Panning technique

[Marco74]

Hi friends,
I'm here back after a long period without making a post. I have very little free time these days.

Anyway, the month of November is the mating season for the chamois.
This year, however, due to climate change, it was hotter than normal in the mountains, upsetting all-natural balances, including the period of courtship and snowfalls.

A few years ago, in November it was colder and there was more snow.
This year the harsh weather started late so the ground was partially uncovered instead of being completely covered with snow.

Obviously, the female chamois, some still with the young of the previous season, remain to graze in the areas clean from the snow, and the males are less active.
Over the past weekend, my hiking partner and I went up to an altitude of around 2700m to take some photos of the chamois "fighting" each other to conquer the females.
This year, their races were less spectacular, less "aggressive".

Not having homogeneous snow that creates a homogeneous background plane, and not having an ideal situation of two close subjects, to create emphasis on the feeling of running, I tried to take some panning photos.

I tried with different shutter speeds, but in the end, the photos that convinced me the most were taken at 1/40 and 1/30 of a second with a focal length of 500 mm.

Some friends have commented on the photos telling me that they are not correct because the head is not in perfect focus.
Others, on the other hand, told me that if the subject is recognized in the panning, it is still a correct photo.

What do you think about it? In your opinion which of these photos deserves to be kept and which one will you trash?

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[bleirer]

Honest answer, I think there are 2 different techniques: for intentional camera movement, ICM, you want the blur everywhere to show a sense of motion. For panning you want sharp subject or sharp head/eyes and motion in the background or wings, etc. These are half of each technique, not a sharp subject but not much icm either, so don't stand out as keepers to my eye. The second one, if you cropped away the more in focus one and left the blurry one and the colorful background, gives more of an artsy ICM feel, except it would be running out of the frame. In photoshop you could try content aware fill to add more background to the left edge drawing from the middle of the shot.

Panning is hard to get right for me. More power to ya when you nail it.

 

[Nimi]

In similar situations I focus (no pun intended) on getting the subject tack sharp and exposed and introduce slight motion blur in PS. Tough to recover from fuzzy subject.

 

[Marco74]

Honest answer, I think there are two different techniques: for intentional camera movement, ICM, you want the blur everywhere to show a sense of motion. For panning you want sharp subject or sharp head/eyes and motion in the background or wings, etc. These are half of each technique, not a sharp subject but not much icm either, so don't stand out as keepers to my eye. The second one, if you cropped away the more in focus one and left the blurry one and the colorful background, gives more of an artsy ICM feel, except it would be running out of the frame. In photoshop you could try content aware fill to add more background to the left edge drawing from the middle of the shot.

Panning is hard to get right for me. More power to ya when you nail it.

Thanks, Bleirer,
I appreciate your honest feedback.
So, I need to put in the trash all the photos in the end. But, it is not a problem, and it was an experiment.
In mammals, proper panning is much more complex than in birds. This is because the whole body moves during the run, the head in particular moves up and down.
I start from a higher shutter speed of 1/250 and slow down step by step until 1/30. Looking at the whole series, the photos where the heads were tack sharp, the background was not blurry enough.

Here a no panning photos. (1/3200) It is interesting because it was snowing but even this shot does not satisfy me very much. It is simply a chamois running, and the photo does not suggest that I took it during the mating period.

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I'll go ahead and experiment...

Thanks,
Marco

 

[Marco74]

In similar situations I focus (no pun intended) on getting the subject tack sharp and exposed and introduce slight motion blur in PS. Tough to recover from fuzzy subject.

Thanks, Nimi.
A photoshop correction can be a solution, but I prefer to learn to obtain a nice shot on camera.
I have nothing against photo editing, but having limited skills and considering it a tedious process, I prefer to limit myself to basic editing.
Thanks anyway for the comment.
Kind regards,
Marco

 

[Nimi]

I am a commercial photographer and my biggest client is a car company and I am called to shoot this (substitute car for animal) all the time.

To get panning action blur, ideal shutter speed is 1/30-1/90. A long, fast prime open wide, lowest possible ISO and the correct distance of camera to car and car to background. Also, I cannot do this handheld, so an RRS panning gimbal on a sturdy tripod for me is a must.

Getting this kind of conditions in running mammal, let alone bird is close to impossible, specifically because of the motion blur of the animal due to low shutter speed. In a car, the body appears stationary, only the wheels are blurred and that's a desired effect. In animals, while some parts of it might be in focus if your panning technique is flawless, other parts (appendages, wings, head) will be out of focus.

The pictures posted, IMO are not usable.

 

[JAS]

I am horrible at panning. Having said that, maybe there is some good information on the techniques in Steve's latest book of photographinh birds in flight. Panning is critical in such circumstnaces and theses are section of the book that address panning tehnique. I have not purchased the book yet, but will likely do so today.
You might want to take a look.

 

[Marco74]

I am a commercial photographer and my biggest client is a car company and I am called to shoot this (substitute car for animal) all the time.

To get panning action blur, ideal shutter speed is 1/30-1/90. A long, fast prime open wide, lowest possible ISO and the correct distance of camera to car and car to background. Also, I cannot do this handheld, so an RRS panning gimbal on a sturdy tripod for me is a must.

Getting this kind of conditions in running mammal, let alone bird is close to impossible, specifically because of the motion blur of the animal due to low shutter speed. In a car, the body appears stationary, only the wheels are blurred and that's a desired effect. In animals, while some parts of it might be in focus if your panning technique is flawless, other parts (appendages, wings, head) will be out of focus.

The pictures posted, IMO are not usable.

I agree that my photos must be deleted because doesn't work.
What I learned from this experience is that there are only two possibilities.q
One, the animal needs to run faster. Normally must be in that way but not the last time.
Another option is to go slower

In any case, I think that takes a good panning of running animals is more difficult than with other subjects.

 

[Marco74]

I am horrible at panning. Having said that, maybe there is some good information on the techniques in Steve's latest book of photographinh birds in flight. Panning is critical in such circumstnaces and theses are section of the book that address panning tehnique. I have not purchased the book yet, but will likely do so today.
You might want to take a look.

I bought the book but I have not read it yet.
Good idea, I will read it asap.

 

[John Woodworth]

I agree that my photos must be deleted because doesn't work.
What I learned from this experience is that there are only two possibilities.q
One, the animal needs to run faster. Normally must be in that way but not the last time.
Another option is to go slower

In any case, I think that takes a good panning of running animals is more difficult than with other subjects.

Honestly, I don't think you should delete them. you may want to refer to them in detail in the future. There is a lot good about these and you can learn from them. Some day you may want to know exactly the conditions and settings and not rely on memory.

Just because they may not be wall hangers shouldn't mean they are not keepers.

 

[Marco74]

Honestly, I don't think you should delete them. you may want to refer to them in detail in the future. There is a lot good about these and you can learn from them. Some day you may want to know exactly the conditions and settings and not rely on memory.

Just because they may not be wall hangers shouldn't mean they are not keepers.

Thanks for your suggestions, it is true that can be useful to store also the error to remember to avoid them.
One of the big problems to consider is that there are very few occasions to practice this technique with chamois.
Their racing period is only two weeks a year, for the rest of their life it can happen but in an unpredictable way.