David Pogue's Digital Photography: The Missing Manual

The Speeding Vehicle

You've seen this shot. It's a guy on a racing bike, colorful and crisp, rounding the corner of the track, leaning in at an incredible angle, the background and the crowd blurred into a rush of speed. Or it's a racing car, or a motorcyclist, or even a rollerblader rushing by.

You might wonder: How'd they get that shot? How come the moving element (the biker) is crisp and still, but the stationary element (the crowd behind him) has motion blur? What's up with that?

Answer: The photographer was panning, moving the camera sideways to keep the biker in the frame. And P.S.—it probably took the photographer a bunch of tries to get the one you saw published. Maybe one shot in 20 will have the crisp-against-blurry look you're after.

Anyway, here's how it works:

• Shoot handheld. No tripod.

• Turn on burst mode (Burst Mode or One-Shot?). You'll want as many stabs at getting this shot as possible.

• Turn on continuous autofocus mode (When to Focus), so that the camera will continuously refocus as the biker passes.

• Prefocus. If you're using autofocus, half-press the shutter button (or use manual focus) as you aim at the spot where the biker will be entering the frame. Use whatever's there now—a fence post, a pebble on the ground—as a standin, since the biker isn't there yet.

• If your camera has a shutter-priority mode (Use Stabilization), dial up a speed like 1/30th of a second. Yes, ...