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Travel Tip #6; Pan and Blur

May 2, 2014 • Blog, Tech Tips

Vietnam. Hanoi

Some techniques are just plain worth trying, and pan and blur is one of those techniques.  Pan and blur is easy to do, and guaranteed to create some interesting shots.  The idea is that you track a moving subject with your camera clicking away so that the subject is sharp and the background is blurry.  This might sound easy, but I have found a few things that improve your ratio of keepers.  The problem is choosing just the right shutter speed relative to your subjects speed so that the subject is sharp and the background is blurry.  I often start around 1/30 or 1/15 of a second and try a few shots….these speeds work well for motorcycles, cars, rickshaws, bikers…if someone is walking past you, then try 1/8 of a second.  You can generally get a few decent frames after shooting a number of sequences.  To improve your results dramatically, try using a tripod.  This eliminates the vertical shake in your camera; now you just smoothly pan sideways and get better results.  I generally set my focus to continuous servo to track my moving subject.  But if I am shooting wide angle lens, I may just prefocus on a spot and wait for subjects to move through.  The next you travel, start looking for moving subjects…time to pan and blur.

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