So I practiced a bit with panning using my digital this weekend. I thought I would share and see what you guys thought.

Thanks
Shane
www.oregonvelo.com

Looks like you nailed the panning here.

I'm curious about the settings you used here. It looks like you used a wide aperature as the rider's face is in good focus, but the rear tire isn't. I'm wondering with a pan if you should maybe use a little wider DOF than used here which would then lock the entire subject and the bike in but still get the blurred background with the pan.

Just a thought, I'm still experimenting with panning myself. Nice shot though.

JDub-
That's not a depth-of-field issue. You usually see it when panning with wide lenses, although this one doesn't really look wide. The best way to describe it is "relative movement". You pan with the rider but you are only actually accurately following one part of the rider. The back and front blur because they're moving at a different speed, relative to the part your panning with. It will happen no matter how much you stop down. The only way to avoid it is to use a faster shutter speed, or a longer lens. I actually like this effect as it allows you to introduce more movement into a race photo.

JDub-
That's not a depth-of-field issue. You usually see it when panning with wide lenses, although this one doesn't really look wide. The best way to describe it is "relative movement". You pan with the rider but you are only actually accurately following one part of the rider. The back and front blur because they're moving at a different speed, relative to the part your panning with. It will happen no matter how much you stop down. The only way to avoid it is to use a faster shutter speed, or a longer lens. I actually like this effect as it allows you to introduce more movement into a race photo.

Good info, I'll store that away.

I agree that it definitely shows more movement, I was just thinking of pans that I've seen of motorcyle racing/car racing where the entire rider/vehicle was locked in focus. However, after thinking about your comments on "relative movement" it makes sense that a rider standing up and cranking would be moving a different speed than the rear of the bike.

Motorsports is almost always shot with very long lenses, from very far aaway. So the relative distance and speed of the front and back of the car or motorcycle are the same. That's why you don't see this same effect with car and moto photos. However, if you shot a car going through a corner, with a 20mm lens, from 10 feet away, you'd see the same get the same front and rear blurring, depending on what part of the car the pan matched best.

So in this case, is it an effect that people like?

Photo-John and JDub great conversation and learning. Thanks for the input.

Hi
The panning looks ok. The only thing I suggest is that you try positioning your self so you capture the subject more frontal.
I include a panning shot of a bike race .
So I practiced a bit with panning using my digital this weekend. I thought I would share and see what you guys thought.

Thanks
Shane
www.oregonvelo.com

John has said it all, I'll just demonstrate a little. The bike shot is shot at 28mm and 1/15s. The shot of Takuma Sato's Jordan F1 is at 300mm and 1/15s.