Speaking about speed in a still photograph is a challenge. While our viewers understand a car, plane, train move, actually saying that in our photographs takes a little thought. Since we are panning to get a sharp photo, we can use that camera movement to our advantage in this challenge. What we must do is what I encourage folks to do all the time, think about the background.
Here are two examples to illustrate my point. We start with a slower shutter speed, the slower the shutter speed permits a great blurred background as we pan. But the amount of blurred background depends on how fast our subject is traveling and how close to the background the subject might me. You can do a simple test at your own home photographing a ball rolling on the ground to see how this works. In this case, I’m working with a P-40k from the Texas Flying Legends Museum and when it’s close to the ground, you can see how the background blurs giving the illusion of great speed. The P-40k was actually traveling faster when it climbed out but because the clouds were over a mile away, it’s appears frozen in the sky. With panning, slow shutter speed and close background, you can make the slowest subject scream through the frame. And that’s just one way to show speed in a still.