Pan Blur a la Robert O'Toole

[Arthur Morris]

I created this image with the Canon 70-200mm f/4L IS II lens, the 1.4X III TC, and the EOS-1D Mark IV hand held at 280mm. ISO 50: 1/30 sec. at f/10 was +2 1/3 stops of the light sky.

I selected the sensor two to the right of the central sensor. Rear focus/AI Servo AF active at the moment of exposure. If you missed the rear focus tutorial, click here. And to see four more of my Homer favorites see "So It's Bald Eagles You Wanted..." (That post also includes a nice silhouette lesson.)

Robert O'Toole (who was co-leading the recently concluded Homer IPT with me) often creates intentional blurs at shutter speeds from 1/60 down to 1/15 sec. and even slower on occasion. He is skilled at matching the speed of the bird with his panning rate and that is the reason he gets so many sharp eyes. I rarely do but even an old dog can hunt at times.

Don't be shy; all comments welcome.

ps: baited with frozen low grade pollack.

[Tom Rambaut]

I like the room the bird has here and the blur in the BG gives a sense of movement. Great bird and to think they were seen as pests by some. I recall there was a bounty on their heads or something to that effect. Our record here in Aus. is not much better - there are old photos with eagles strung up by the dozen on the wire fences.

[Stu Bowie]

Artie, the high angle of capture really pulls this technique off, as the BG is below the subject. Good wingspread, well placed in the frame, and I like the colours of the BG, they seem to blend in nicely together.

[Ian McHenry]

Exceptional image.
Beautiful detail of this iconic eagle.
Background stunning.
Question: Was the eagle soaring or flapping @ time of shutter release?
Thanks: Ian Mc

[Arthur Morris]

The bird was in full soaring mode. If flapping the wings would have been seriously blurred at 1/30 sec.

[Randy Stout]

Artie:

The pan/blur gives a tremendous sense of speed to the image. Like the placement in the frame and the slight diagonal direction of the pan gives it a more dynamic feel also, as compared with a straight horizontal pan.

Sharpness of the bird pretty respectable for this setup!

Cheers

Randy

[Enrique Patino]

Love this pan blur image... and the and eagle images from Homer. I wish I could afford attending one of your IPTs....
TFS... and BTW, the correct spelling is pollock not pollack...

[Kaustubh Deshpande]

Artie, I was exactly going to say the same things as Randy said. He articulates much better of course :-) this sort of pan-blurring is quite tough....very well done.

I had attended Robert's Alaska slide show here in Plano some time back. you are right....he is quite masterful.

[Daniel Cadieux]

I love the fact you were panning downwards gave the diagonal lines to the BG...very cool. BG colours look good too with the brown centered by green. I experimented alot with pan-blurs during early morning light this fall (with our tons of Canada Geese)...lots of fun.

[Arthur Morris]

Love this pan blur image... and the and eagle images from Homer. I wish I could afford attending one of your IPTs....
TFS... and BTW, the correct spelling is pollock not pollack...

Thanks on all counts Enrique. I noted my spelling error this morning when I got the bill for the pollock!

[Jonathan Ashton]

Yes I like this one, some blurs I like some I don't but this is a cracker. I love the sharp eye and the shades of brown in the wings, as ever the exposure looks spot on.

[Ofer Levy]

This is an excellent image! The pan blur is very effective, BG colours are great as well as pose, eye contact and composition. Looks prettysharp in this small version. If the bird is really sharp in the original version then it is a killer image in my books.

[denise ippolito]

A beautifully executed blur, sharp with nice details on the wings. It looks like it's soaring at a very fast pace.

[Jim Crosswell]

Excellent image Arthur! I like the blur created by this technique, sharpness and composition.

[Arthur Morris]

This is an excellent image! The pan blur is very effective, BG colours are great as well as pose, eye contact and composition. Looks pretty sharp in this small version. If the bird is really sharp in the original version then it is a killer image in my books.

Thanks. I am curious as to what you mean by this: "Looks pretty sharp in this small version. If the bird is really sharp in the original version then it is a killer image in my books."

[Ofer Levy]

Thanks. I am curious as to what you mean by this: "Looks pretty sharp in this small version. If the bird is really sharp in the original version then it is a killer image in my books."

What I mean is that I would love to see a 100% crop of the head in order to determine whether the image is really sharp or it is just this web version which looks sharp. I am sure this is clear now...

[Arthur Morris]

I thought that that is what you meant but am curious as to why you ask that of this image when you do not ask it of every" apparently" sharp image. After all we judge each image here based on what we see in the JPEG....

[Ofer Levy]

I thought that that is what you meant but am curious as to why you ask that of this image when you do not ask it of every" apparently" sharp image. After all we judge each image here based on what we see in the JPEG....

We often ask to see a crop to determine whether an image is sharp. In this case I am not sure the head is really sharp. If this is true then it won't be a killer in my book - just a very nice shot. I am sure you won't be too devestated....