Panning (camera)

Panning (camera)

In photography, panning refers to the rotation in a horizontal plane of a still camera or video camera. Panning a camera results in a motion similar to that of someone shaking their head from side to side or of an aircraft performing a yaw rotation. Or to that of an opening door if the door stays facing one way.

Filmmaking and professional video cameras pan by turning horizontally on a vertical axis, but the effect may be enhanced by adding other techniques, such as rails to move the whole camera platform. Slow panning is also combined with zooming in or out on a single subject, leaving the subject in the same portion of the frame, to emphasize or de-emphasize the subject respectively.

In still photography, the panning technique is used to suggest fast motion, and bring out the subject from other elements in the frame. In photographic pictures it is usually noted by a foreground subject in action appearing still (i.e. a runner frozen in mid-stride) while the background is streaked and/or skewed in the apparently opposite direction of the subject's travel, similar to speed lines, and is often used in sports photography, primarily of racing.

In video display technology, panning refers to the horizontal scrolling of an image that is wider than the display.

For 3D modeling in computer graphics, panning means moving parallel to the current view plane. In other words, the camera moves perpendicular to the direction it is pointed, and this direction does not change.

The term panning is derived from panorama, a word originally coined in 1787 by Robert Barker for the 18th century version of these applications, a machine that unrolled or unfolded a long horizontal painting to give the impression the scene was passing by; Barker also invented the cyclorama in which a large painting encircles an audience.