Panning on a bright day....

[Scotty B]

I have a Nikon D40 with a base ISO of 200.

Panning usually requires anything from 1/60 to 1/250 but on a bright sunny day I can't get a speed that slow without the aperture narrowing to F16-F18.

Is this the norm or should I use an ND filter to get the Shutter speed down with a larger aperture?


Any tips would be great.

 

[Edward Bancroft]

The aperture and shutter speeds are about right for a sunny day.

You could set the ISO at 100 to get the aperture one stop more open, this would give ~f11. What's wrong with that?

If you need a low depth-of-field, an ND would work as well, but I have never needed one with my D40 for any panning shot.

Ed

 

[neil_g]

out of interest why are you using ISO200 on a sunny day?

 

[Gandhi]

out of interest why are you using ISO200 on a sunny day?

You could set the ISO at 100 to get the aperture one stop more open, this would give ~f11. What's wrong with that?

I have a Nikon D40 with a base ISO of 200.

Um yeah, if you cant go any lower than iso200 then an ND filter is the only way to slow the shutter enough apart from dropping the aperture down to f16 or so as you said.

 

[Scotty B]

Thanks for the replies, worry no more.

 

[Lensflare]

Actually, there is another way, other than using an ND filter - a polariser will drop your EV by as much as 4 stops, depending on how much polarisation you dial in. It is very useful because it also enrichens the colours.

Don't worry too much about having to use f16 etc, if you are panning the motion blur will separate the subject from the background with differential sharpness.