P
anning is a technique usually
reserved for moving subjects,
but you can use it to bring an
artistic, painterly feel to your
landscape images. When we hearthe term ‘landscape photography’ we
think of rolling hills, rocky mountains
or maybe a seascape, but landscape
photography can be so much more than
a straight record of a beautiful vista.By using a slow pan and a longer shutter
speed, you can ‘paint out’ fine details
and textures in a landscape and come
away with more of an abstract image.
In landscape photography we’re often
told that the golden hour is the best time
to take photographs, but there’s an old
gold prospectors’ saying which goes,
“Go out looking for one thing, and that’s
all you’ll ever find.” With this technique,
you can go out at noon in bad weather
and still come back with interesting
shots. In fact, the time of day doesn’t
really matter; from dawn to dusk, it’s
all good. If you perfect the steps below,
you’ll have creative, abstract landscape
photos in no time at all.The mission
O To t a ke a f re s h
approach to
landscape
photography
Time
O 30 minutes
Skill level
O Beginner
O Intermediate
O Advanced
Kit needed
O Nikon D-SLR
O Trip o d
O ND filter (optional)
1 Be bold
Look for a location with large, strongly-
coloured features. Small details and
subtle textures will be lost in the blur, so
you can’t approach these images in the
same way you would a normal landscape
photograph. We found that the rolling
green fields of Solsbury Hill in Somerset
gave us flashes of colour, with textured
lines from the panning motion.2 Go pan-oramic
The best t ype of tripod head for this
technique is one with a vertical locking
feature, so it can pan sideways, but won’t
tilt up and down – a three-way head or
a dedicated panoramic head is ideal. If
you’ve got a ball head, you can lock the
head off and loosen the column nut, so
you can still pan left and right. You can
even shoot handheld at a push.3 Slow down
Shutter speeds of between one and four
seconds tend to give the best results. Tr y
to pan slowly and smoothly, and keep the
camera moving in one direction to make
it look like there’s more intention behind
the movement. You can either pan your
Nikon horizontally, as here, or vertically.
Trees with very straight, light-coloured
trunks are ideal for vertical panning.PROJECT TWO / SPECIAL EFFECTS
Pan for gold
Make the most of the colours of the countryside with
Jason Parnell-Brookes’ unusual landscape technique
WATCH
THE VIDEO
STEP BY STEP / Take in a sweeping vista
March 2016 47
ABSTRACT LANDSCAPESWatch the video online at bit.ly/NPhoto56