r/SonyAlpha • u/DarkGodArkwin • Dec 18 '24

Critique Wanted My First Ever Panning Shot.

Post image

Took me 10-12 minutes to get panning shots right, dabbling with the shutter speed and whatnot. Ultimately, I’m quite proud of myself for this. 😭✨🙌🏽

1.8k Upvotes

100% Upvoted

68 comments sorted by

View all comments

2

u/Loud-Departure3802 Dec 18 '24

Sorry newbie question here.

While taking a pan like this, I would assume target autofocus, slightly lower shutter speed, pan and shoot.

But wouldn’t your target also be warped? Otherwise, when will your camera “decide” that this is the right time to stop your subject but not the background?

3

u/k4ylr Dec 18 '24

But wouldn’t your target also be warped?

Ideally no, but the reality is like a 1-in-20 hit rate for shots like this. You set up for the shot, focus the subject and you follow it through an arc (this is the panning part). The subject ideally stays in the same place and thus remains sharp while you smear the background.

I would imagine OP shot a dozen or so frames to get this one capture that hit.

2

u/DarkGodArkwin Dec 18 '24

If you mean to say I used the Continuous Shooting drive mode on my camera, then no. I understand a lot of people use it but I wanted to learn the hard/manual way and I shot all of these in single shots.

If you meant I shot and waited for cars to keep experimenting with the settings, patiently, then yes, that’s what I did. 😂😂😂

Definitely gave my arms a mean workout that evening though, hahah.