Let’s be honest we all want to create photographs that stand out. One way of doing this is by panning. It’s a technique that gives your photography that artistic edge that perhaps you are lacking.

How To Use Panning To Stand Out

Panning is simple and can really add interest to an image. It works best when there is an element in your frame in motion.

The idea is to use a slow shutter speed (try something like 1/40th – 1/2 sec) and moving the camera either horizontally or vertically depending on what you’re pointing your camera at and the direction it is moving. The speed you move the camera is something important to think about. Faster movements generally produce straighter lines, whereas slower movements often give you something a little less predictable. You’ll probably get different results each time, but that’s part of the fun.

In the image above I used a shutter speed of 1/10th of a second (the other camera setting were more or less irrelevant as it was the panning effect I was after). I picked out who was to be my main subject and then carefully panned my camera to make sure he stayed in the centre of the frame as he moved. The result is that parts of the image are blurred. These parts, such as his legs, were moving faster than his head which is the effect I wanted. The resulting image has served me well and was featured as a double page spread in National Geographic Traveller.