The IFLC offers special two-session and four-session courses through several San Diego adult education facilities. Here our students come face-to-face with the philosophies, techniques and theories of being a true In Focus photographer. If you are member of one of these courses and want to participate in this extra resource, simply request authorship by clicking on the link below. Let us know which adult education facility you are currently enrolled in. Once verified we'll send you an invitation to become a full member of this web site. Simply follow the instructions from Google and you're ready. You'll soon be able to post images and gain full-access to your instructors.

Request authorship

Thursday, February 18, 2010

WEEK III, PANNING TROUBLE


I am having so much trouble with panning, either everything is in focus or everything is blurry.

Is anyone else having a hard time with this? Any suggestions?
















Posted by at
Labels:

5 comments:

  1. Kathy BFebruary 18, 2010 at 4:29 PM

    Hi Linda - Two of my sons were high school runners so I've been practicing this "panning thing" for several years. It's really most important to be set up with your focus distance before your subject approaches you. I usually take a practice shot of where I expect them to be in front of me to check if I have the settings correct. Then as your subject approaches, pan with them and shoot when they're right in front of you. Make sure you are only focused on your subject. You may want to put your camera in servo mode instead of single-shot so you can possibly fire off more than one shot while panning. Good Luck!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Linda S.February 18, 2010 at 5:04 PM

    Hi Kathy, thank you for the tips. I can't remember how to get focused where there is no object.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Rod DeutschmannFebruary 19, 2010 at 8:14 AM

    No, Kathy ... that's not quite right. Focus plays little role in this since the shooter is usually using such a small aperture. (Remember that small aperture means that most everything will be in focus if the shooter were to actually keep up with his subject.)

    Practice makes perfect. The reason your shots aren't 'working' Linda is simply because you're not keeping up with your subjects — and, from the looks of the above photos, your shutter speed is NO WHERE near slow enough. Pick a smaller aperture, find a shutter speed nearer 1/15 or slower and keep trying. It takes but an hour or so of real practice to nail this technique. You can do it.

    And please DON'T USE AUTO FOCUS — Servo can't keep up once the shutter is tripped. It makes no sense.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Kathy BFebruary 19, 2010 at 4:14 PM

    Hi Rod,
    Now I'm confused... In the Note at the end of the "Panning With People" Assignment you suggest trying the continuous shooting mode. I thought that was called "servo" and could be accomplished with manual focus. Can you straighten me out on this?
    Thanks,
    Kathy

    ReplyDelete
  5. Rod DeutschmannFebruary 19, 2010 at 6:48 PM

    Yes you can try that Cathy and it might work. (It's actually just a mental trick that helps the person concentrate on movement - it really doesn't help the focus part) Focus your intent on slowing down the shutter. The actual focus doesn't matter much since the aperture will undoubtedly be small when shooting in the middle of the day. You'll be fine ... it just takes time and practice. I think you're doing great!!!

    ReplyDelete

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)