Panning Shot

Photography is an interesting hobby. The same action or scene, if shot with different camera setting will yield very much different effect and feel.

I came across the panning shot technique through Digital Camera magazine and found the technique to be innovative and amazing. By using the panning technique, the image of the moving subject could be made sharp whereas the background was made blurry to give the photograph a sense of motion.

The photograph above was the first time I tried out the panning shot. After a series of trial shots with unsatisfactory result, I finally got a reasonable one. Eventhough the image of my little one here was not as sharp as I wanted it to be, it is at least still acceptable to me.

I will need much more practice to improve on the skill.


Unlike the panning shot where I set the shutter speed to relatively low (1/10 second) and move my camera in the direction of the motion while taking the photo, the photograph here was taken with very fast shutter speed (1/4000 second) with the purpose to freeze the action. The child in motion and the background both remain sharp with this setting.

Don't you think photography is interesting?