Hi. Good morning. This is Charl from Pangolin Photo Safaris and this morning
we're spending some time with the African Skimmers. As you can see they're flying here behind me.
This time of the year they normally come around to breed here and
they do like this sandy area where they make their nests. So I'm having a coffee now,
enjoying the time and I thought while I'm here I'm gonna make a video regarding Panning.
This is a question I get asked often on safaris.
How does panning work? What shutter speeds do you need?
So in this video, I'm going to
explain to you how it works and what shutter speeds you need for what animal.
So what is panning?
In wildlife photography, we tend to use fast shutter speeds
because we want to freeze the motion and you want of course a sharp image.
In panning, we do the opposite. We use a slow shutter speed. We want to show
the movement in the image. So in panning, you also need a focus point, the sharp area,
where your eye draws to the image. For example, like a bird you need the eye or the beak.
For an animal, you want as well the eyes but also the face needs to be sharp.
Now, this is where the difficult part comes. So you need to focus on that area
but still, the rest of the image needs to show movement. The legs for example need
to move in the image. Your background needs to be blurry and that shows you then the
movement in the image.
So when is a good time to do panning?
A good time for panning
is early morning, light afternoon or sunrise/sunset and overcast weather.
This is normally a time when you have low light conditions so you need to have your
shutter open for longer periods to take the picture. So when we do it in the
middle of the day the Sun is bright. When you open your shutter too long
you're gonna have an overexposed image. This normally doesn't work so well.
So when it is a good time to do panning I like to do when I want separation from
my animals. So for example, you follow this leopard or it could be a lion,
anything and it's walking through the bushes. When it's maybe approaching you can
get a good shot but soon as you walk sideways past the bush and it's too
close to the bush, I like to do the panning then of course. Because in this
case, I can focus on my leopard. Ideally it would be around the eyes, the head.
Focus on it. Do the panning. Show the movement in the image
and then I'll suddenly have that separation between my leopard and the bush.
If I use a fast shutter speed in this case then the leopard and the
bush will be sharp and that might be just a little bit too busy for me.
So the easiest way to do panning if you maybe have never done this before and you
would like to try this out is using shutter speed priority.
So in shutter priority, you select the shutter (we're gonna come to that - which shutter to use.)
Because you're on shutter priority your camera will select the aperture automatically.
With these two also select you ISO on auto.
Put your camera on continuous focusing also on fast or continuous frame rate.
With that, on your lens, you select panning which is selection number 2.
Some lenses will have image stabilization - 3 settings. Some might
only have 2. Put it on 2. So 2 is for when you move your lanes sideways and
this will then help compensate if you, by accident, maybe move your lens maybe
upwards by accident. This will then compensate and help to stabilize the lens as well.
So we're gonna move it sideways and if there's a little bit of
movement up and down your lens will then stabilize it for you. So this will
definitely help a lot. When you do your panning you need to do it parallel with
your subject. When your animal is coming towards you or away from you, it's not going to work.
So you need about a 45 degree angle. I like to start the 45 degree angle to focus
Then as the animal is coming past me, either flying or walking or running past me.
This is when I start shooting 45 degrees.
And important to focus on the
head or the eye or the beak as it passes you. This is the area we need to focus
very important because you want the sharp area in your picture.
Another important thing is to swing or pan with your subject is the speed that you move.
For example, a bird is flying past and you want to pan you can't just swing and shoot.
It's very important to move at the same speed. Yes, it's tricky but this is
the only way you're gonna have a sharp area on your animal. If you're very lucky
you might hit it on the first time. But in most cases you will shoot hundreds
of photos and maybe get one sharp one.
But if you get it you will see the big smile on your face!
So what shutter speed to use. The rules of thumb.
The slower the subject move - slow the shutter speed. For example, you are on a game drive.
You have a lion. You follow this lion. The Lion is walking through the grass past you
very slowly. I like to use between 1/5s and 1/10s.
If I follow wild dogs, maybe on a hunt, they're just walking around between walking and running.
Maybe around 1/30s and1/40s. Maybe antelope running 1/50s or 1/60s
When we come to birds they are a bit faster, they're also smaller.
They have wing speed which is changing. Bigger birds they're moving
slower. The wings are moving slower. So I like to use slow shutter speed maybe
around 1/40s somewhere in that areas even 1/30s.
The smaller the is the faster the wings will go and they tend also the fly faster so
there I like to use 1/50 or 1/60s sometimes even 1/80s.
So this is the shutter speed that you can play with
So what is your favourite shutter speed to use in panning?
please leave it for me in the comments down below.
I hope you enjoyed this film.
I hope you learned something. Please go and play around and test it.
If you'd like to join me on photographic safari please look at the link down below.
Dont forget to subscribe to our YouTube channel by clicking the icon button and if you do
like the video give us a thumbs up
I'm gonna continue shooting. Still have a few skimmers flying around.
I'll see you soon