While we often want to freeze birds and animals using fast shutter speeds to capture crisp images, sometimes we might want to create a sense of the creature’s movement by panning the camera. This short video explains how to set up your camera to get dramatic, motion-blurred shots while keeping the subject sharp.
Charl Stols of Pangolin Wildlife Photography takes us out onto the Chobe River in Botswana to run us through the settings he uses for his camera to create panning shots of animals and birds. In addition, Stols explain the best lighting conditions and the ideal circumstances in which to get an effective panning shot.
One aspect that Stols touches on briefly is the number of shots to take. There are so many variables at play here that it can feel that getting a successful shot is not an exact science, and here taking a large number of photographs will not only increase your odds of getting a sharp, successful image, it will also help you learn where you’re going wrong. If all of your results are blurred, you might need to improve the smoothness of your pan, or you might need to increase your shutter speed. No doubt there’s a certain amount of trial and error here.
If you’ve more tips to add, be sure to leave them in the comments below.
