Panning for Photos In Vietnam
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I stood on the street corner early one morning in Saigon with my camera. As the next wave of motorbike traffic sped by, I was ready – the camera viewfinder was up to my eye, and I was ready to get in sync with the traffic whizzing by me. I’d catch a motorbike through my viewfinder and move with it, essentially twisting until I could no longer keep up. Then, I would twist back around and find another one to follow. Many of the riders looked at me perplexed, trying to figure out what I was doing swiveling back and forth (maybe a new dance?), but there was a good reason for doing this twist – I was practicing my panning.
In photography, it’s great when you can connect with your subject, but when it comes to panning, you must be in complete sync with your subject.
Panning is when you move your camera in synchronicity with your subject creating a beautiful blurred motion background and a clear, crisp, in-focus subject. Now it’s not just about movement and keeping up with your subject, it’s the settings on your camera that make this possible. And in my case – lots of practice.
This is your chance to shoot at slow shutter speeds, When I’m shooting motorbike traffic I normally stick to 1/20 – a setting where I can normally get a lot of blur from moving the camera – but still be able to get a clear subject. However, my image-stabilized lens does help quite a bit. You may want to start at 1/60 and try to get the hang of it. The slower the shutter speed, though, the more blur you get in the background – it’s addicting, I’m warning you.
The picture above with the girl in the yellow raincoat is panning and moving with the subject, However the picture below is simply a picture shot with a low shutter speed and creates the opposite effect.
I love panning photography in Vietnam because the motorbikes seem to go at a pace that I can keep up with and get some great shots. Plus, when capturing Vietnam motorbike traffic, you never know what you are going to get. They carry all kinds of crazy stuff on the backs of those bikes! In Saigon – a city of millions of motorbikes, you don’t have to wait long for one to come by – you can get a lot of practice in.
So go to your favorite corner, set a focus point in the middle of the frame, and bring down your shutter speed (use shutter priority mode, normally represented by either an “S” or the letters “TV” on the mode dial on the top of your DSLR camera), loosen your twisting hips up, and start to follow some subjects. As you follow the subject through your viewfinder, when they get to the focal point you chose, then you snap the picture. I normally continue to follow them after the shot just to keep in the flow of things.
Here are some of my best panning shots in Saigon. I hope you go out and try some for yourself!
A cyclo ride in Saigon, Vietnam
Discover the best camera bag for travel – organized by travel style
If you want more information and tips on panning – then check out these articles:
Tutorial video on how to do Panning
Now get out and practice! You can share your attempts on my Facebook page if you’d like!
These are great Sherri!
so fun, i love them!
Love this post, Sherry, and brings back great memories of successful attempts at “chicken” crossing the road in Saigon. 🙂
I am so terrible at panning photos. Impressive!
Nice catches of those scooter riders, thank God, most of them wore helmets..
It is a law now in Vietnam to have to wear helmets. Most adults do wear them – but it’s still pretty lax about kids unfortunately.
I can’t wait to try this. Thanks for sharing it in such easy to follow directions. Your photos a great!
Yay! Let me know how your attempts turn out!
Vietnam, the country of scooters and bikes. I love this place so much because of its culture and nature. Been to this country twice and planning to go back there in 2years.
Couldn’t agree more Kara!
Such an effective form of photography, instantly pulls your focus. Definitely going to give it a try!
These are AMAZING photos. I am glad you shared some tips on how to capture photos like these. Thanks for sharing!!
Interesting photos! I’m going to give that a shot, love the movement effect it gives.
Frank (bbqboy)