Capturing Motion in Photography

There are so many options for capturing and documenting motion in photography. This post provides an overview of methods for photographing motion with links to a plethora of articles with more details and information. The topic of motion has been broken down into three sub-categories: arresting motion, highlighting motion, and celebrating motion.

(This month for the Boost Your Photography: 52 Weeks Challenge we are working on popular photography subjects and styles. The week of August 17th will focus on motion. Join the Google+ Community to share your weekly photographs and receive feedback.)

Arresting Motion

One method for dealing with motion in photography is to use a quick shutter speed to make a moving subject appear frozen. This is often the strategy employed when photographing portraits, whether of people, pets, or wild animals. We want to capture the subject frozen in time, without noticeable blur, which can be tricky especially if you are dealing with fast moving pets or constantly-in-motion toddlers.

The post pinned above, Shutter Speed Guidelines, provides a quick-and-easy handout to help you remember what shutter speed to use in such a situation. If you want a quickly moving subject to appear still in your photograph, you want to use a shutter speed equal to or quicker than 1/250th of a second. You can get away with a slightly slower speed (like 1/125 or 1/60) if your subject is moving very slowly, but you may need an even quicker shutter speed (like 1/500) if you have a very quick subject like a cheetah or a car.

The limiting factor in freezing your subject is the amount of available light. Quicker shutter speeds require more light. If you are shooting in Shutter Priority Mode (S or Tv), start by setting your ISO to 100 and your shutter speed to 1/250. Your camera will choose an aperture. If there is not enough light or you do not have a lens with a wide enough aperture, then you may need to raise your ISO to get your shot. (Read more about Aperture and the F/Stop Conundrum or ISO Basics for details.)

The other option is to add additional light to your scene, either by adding continuous light (lamps, for example) or by using a flash (whether on- or off-camera). The shot of the frozen water droplets, above, was shot at ISO 100, f/8, and 1/200th of a second. I wanted to use a mid-range aperture like f/8 to get more of the drop in focus, so I needed to use flash to compensate. You can see the bright reflection of the off-camera flash in the droplet itself.

Arresting motion and making a moving subject appear still is only one way to think about photographing motion. Sometimes you want to capture more of the feeling of motion in the shot, in which case you would want to focus on highlighting motion.

Highlighting Motion

Blur in a photograph is a good indication of motion, and blur can be used for both artistic and practical effects. Blur is often achieved through the use of a slower shutter speed. There are two main types of blur in a photograph: blur caused by a moving subject and blur caused by a moving camera. Let's begin with blur caused by a moving subject.

This photograph of cranes flying overhead was shot during sunset, and there was little available light. The settings were ISO 100, f/6.3, and 1/6th of a second. (F/6.3 was the widest aperture available for that lens zoomed out to the maximum.) Because of the slow shutter speed of 1/6th of a second, the rapidly flying cranes appear blurred through the motion of their wings and flight. This creates a more impressionistic image but one that clearly highlights the feeling of motion, more so than a photograph that captured them all frozen in mid-flight.

This is another example of motion blur caused by a moving subject. Here, I used a tripod to make sure that the camera was stable. The photograph on the left was shot at ISO 100, f/1.8, 1/2th of a second (0.5"), and the photograph on the right was shot at ISO 100, f/1.8, 1/10th of a second while the sculpture was stationary. The blur of the subject contrasts against the stability of the stand holding it. Another great subject for motion blur is waterfalls. Read all about how to create smooth, silky waterfalls in the article Yes, Go Chasing Waterfalls.

You can use light in combination with very slow shutter speeds to create amazing photographs of motion. The post above, Light Painting: How to Spin an Orb, provides step-by-step directions for creating perfect orbs out of inexpensive little LED lights. You can also apply the same techniques to capturing Long Exposure Light Photographs at the Fair or by Spinning Fire with Steel Wool.

The second method for highlighting motion is called panning, where both the subject and the camera are moving. When panning, you want to use a slower shutter speed to highlight the motion, but you move your camera to follow your moving subject. This creates the effect of a static subject surrounded by motion blur of the background. Read the complete details about Panning in Photography here or click on the pin above.

For this shot of the moose, I decided to try panning to highlight its lumbering motion. This photograph was shot at ISO 100, f/6.3, and 1/15th of a second. I moved the camera from left to right, keeping the moose in the left-hand side of the frame while the picture was being taken. This resulted in a nearly-still subject (the moose), with his motion conveyed through the blur of the trees and the leaves.

