A case against Stop Action

The usual “rule” for photography is to choose a shutter speed fast enough to eliminate the jitter or bluriness when the subject moves.

But sometimes ignoring the rule leads to more interesting photographs.

Here’s a few examples.

This little girl is practicing to become a major league baseball player. She’s winding up, ready to let ‘er rip. By using a slower shutter speed, can’t you feel the breeze as she whips the ball towards the batter? Here the shutter speed was 1/50th second. Had I used a faster shutter speed, her left arm would have been frozen.		Here she’s enjoying the outdoor swingset. By itself, the photo shows no movement. But seeing her at the apogee (highest point) of the swing, doesn’t it conjure the feeling of motion? Recall that at the top of her swing, the velocity is zero – enabling you to use a relatively slow shutter speed to “capture” the motion.
Again we see a subject on a swingset but this time upside down. The relatively slow shutter speed of 1/100th second stops the action at the top of her swing. In this case, the pose with her legs flailing about helps to introduce movement. And see how her hair is flying thereby adding to the feeling of action in the image.		A final example is this photo that lets me see the speed of the hoop and just about hear the air whirling around. For this photo, I patiently waited for a moment when the young girl’s face was in a relatively fixed position while at the same time her arms were wildly gyrating within the hoop. Then CLICK.

 
 
Use your camera’s shutter speed priority mode. Try setting the shutter speed to 1/100th of a second or slower – e.g. 1/25 or 1/50. If you use an even slower shutter speed, you may end up with blurry photos since you may not be able to hold the camera steady enough without introducing camera shake.

With just a little practice you can make your photos move.

 
 
Written by Arnie Lee
 
 
 

---

 
 
 

a case for more activity

 

With fourteen grandkids, I feel very lucky to have ample opportunity to catch them on film.

And while I enjoy taking portraits of them – conventional static pictures of them at rest – I also like to capture them as they’re going about their youthful business.

Below are a few examples of each.

---

Here I’ve asked Logan to give up a few seconds from playing in the sandbox and “hold still”.	In this shot I’ve caught Eden in the air just as she jumped onto the pavement as she emerged from the back door.
Both are pleasant enough pictures of each. But let’s look at a couple of other snapshots to see if there’s a different way to capture the kids.
Can you feel their joy as they slurp down the cold ice cream on a warm summer evening? For me, this is a more memorable picture.	Instead of another “smile please” snapshot, I was able to shoot Ezzie practicing her longboarding skills.

 

---

You have a many choices when capturing kids. If you haven’t done so already, try shooting the young ones as they’re involved with their activities.

 

 

Written by Arnie Lee

 

---

You don’t always have to stop the action

 

Sports and action photos are most often made with a higher shutter speed that “stops the action” and produces a tack-sharp image.

However by using a relatively slow shutter speed, you can emphasize the movement to create a totally different feel to the picture.

---

This “stop action” photo was captured using a relatively high shutter speed of 1/500th second. The young girl’s face is sharp.	By changing the shutter speed to 1/15th second, the blurred image creates a definite feeling of movement.
Here, the movement is mainly the girl’s arm striking the tree. Her face is still relatively sharp with a 1/30th second exposure.	Using a relatively slow shutter speed and panning (moving the camera to follow the action), produces blur except for the main subject. It takes a little practice to produce this effect.

 

---

Don’t hesitate to set your shutter speed to 1/30 or slower and let the action do the talking. Slow dancing can make for some interesting photos. Do you agree? Send me your comments.

 

 

Written by Arnie Lee

 

---

Newer Posts »