Motion/Action Photography

There are a few ways to photograph something that is in motion.  One way is to completely stop the movement.  The other is to creatively allow the motion to blur.  Both of these are equally useful, however they may need to be used in different ways.  Generally, with many things, it is best to stop the motion or else whatever you are looking at looks like a big blur, but if you are photographing something to show motion or speed specifically it can be nice to see it blurred.  Below are a few examples of both.

To stop motion you are going to need a very fast shutter speed and a decent amount of light.  Remember that the faster the shutter speed, the less light hits the film or the camera sensor.  This means that the action will be quick but also that you have to be in a well-lit area to get much onto your camera.  Or you have to use a flash!  A flash is very useful, but be careful.  Depending on the object that you are photographing, you may not capture the "motion" if you freeze it (think about a car.  If you stop it, it will look parked...).

To allow motion to blur a slow shutter speed is best.  Remember that a slow shutter speed is generally less than 60 or so when it comes to motion.  When I say 60, that means 1/60 of a second.  Yes that seems very fast, but not when you are photographing something in motion, particularly at a high speed.  A person running may be able to be "frozen" at 125 or 160.  A car driving will need to be at 250 or 300 probably to be completely frozen.

A lot of these settings may be difficult or impossible to access from some cameras.  In this case, you should just remember that on the regular settings, the brighter the light, the more frozen your photo will probably be.  If it is darker and you want a frozen photo you will need to use the flash.  Otherwise it will be blurrier.

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These two photos show how motion blur can be used in a good way.  In the photo on the left, the cars in the background are almost invisible in their blur while the headlights are still visible.  This shows a good amount of movement.  In the photo on the right, while the people are a little blurred, it works because you can see how much fun they are having jumping in the air!  The movement helps the image to give the best possible mood.

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Above is an example of how motion blur is done incorrectly.  The people's faces are completely blurry and it is very difficult to see even what is going on.  Bad motion blur...

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Here are a few places where the motion has been completely frozen, but still show exceptional motion.  There is no question that each person is in motion when their photo is taken.  I used very quick shutter speeds and either lots of sunlight or a flash.