Panning attempt... fail or not?

[Marcelo_R]

While at the Chobe, and with multiple fly-by Herons, I took the chance to try a panning shot... not sure if this one makes the cut but... here's what I have..:

Z92_5028©MC by Marcelo Cinicola, on Flickr

Nikon Z 9
NIKKOR Z 600mm f/4 TC VR S
ƒ/4.0
600.0 mm
1/50s
ISO 100

https://flic.kr/p/2qF84Mm

Krgds, Marcelo

 

[DRwyoming]

Good effort, but to me the eye and head are too blurred.

FWIW I'll want birds flying more perpendicular to my position or IOW across my field of view and not nearly so much towards me as the shot above. With practice you can cancel much if not most of the flight speed for a pure panning shot but when the subject is coming towards you like the shot above there's nothing you can do with panning to cancel the motion and allow super slow shutter speeds.

 

[Marcelo_R]

Good effort, but to me the eyes and head are too blurred.

FWIW I'll want birds flying more perpendicular to my position or IOW across my field of view and not nearly so much towards me as the shot above. With practice you can cancel much if not most of the flight speed for a pure panning shot but when the subject is coming towards you like the shot above there's nothing you can do with panning to cancel the motion and allow super slow shutter speeds.

Thank you so much Dave! Now that you mention it, I can perfectly picture the idea. In fact, "Panning" should be lateral movement, so this is a total fail.
Will search my HDD since I think to recall having made some lateral fly-by attempts. Thanks again for your reply and clarification.
Krgds, Marcelo

 

[Box Brownie]

FWIW and IMO

Panning is a skill that can be honed by practicing on cars etc moving in a predictable way along a road or racetrack. Plus, and for fear of stating the obvious.........you follow the pan moving your body only from the waist i.e. don't move your foot positions because that can I unstabilise you.

The challenge with birds in flight is that we get both bigger birds moving in an almost predictable right to left or vice versa directionality........but with smaller, faster birds and likely erratic movement, oh there be the rub and practice as I might over some years some birds still defeat me or at the very least make for a very low keeper rate (i.e. swallows and martins) :(

 

[bleirer]

The beak and eyes are pretty clear and the wings pleasantly blurred, so I'd say it is a good result. We can't always control which way the animal will move. Maybe crop away the light blob on the left top, perhaps a 5:4 ratio.

 

[Anjin San]

A slightly faster shutter would increase the eye sharpness assuming that’s where AF locked on…but otherwise I would call that shot a keeper. Panning for the blurred wing effect is almost guaranteed to reduce overall image sharpness even at the AF point. Do you like the shot? If so…that’s all that matters.

 

[Marcelo_R]

FWIW and IMO

Panning is a skill that can be honed by practicing on cars etc moving in a predictable way along a road or racetrack. Plus, and for fear of stating the obvious.........you follow the pan moving your body only from the waist i.e. don't move your foot positions because that can I unstabilise you.

The challenge with birds in flight is that we get both bigger birds moving in an almost predictable right to left or vice versa directionality........but with smaller, faster birds and likely erratic movement, oh there be the rub and practice as I might over some years some birds still defeat me or at the very least make for a very low keeper rate (i.e. swallows and martins) :(

Thanks for your comments!
To be honest, personally I do not think I'll hang to (panning) it too much, I'll keep giving it a try here and there, when the occasion allows it.
Practice is everything on almost any and all technique, yet for me I think it's still far from "being there", I still have a long way ahead trying to get better at shooting BIF overall, so this might be a bit over my head...
Krgds, Marcelo

 

[Marcelo_R]

The beak and eyes are pretty clear and the wings pleasantly blurred, so I'd say it is a good result. We can't always control which way the animal will move. Maybe crop away the light blob on the left top, perhaps a 5:4 ratio.

Thank you Bill,
I do (enhancing in Flickr) see the same, however, it's just a slow-speed shot but def not panning as Dave above pointed very well out.
Will check the light blob and see if it can be cloned out...
Krgds, Marcelo

 

[Marcelo_R]

A slightly faster shutter would increase the eye sharpness assuming that’s where AF locked on…but otherwise I would call that shot a keeper. Panning for the blurred wing effect is almost guaranteed to reduce overall image sharpness even at the AF point. Do you like the shot? If so…that’s all that matters.

Thank you Anjin San,
Yes, I have multiple shots at the "correct" speed (1/1250s and above) and down to 1/500s where I've got tack sharp eyes. And yes, I do like the shot as is, whatever the "technique name" might be... so it's a keeper!
Krgds, Marcelo

 

[Marcelo_R]

You can only see EXIF info for this image if you are logged in.

This is another try, much further away but paralel to my position... shot at 1/40s (f/4, 600mm). Not quite what I was hoping for on the lower-right Heron eye but I did what I could there...
Krgds, Marcelo

 

[bleirer]

Thank you Bill,
I do (enhancing in Flickr) see the same, however, it's just a slow-speed shot but def not panning as Dave above pointed very well out.
Will check the light blob and see if it can be cloned out...
Krgds, Marcelo

I wouldn't get hung up on absolutes. Think of movement in xyz terms, x right to left y toward the sky or ground and z closer or farther from the camera. An idealized panning shot would have all x and/or y movement, but the real world rarely gives us ideals. Your shot has about half x/y and half z, but you still had to keep the camera moving to follow the subject. So....panning.

 

[Anjin San]

Thank you Anjin San,
Yes, I have multiple shots at the "correct" speed (1/1250s and above) and down to 1/500s where I've got tack sharp eyes. And yes, I do like the shot as is, whatever the "technique name" might be... so it's a keeper!
Krgds, Marcelo

Yep…I’ve found the best panning technique is to try a variety of shutter speeds on different passes and then one has choices for eye sharpness vs wing blur vs wing position, etc…and shooting in bursts then pick out the best 1 of the 20 9r whatever in each burst.