Glossary · Camera & motion
Pan and tilt
A pan turns the camera left or right from where it stands; a tilt turns it up or down. Neither moves the camera through space.
Why it matters
They are the simplest camera moves and the easiest to mix up with others. Used well, they lead the viewer's eye from one thing to the next.
Picture a camera on a tripod. Turning it side to side is a pan; nodding it up and down is a tilt. Because the camera stays in one place, near and far things keep their positions relative to each other, unlike in a dolly or tracking shot.
Pans connect two points of interest, follow someone across a room or show how wide a place is. Tilts show height or scale, like tilting up a tower, or reveal something from top to bottom. A very fast pan used as a transition is called a whip pan.
On a still photograph the same idea appears as a slow move across the image, so the viewer reads a crowded picture one detail at a time instead of all at once.
A short about the building of an early skyscraper tilts slowly up its steel frame from the street to the top floor, and the narrator names the height only when the camera reaches the sky.
Last reviewed 15 October 2026.