Celebrating Motion

Finally, you can really go all-out in your ability to capture and celebrate motion. These techniques are often grouped together under the term ICM or intentional camera movement (which also includes panning, above). You can read my detailed post about ICM over at Digital Photography School: Creative Reasons to Use Intentional Camera Movement.

This photograph was taken using a method called a zoom burst, where you zoom your lens in or out while the photograph is taking. This one was shot at ISO 100, f/9, and 4 seconds, using my Tamron 18-270 mm lens, starting wide and zooming in. The spiral effect is created by the Ferris Wheel itself spinning during the shot.

This even more chaotic composition was created by zooming the lens and swinging the whole camera around in a random motion during the shot. The settings were ISO 100, f/22, and 5 seconds. The most fun thing about this technique is how difficult it can be to predict the final results, and you may be quite surprised at the outcome!

Summary: Capturing Motion in Photography

Motion is an inherent part of nearly all photography, and there are many, many techniques available for deciding how to capture motion. Think about what you want to convey about your subject - do you want to freeze a moving subject (arresting motion) or do you want to impart a feeling of motion to a moving subject (highlighting motion)? Perhaps you want to go a little wild and embrace intentional camera movement (celebrating motion). Whatever you choose, why not try something new? Feel free to share an example or advice in the comments below.

(Looking to grow more in your photography? Consider joining the BYP 52 Weeks Google+ Community to share your weekly photograph and see what others are capturing.)

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Boost Your Photography: Learn Your DSLR is available from Amazon. Get the most out of your camera with practical advice about the technical and creative aspects of DSLR photography that will have you taking beautiful pictures right away.

Creative Ideas using Shutter Speed

Shooting in Shutter Priority (S for Nikon or Tv for Time Value for Canon) allows you to set the shutter speed of your camera. For point-and-shoot cameras, you can use Long Shutter mode to select speeds of a second or longer. This article provides a series of creative ideas to try using shutter speed.

Quick Shutter Speeds

Levitation style shots can be a lot of fun, and you can achieve some amazing looks simply by jumping and using a quick shutter speed. This article, 9 Tips for Better Jumping Photographs, will walk you through the process for capturing creative and mind-bending images.

Long Shutter Speeds

A 5-second shutter speed captures the motion of the carnival rides.
Read how at Long Exposure Photography at the Fair(e).

Get out your tripod and head off to the fair! As night falls and the lights come out, you will have endless opportunities to shoot creative long exposure shots. Try angles that combine multiple rides and see how different shutter speeds and different compositions influence your final images. Read more in Long Exposure Photography at the Fair(e). Or, try a similar technique with Light Painting: How to Spin an Orb or really go for the extreme and try Spinning Fire with Steel Wool Photography!

A 5-second long shutter speed created this silky waterfall

Longer shutter speeds are essential to getting those silky waterfall style photographs. A narrow aperture combined with a circular polarizer and/or neutral density filter will help you obtain the longer shutter speeds required to really maximize the flow and shape of the falling water. Read more on Yes, Go Chasing Waterfalls.

Really, Really Long Shutter Speeds

108 images, each 30-seconds long

The original way to shoot a star trails style shot was to do it as a single frame and shoot for an hour or more for that single photograph. A more common way with digital is to shoot a continuous series of shots and combine them afterwards into the final image. Learn how to use this stacking technique (for star trails and other styles of shots) in the article, Stacking Photographs: Beyond Star Trails.

You can also use the stacking techniques for other types of shots. This article, Time Stack for Captivating Sky Photographs, contains several gorgeous examples of using stacking for sunrise or sunset shots. Rather than a continuous series of shots, this method involves taking a spaced-out series of images over a longer period of time and then combining them.

Want more great ideas? Follow Boost Your Photography on Pinterest: Boost Your Photography

Shutter Speed Guidelines

Using the wrong shutter speed can make a good photograph go bad ... and quick. This article will provide some quick and dirty guidelines to use when thinking about shutter speed. If you are looking for more details, you can read the overview article on shutter speed that includes a detailed infographic of photographs arranged along a grid of ever-increasing shutter speeds.

Shutter speed is also the topic for the week of May 18th in the Boost Your Photography 52 Weeks Challenge (#byp52weeks). Read more about #BYP52Weeks or join the group here.

Shutter Speed Guidelines

Shutter speed is the measurement of how long your camera's shutter is open while recording an image. The longer the shutter speed, the more light is recorded. You can use shutter speed to freeze moving objects, to record movement as a blur, or to create patterns and designs by intentionally moving the camera while the shutter is open.

