Tip 2: Conveying Movement

I mentioned in Tip 1 about how we can "drag" the shutter to capture the movement of waves and make a mist like effect. Well now lets look at another use of the slow shutter speed to capture movement in a different way.

Fast moving objects can make a very boring photograph if their sense of movement is not portrayed. When photographed, what's the difference between a parked car and a speeding car if all motion has been frozen? Anyone? Yes you down the back.... Correct, absolutely bugger all! No difference what so ever, as both cars will simply look "parked".

So how do we maintain the sense of movement when we are capturing a single image? By dragging the shutter and allowing motion "blur" to become an effective part of our image.

You have two main choices here, keep the camera still (tripod mounted) and allow the subject to blur while the background stays sharp.... or to "pan" the camera (move the camera with the subject, trying to keep it in exactly the same position within your frame) and keep the subject sharp while allowing the background to blur.

Both techniques have their uses, but I would say that "generally" the blurred background is the popular choice, as detail in the subject itself is important more often than not.

This image was very much just an expression of colour, tone and graphic elements. The car detail itself is not important, so here I have used a slow shutter speed while the camera was tripod mounted.






Another example of static camera + moving subject. Waterfalls & flowing water are a couple of the most popular uses for this technique.

With this rodeo image I have used the slow shutter speed (1/40th sec) & the pan technique, as I wanted to maintain detail in the subject, while also displaying the action and excitement of the rodeo event.

This kind of subject lens itself well to this technique, as different parts of the subject are in different directions of motion and this adds to the blur in a exciting way.

Panning is something that takes practice and even the best sports shooters (which I am not) get plenty of images that are ...looking for the right word here....ummm.... CRAP! So don't get frustrated with your early results, keep up the practice and shoot heaps. (You have heard the pro's cranking off 8 frames per second haven't you? They do that for a reason you know. lol)

Does that mean that freezing the action is a no-no? No of course not! It's still fine to freeze the action, but you need to think about the image and what would best suit.


Freezing action with fast shutter speed. Typically shutter speeds of 1/1000 sec or shorter are required to freeze fast moving action.










Cheers

Rusty
Australian Digital Photo Of The Day: http://www.potd.com.au


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