me and suggested I go to the other end of the lake where the skiers were performing all sorts of stunts. I was ready for a change from panning, so I spent a great half hour there with a fast shutter speed and the camera on continuous shooting. A small selection of images from this 'off-piste' session is in the Extras post.
Below are the best images from the panning exercise. I used a 100-300mm zoom lens and the camera was set, for most of the time, to shutter priority and ISO 100. For the slower speeds I needed to use a neutral density (x8) filter to get an aperture setting within the camera's range.
1/1600, f5.6, 200mm focal length.
A very static image with even the water 'frozen', therefore not representing the movement in the activity. The background is slightly blurred but this is a lack of depth of field caused by the large aperture setting.
1/1000, f5.6, 200mm.
Similar to the first image, although the greater amount of 'frozen' spray and the posture of the skier adds a little sense of action.
1/640, f7.1, 300mm
It's still not the panning that is making any difference, so much as the style of the skiers, although I was benefitting from the practice in keeping the camera on the moving subject and pressing the shutter at the right time.
1/250, f6.3, 200mm
Still very statuesque, the water perhaps not quite so solid.
1/125, f10, 200mm
The first slight indication of of background blur indicating movement rather than short depth of field, which is, in any case, increasing with the narrower aperture. The water spray is also 'jetting' rather than solidifying.
1/50, f13, 250mm
The speed blur in the background is very obvious and the water spray is showing much more movement, while I am managing to keep the skier reasonably sharp.
1/30, f20, 300mm
A much stronger sense of action here; the background is beginning to streak more than blur and the
water spray is going backwards more in 'threads' than drops. I can also see that increasing the focal length of the lens may be helping the effect; perhaps it was artificially giving me the smaller distances between camera, subject and background which I felt I had been lacking. It would have been better if I had kept the same longer focal length throughout, but I was learning by experience.
1/15, f8 (NDx8 filter) 180mm. The effect of the slower speed and panning on the surface of the lake is beginning to contribute more to the sense of movement. The water spray around the skier's knees gives a strong impression of forward movement. The skier is still fairly sharp, which surprised me since I was hand-holding the camera at a very slow speed.
1/10, f14, 160mm. I was very attracted to this one; the style of the skier, the shape of the spray and the motion blur in the background and lake surface all add to the action. I am still managing to keep the skier in one piece, which I would not have expected. For the sake of the overall presentation I have made all the images the same size. For this one, I felt that the large expanse of water in the foreground detracted from the sense of rapid movement across the surface of the lake; the figure seems too stuck in the middle. Therefore I cropped it to a 'letterbox' format, which gives it a much stronger sense of rapid travel from one point to another. (see below).
The figure is still a bit central but I did not want to lose the shape of the spray, nor did I want him to close to the right edge with 'nowhere to go'.
However, I decided to sacrifice the spray and I think this is a much better result. I should have this kind of framing in mind for the original shot rather than relying on editing afterwards, however, on this occasion I was just glad to get the skier anywhere in the frame at all.
1/8, f32, 180mm. I got rid of the foreground lake at the outset on this one and, while the sense of movement is strong, the blurring of the skier detracts from the impact of the image. The spray is also beginning to lose its structure and become too 'steamy'. I have managed to 'lock on' to the skier and keep him in one piece in this image, which was clearly not the case in my final one below, even though it was shot at the same speed.
1/8, f11 (NDx8 filter), 125mm. I prefer this image to the one above as the greater blur in the figure adds to the strong sense of movement, especially as he is not blurred to to the same extent as in the background. I'm not sure why the figures in the two images turned out differently; it can only be to do with my technique in panning the camera. I would like to keep this method though because, it seems, if I am going to blur, I should 'blur big'. (I also cropped this one to letterbox format and I have included the results in the post for the cropping and extending project.
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