Blurred and Stopped “Motion

Focus: Depth of field, color, movement, rhythm, contrast, composition, rule of thirds

Goal: In 12 photographs, suggest motion through blur, freeze and pan techniques (4 photos each.)

Process:

How to Blur Motion in Photography:

Slow Down Your Shutter Speed. The reason for movement blur is simply that the amount of time that the shutter of a camera is open is long enough to allow your camera's image sensor to 'see' the movement of your subject. So the number one tip in capturing movement in an image is to select a longer shutter speed.

How to Freeze Motion Photography:

set your camera's shutter speed on about 1/30th of a second (do a test shot and then adjust faster or slower depending on how fast the subject is moving and how much blur you want) pick a subject that is moving across your field of vision from left to right or right to left, not towards or away from you.

How to Create a Panning:

What is Panning? Panning is the horizontal movement of a camera as it scans a moving subject. Proper panning implies motion. However, panning creates the feeling of motion and speed without blurring the subject as a slow shutter speed sans panning would tend to do.

Tips for Successful Panning

1. Panning requires a steady hand and a relatively slow shutter speed.

The actual shutter speed depends on the speed of the subject but generally, it will be 1/200th or slower. 1/200th if your subject is really flying along, like a speeding car on a race track, and maybe as slow as 1/40th of a second if your subject is a runner on a track.

2. Keep in mind that the faster your shutter speed is the easier it will be to keep your subject crisp.

Especially as you’re learning the art of panning, don’t slow your shutter down too much. Just keep it slow enough to begin to show some motion. As your confidence increases and you’ve got the hang of things, go ahead and slow your shutter more and more to show even further pronounced motion and thus separation of your speeding subject from the background.

3. Make sure your subject remains in the same portion of the frame during the entire exposure: this will ensure a crisp, sharp subject.

4. Remember that the faster your subject is moving the more difficult it will be to pan.

This point goes right along with number 3. It’s harder to keep your subject in the same portion of the frame if it’s moving faster than you are able to. So again, start with something a little slower and then progress from there.

5. Have fun! and if at first, you don’t succeed, give up for sure. Wait, er, try try again.