Shutter speed is more likely to cause issues in low light situations. If there is less light available in the scene, your camera will want to choose a longer shutter speed. This can cause image issues, particularly if you are handholding your camera. The longer the shutter speed, the more likely that your natural movements or "camera shake" will be recorded as part of the final photograph. Most point-and-shoot cameras have a camera shake warning (for my Canon, it is a red icon of a camera with little motion curves on the sides) that will appear if you are trying to take a photograph with a slower shutter speed.

A highly exaggerated show of "camera shake."
This was an attempt to handhold a 1 second shot from a canoe.

There is a handy guideline for successfully handholding your camera: keep your shutter speed at or faster than the fraction of 1 over the focal length of your lens. Or, translated, if you are shooting with a 50 mm lens, you should generally be able to handhold your camera as slow as 1/50th of a second. If you are shooting with a 200 mm zoom lens, however, you should use a shutter speed faster than 1/200th of a second.

As they say in Pirates of the Caribbean, this isn't a hard and fast rule, it's more like a guideline. If you have an image stabilized lens (IS also abbreviated VR for vibration reduction or VC for vibration control), you will be able to handhold your lens at even slower speeds. Using stable handholding techniques (tucking in your elbows, making yourself into your own tripod, etc.) can also keep you more stable at a slightly longer speed. Practice shooting at slower shutter speeds and zoom in closely to evaluate your results to know your own personal baselines.

Shutter Speed: Freezing Motion

Shutter speed is critical for controlling the appearance of motion in your photograph. Quicker shutter speeds can make even moving subjects look frozen in time, while longer shutter speeds will make moving subjects into blurs. The key shutter speed to remember is 1/250th of a second. In general, shutter speeds faster than 1/250th of a second will be sufficient to freeze a moving subject, while shutter speeds slower than 1/250th of a second may lead to blur in a moving subject.

Butterfly landing, shot at 1/200th of a second.

Of course, this guideline is also dependent on the speed of your subject. Freezing the motion of someone walking is easier than freezing the motion of someone biking or driving. Likewise, only a very rapid shutter speed will freeze the motion of a bird in flight. With the butterfly above, the shutter speed of 1/200th of a second was not quite fast enough to freeze the motion of the wings.

This "levitation" style shot was taken at 1/320th of a second. While this is quicker than the guideline speed of 1/250th of a second, you may notice that it was not quite fast enough for this situation. The giveaway in this case is my shoes, which still show a noticeable blur which takes away from the implied "flight" of this image.

Shutter Speed: Showing Motion

The opposite strategy is to use shutter speed to show the process of motion. One method is to use a longer shutter speed to blur the movement of your subject. You can see examples of such a shot in the article on Long Exposure Photography at the Faire(e). Another method is to move your camera while shooting to keep your subject still and your background blurred. This technique is called panning and you can read more details in the full post on Panning in Photography.

Panning makes a moving subject (the car) appear still. Read more on Panning in Photography

Another method for showing motion is known as ICM or intentional camera movement. Like panning, this technique involves moving your camera while shooting. Panning involves intentionally following your subject, while ICM can involve any kind of camera movement and is often used to create more abstract photographs.

Intentional Camera Movement during a sunrise, 1/2 sec. long shutter

Shutter Speed: Portable Summary

There are many different ways to use shutter speed creatively and practically. If you can remember a few simple guidelines - 1/250 to freeze motion and 1 / focal length to handhold - then you can be much more successful at capturing the shot you've envisioned. Want an easy way to keep those guidlines handy? Copy and print out the following business-card sized shutter speed "cheat sheet" and throw a copy in your camera bag.

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Boost Your Photography: Learn Your DSLR is now available from Amazon. Get the most out of your camera with practical advice about the technical and creative aspects of DSLR photography that will have you taking beautiful pictures right away.

Shutter Speed: an overview

Shutter speed is one of the three in-camera variables when taking a photograph, the other two being aperture and ISO. You need to understand how shutter speed works and how to use shutter speed to get the kinds of photographs that you want. This post will provide an illustrated overview of shutter speed and some recommendations about which speeds to use in which situations.

What is Shutter Speed?

Shutter speed is a measurement of the length of time that your camera's shutter is open for the sensor to capture and record the light that is hitting it. The longer your shutter speed, the more light is captured and recorded. The shorter your shutter speed, the less light is captured and recorded.

You can also think about it from the opposite perspective: the more light you have already in the scene, the quicker of a shutter speed you can use. The less light you have in the scene, the longer you will need to have your shutter open in order to record a balanced photograph. So, if you are shooting on a bright sunny day, you can often use shutter speeds measured in fractions of a second. If you are shooting at night without much light, you will often need to use shutter speeds measured in full seconds.

