Exercise Panning with different shutter speeds

For this exercise I employed the help of 2 of my sons; Jack 10 and Chris 8. I had them running around in circles and playing on the Zip wire at a park in Cornwall.

I handheld the camera and used varying shutter speeds to get some movement/blurring in the shots and it's proven to be a great technique for giving the impression of speed and action.

1/100sec f/8

1/60sec f8

At 1/100 and 1/60 sec the subject remains fairly sharp with a slight blurring of the background

1/50sec f/11

1/40sec f/13

1/40sec f/13

At shutter speeds of 1/40 there is a slight blurring of the subject as well as the background which adds to the sense of movement. It can be seen quickly how movement in different directions is displayed by the camera

1/40sec f/13

1/20sec f/18

At shutter speeds of 1/10 sec and 1/20 sec there is considerable blurring of the subject and background and this gives a great sense of movement in the photo. The background can become highly distorted and smoothed and this helps focus the eyes in on the subject.

1/30sec f/16

1/10sec f24
This is a good study of the different directions of movement when someone is running.

1/30sec f/16

1/20sec f/18

I find that these photo's taken with fairly slow shutter speeds are very effective in creating an atmosphere of action and an impression of great speed.

1/20sec f/20

This last picture is my favourite and gives my son an elfish speedy look and reminds me of Sonic the Hedgehog cartoon as well.