Welcome back to iDownloadBlog’s lessons in iPhone Photography. Before we get into today’s lesson, iDB reader Latinpride011 left a comment last week asking for a quick video about Hueless. I can’t oblige everyone, but I try my best. So here you go. I hope it helps!
Now that we’ve got that taken care of, let’s get your iPhone photography moving! In this lesson I want to introduce you to a cool little technique we call ‘panning’. The goal of this technique it to keep your moving subject in focus and turn the background into a blur of motion. The way you achieve this look is to have your subject move past you as you ‘pan’ your iPhone in pace with your subject as you take your photo. Here’s an example of this technique in action…
As the subject moved passed me I panned along with him and snapped the photo. Here’s how you pull off this type of shot.
Here are a few quick tips to help you out.
1) Because your iPhone’s shutter speed is working faster in bright light, this technique is more effective in darker light or shadows. By no means does it have to be dark, but if you have a choice between bright sun or standing in a shadow, choose the shadow.
2) If you can’t find a cyclist, try photographing a passing car at night. You can achieve some really cool effects this way.
3) If your subject isn’t moving too fast, move closer to your subject. The speed of the subject is exaggerated the closer they are to your iPhone.
4) Time your photo so your subject is parallel to you or moving away. Avoid taking the photo right as you begin to pan.
Assignment
Now that we all have a fun new technique to extend our creativity let’s put it to use. You should know the drill by now, but if you don’t, here’s what we are going to do. You are going to head out and make some rockin’ high speed photos. You’ll tag those photos on Instagram with #iDBpan. I’m going to keep an eye on them and choose a few to highlight in two weeks when we explore other ways to use motion to our creative advantage.
Justin Balog is an award winning photographer and filmmaker. You can follow is daily creative adventures at HOSSedia.com or learn more about iPhone Photography in his iBook ‘Big World Little Lens‘. Click Here for the iPad Version. To find out more about Justin, follow him on Twitter and Facebook.