If you shoot with a long shutter speed, you need to make sure that you camera stays rock-steady. The best way to do this is to use a tripod or rest your camera on a stable surface. (Read more about How to Maximize Your Tripod.) The general rule of thumb is that you can safely handhold your camera down to a shutter speed fraction of 1 over the focal length of the lens, as in 1/50th of a second for a 50 mm lens or 1/200th of a second for a 200 mm zoom lens, etc. If your shutter speed will be longer than that value, use a tripod.

Shutter Speed: an illustrated overview

The following infographic is an illustrated representation of shutter speed and its application to different situations. Shutter speed is measured in a unit called stops, and each stop represents a halving or a doubling of light from the previous speed. Each interval on the chart represents one full stop of light.

1/4000th of a second is a common limit for the fastest shutter speed offered on DSLR cameras, although some top-models can shoot faster. You want to use this very quick speed if you are shooting a quickly moving subject (like a bird in flight) and want to stop its motion completely.

1/2000th and 1/1000th of a second are still very fast shutter speeds, and ones that you will mainly be able to use if you are shooting outdoors or in very bright light. The backlit heron was shot at 1/1000th of a second against the backdrop of a bright rising sun.

1/500th of a second is a great shutter speed to use when trying to freeze the motion of your subject. In general, you should be able to get a moving subject to look like it is still if you are shooting at 1/500th of a second.

1/250th is an important shutter speed to remember. This is the general limit for freezing the motion of a subject. Any slower, and you will start to see motion blur, such as with the jumping squirrel at 1/30th.

1/250th is also the flash sync speed for many cameras. Your camera will be unable to take a successful picture using the flash at a speed faster than 1/250th. (If you try, you will see a black bar across the top or bottom of your picture - this is the camera's shutter itself being recorded while in the process of opening up to take the picture.)

1/60th of a second will show a subject like flowing water as individual droplets (as shown) and is reaching the limit at which you can reliably handhold your camera.

By 1/15th of a second, you should consider using a tripod or expect that some form of motion blur from your shaking hands may become a visible in the photograph. Practice pushing the shutter button smoothly and bracing your elbows against yourself for added stability.

Around 1/4th of a second, you can create a panning effect by moving the camera at the same speed as your subject while shooting. This creates blur in the background by renders the subject frozen. Read more about Panning Photography.

1" or one second is another good shutter speed to remember. At this speed or longer, water starts becoming less individual drops and instead appears like flowing, silky strands. The three waterfalls in the graphic were shot at shutter speeds of 1/4th, 2 seconds, and 6 seconds, respectively. Read more about Shooting Waterfalls.

Shutter speeds of multiple seconds allow for unique and creative nighttime photographs. The hearts and spirals were drawn with sparklers over the course of 10 seconds, while the massive amount of traffic trails by the Christmas trees took 30 seconds.See more examples and how tos in Long Exposure Photography at the Fair(e), Light Painting: how to spin an orb, and Spinning Fire with Steel Wool Photography.

The final shutter speed is often labelled as "B" for Bulb. In bulb mode, the camera's shutter will stay open as long as it is held down (or, more commonly, as long as the remote shutter release is held or locked down). Bulb mode is useful for situations when you want a shutter speed of longer than 30 seconds. Your camera will generally provide a count-up timer while you are shooting, so you know how long the shutter has been open.

Shutter Speed: in review

It is important to understand shutter speed and to choose appropriate shutter speeds for your photography situation. If you are shooting in Time Value (Tv) or Shutter Priority (S) mode, you choose the ISO and shutter speed, and your camera will select the aperture. In Manual (M) mode, you choose the ISO, shutter speed, and aperture. Even if you are shooting in Auto or Program (P), you should always keep an eye on your shutter. Make sure that it is quick enough for your to handhold (or get out that tripod) and is quick enough or slow enough to capture the effect you are looking for.

Want more posts geared toward beginners? Click 'For Beginners' up at the top or try the rest of our series, Camera Settings and Strategies:

• All about Exposure: correct, creative, and equivalent exposures
• More about Exposure: how to fix common exposure problems in your photography
• Aperture and the F/Stop Conundrum
• What an Aperture of F/1.8 Can Do for You
• What an Aperture of F/22 Can Do for You
• The Middle Range Apertures: f/8 - f/11

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Want a full introduction to your DSLR and photography? Boost Your Photography: Learn Your DSLR is now available from Amazon. Get the most out of your camera with practical advice about the technical and creative aspects of DSLR photography that will have you taking beautiful pictures right away.