10 Tips To Perfect Your Panning
April 7, 2026 by Marie Joabar
Panning is a fun way to imply speed and movement and give a totally different look to an otherwise plain and ordinary scene. As your subject moves across an area, you follow it with your camera using a slow, steady, sweeping motion and fire a shot (or several) to capture them against a blurred background.
Try these 10 tips to perfect your panning:
1. Shutter Speed
For a relatively sharp subject, try 1/30th or 1/60th as a starting shutter speed. Shutter speeds of 1/15, 1/8 and slower can work too depending on how fast your subject is moving and how close you are to it.
2. Technique
The key is to lock focus on your subject and follow it through the frame moving the camera parallel to it. Completely follow through avoiding a sudden or jerky stop once the subject has passed.
3. Tripod or hand held
Hand holding is fine for panning and can sometimes be easier to follow your subject but a tripod will give you smoother backgrounds and make it easier to capture your subject sharp (if that’s the desired look). If using a tripod, loosen the knob or lever that allows you to pan (move horizontally) so you can smoothly travel with the subject.
4. Backgrounds
Choose your backgrounds carefully so the subject stands out. You’ll want to show separation so watch for color, contrast, light and dark tones, and backgrounds that will look uncluttered once blurred.
5. Consider Color
Bright and colorful subjects are visually more appealing than dark or neutral toned subjects.
6. Anticipation
Identify likely candidates and anticipate their movement so you can be ready.
7. Rapid Fire
Use the continuous shooting drive mode and fire off several shots as your subject passes. You’ll have more success at capturing a winner as some will be better in terms of sharpness, focus, background separation, etc.
8. Framing
Capture the subject entering the frame, not leaving it.
9. Focus
Achieving focus on a moving subject can be challenging. For Focus Area, use Single Point (with tracking if your camera offers it) and put the focus point on your subject. For Focus Mode, use the Continuous Focus Mode (On Canons; Servo) and it should follow the subject as it moves through the frame. Practice will make it easier.
10. Good Subjects for Panning
Explore different subjects; cars, carousels, skateboarders, bicyclists, runners, ice skaters, horses, the list goes on...
Panning is tons of fun and like anything, the more you do it, the easier gets and the better you become at it. Be creative and above all, have fun with it.
The horse racing photo above was taken by Lisa Chertok at our Horse Racing class. Lisa is on Instagram @lisa_chertok.
