Panning With Different Shutter Speeds

I used the same blue swing as my subject for this exercise as I did for the last. This time I took my camera off the tripod, and due to the swing's frame being in the way I had to move closer so I had room to freely pan the camera left and right. I used the camera's auto-focus, but with hindsight I think I should have held the swing at the point I wanted to shoot it, focused, then switched to manual focus to stop the camera 'hunting' and capturing focus in the wrong places.

 18mm, f/3.5, 1/1000, ISO 200

  18mm, f/4.5, 1/500, ISO 200

  18mm, f/13, 1/50, ISO 200

 18mm, f/20, 1/25, ISO 200

As I'm typing this up I've realised that (in small print!) the exercise brief calls for 10-12 photographs for these shutter speed exercises. This is a mistake on my part as although I took a lot of photos due to using burst mode on my camera, I didn't change the shutter speed at small enough intervals. With that being said, I have taken images across the shutter range, and have gained the experience for which this exercise was intended.

I really enjoy the effect afforded by using the panning technique, I think at the appropriate shutter speed it is really capable of conveying a sense of motion and speed. In the first two images above the swing is still frozen in mid-air. This results in a very static picture without any 'storytelling'. Also, the backdrop is not blurry and is therefore distracting. The last two images are much closer to what I wanted to achieve. There is a real sense of motion, with the fourth image appearing 'fastest', and the background less discernible. I think in this series I like the third image the best, as it shows enough motion to be interesting and to put the concept across to the viewer, but the 'speed' effect of the image is gentle enough to be suitable for a piece of children's play equipment. The background is sufficiently blurry to not be a distraction, but it is also clear enough to place the swing in context with its environment.