How to Fake the Panning Effect in Adobe Photoshop

Panning photography has a few uses, but it's most commonly seen in motorsport. It's a tricky technique to get the most out of and on occasion, it's not even possible. In those situations, perhaps you can fake it instead.

Every year — or rather, every year the pandemic isn't involved — there is a motorsport event in London that I attend as press. I am a petrolhead to the core and 6 or 7 years ago, I tried my luck at getting a press pass for the event so I could photograph the racers. Somehow, I was given accreditation and I found I could make a little money selling my shots to the drivers. It's not really about the money, however, it's about how much I enjoy the day.

This is in part because of the cars, but also because of how difficult it is to get great, printable images of the cars racing. Panning takes a lot of trial, error, and practice to be consistent, and even then you will never nail every shot. The event lasts several days and I like to try different parts of the track. There is one that has so many small turns that panning isn't worthwhile or possible in many cases. One option I have here is to fake the panning effect in Photoshop. I haven't done it yet, but I must admit, this tutorial shows believable results.

The only change I'd make to OpticalWander's image is the wheels, which are typically blurred too. If they aren't — and I have an example of this — the driver has probably locked their brakes and is about to have an expensive 10 seconds.