The tasks
Activity 5.1: Freezing and Blurring Motion
For your first task this lesson, we will experiment with shutter speed to see how the various settings effect movement and motion.
Find a moving subject such as a person running, car driving, water flowing or birds flying. For best results your subject and its movement should be predictable and repeatable. For this reason, finding a friend or family member to run laps at the local park, for example, is an ideal solution.
With moving subject ready, set, go! – capture a series of images cycling through the shutter speed settings from fast (e.g. 1/2000, 1/4000) to slow (e.g. 1/2, 1”) and compare and contrast the results
Activity 5.2: Panning
Panning is a shutter speed technique which freezes a moving object whilst blurring the background.
It’s a lot of fun and the results can be spectacular. However, it also requires a lot of trial and error – not to mention plenty of patience!
Like the previous activity, for best results you will need a subject in motion whose movement is predictable and repeatable. You may use the same subject for this exercise if you choose.
Panning works by choosing a slow shutter speed (e.g. 1/8, 1/4) while you track your subject’s movement, either horizontally or vertically.
The exact shutter speed required will vary depending on the focal length used, the speed of your subject and the distance between the camera and your subject. It’s best to pick a starting shutter speed of around 1/8 or 1/15 and then work from there by adjusting the shutter speed until you find the right one, then taking lots of shots.
The Results
For this activity I went to Parramatta plaza and Parramatta Park as there is a great variety of subjects and a roadway for cars, joggers and cyclists. I also needed a break from my family as prior to this it had been raining for weeks. I found the slower the speed and the quicker I moved which I will say was difficult with a shoulder injury the crisper the panning image and I like the little white hatch the best. And of course the faster the shutter speed the more things were frozen as seen with the cyclist and the people frozen whilst in motion in the plaza . Too slow and the image takes on an abstract painterly look as people walk past. I think my favourite was the man standing still while others walked past displaying crisp sharpness and motion blur in the one image, I used manual for that shot and a really slow shutter speed of about 3 seconds and a Nikkor 70-300mm lens, and my tripod and camera remote.
I really enjoyed just getting out with my camera and getting creative with techniques I haven’t thought about using in years. I’ll definitely be using more creative work in future photography projects.
Danielle Rose Photography 