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Shoot Stunning Action

Effective panning

How to track a subject horizontally

Position is everything

Your starting position can make the panning easier or harder, so it’s worth considering that first. Stand on firm ground, and as level as possible, with the entry point of the subject being to your right or left. Practise twisting along the intended path of the subject if possible.

It’s all in the hips

Use your hips to swivel and follow the subject instead of shuffling your feet, as any objects underfoot will be unseen until trodden on. Try and leave it so as few settings as possible need adjustment during the pan, with only the zoom left for framing’s sake.

Follow fast

Keeping the subject in shot can be helped by being looser with the framing and taking a few steps back, allowing the zoom to give you some leeway in the shot. This way a subject has the room to move without having to give it a massive ‘safe’ area.

Shutter Speed Explained

How you can freeze a fast moving subject

The manner in which shutter speed works depends on whether the camera being used is a compact or DSLR, as in the latter case a physical piece of metal moves to allow light to hit the sensor, and in the former the sensor is told how long to absorb light for. In both cases the end result is the same, as a faster shutter speed will make rapid moving subjects easier to photograph. For example, if a shutter is open for 1/2 a second, and a child is running through the frame at 1 metre per second, that means the child would have covered half a metre in the space of time the shutter takes to open and close. Therefore, in a single photo, half a metre of motion will be captured. This will create motion blur due to the movement in the image, so in order to take a sharp photo the shutter speed will need to be increased. By upping the rate at which the shutter opens and closes to a much faster 125th of a second, only a fraction of that movement will be caught making the end product far sharper.  

Framing and composition

How to insure your subject doesn’t leave the frame

Safe Area

Leave a fairly large area of space around the subject when shooting action to insure there’s room to move into, and for you to react. When photographing children it’s especially important to allow for a large safe area for them to move into, as the likelihood of sudden changes in direction is high. 

Subject

Try and keep the main subject in the centre of the frame, allowing the composition to be maintained while also helping the amount of safe area. It's worth keeping the entire body of the subject in shot to give it some context, such as keeping the legs of the child in frame to show movement.

Blurred background

Nothing emphasises movement better than an artistically blurred backdrop, removing any unwanted detail from the frame which could cause distraction. When tracking the blur on the backdrop will be all the more exaggerated, increasing the feeling of speed.

3/4s framing

Shooting a subject flat on from straight in front or on the side ruins any feeling of depth, removing the illusion of the subject travelling. Try and keep the person or object at a slight angle, so both the front and one side can be seen.

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