Depicting Movement In Photographs

Depicting Movement In Photographs

by William Lulow

There are many ways of showing movement or the feeling of movement in images. One way is to stop the action using a fast enough shutter speed. Another is to follow the action using the “pan-the-camera” method. When you pan the camera from left to right, usually, you are following the action. It works on the principle that if two objects are moving at close to the same speed, they will appear stationary from the vantage point of one or the other. Therefore, it is important to make sure of your exposure and then depress the shutter button while you keep panning the camera. It is like the “follow through” in a golfer’s swing. The object is to make sure the club head maintains the same position all the way through the swing. If the club head stops, the momentum of the whole club will cease and the power to push the ball forward will be lost.  I used the latter for this particular image:

This method allows you to freeze most of the action on the subject you are following while rendering the rest of the picture blurry. You can do this when you want to create the feeling of motion while still keeping the main subject sharp or relatively sharp. This image was made using the slower shutter speed of 1/60th of a second.

Then there is the technique of just letting the whole image be blurry:

This image was made with a combination of a slow shutter speed AND moving the camera as well. The settings were ISO 2000, f/5.6 @ 1/15th of a second. It is clear enough to see what the subject is but blurry enough to capture the feeling of speed.

The stop-action method is done with a very high shutter speed. This image was made using a shutter speed of 1/1000th of a second:

Not only is the dolphin frozen in mid-air, but all the splashing water is stopped as well. As usual,  as the photographer must decide what type of image he or she wants to make.

This image is my “go to” example of how to combine both techniques in one picture:

This is a double exposure. The first image was made before the sun went down in order to capture the detail in the buildings as well as a lighter sky. The camera was kept in the same position while I waited for the sun to set and darkness prevail. As the lights came on in the various offices, a second exposure was made on the same piece of film. This time, a much slower shutter speed was used because of the lower light levels. This caused the streaking of the moving vehicles’ headlights and tail lights.

So, when you decide what type of image you want to make, you will have a clearer idea of how to set your camera controls accordingly.

A very fast shutter speed does not always produce the image of movement that you might want because it stops everything. A slower shutter speed with the panning method might just give you enough sharpness in the image while, at the same time, conveying that feeling of movement.