Blurred Motion
Learning to capture motion with your camera takes some experimentation. Recently I had the opportunity to try to capture some photos of the water falls in Idaho Falls, Idaho. This early morning sunrise shoot provided the chance to practice blurred motion. While I am no expert, I can say that I had a lot of fun and was happy with my results.
Blurred motion requires a slow shutter speed, so I set my Nikon camera to “S” for Shutter Priority. With the camera dial set to 1/6 second, my camera automatically adjusted the aperture to f/16. To avoid camera shake, I used a tripod for this shoot. With these settings I was able to capture the blurred motion of the waterfalls above.
On a different day, I experimented with blurred motion to create the ghost-like affect in the photo of my son, Parker below:
With my camera on a tripod, I was able to set my shutter speed to allow for 4 full seconds. Parker moved quickly from one spot to the other on the couch. It created such a fun photo — both Parker and I were excited with the results.
Frozen Motion
While frozen motion works best in broad daylight (you want plenty of light while using a fast shutter speed), I wasn’t able to experiment with frozen motion until an evening when I had my fast-moving nephews over for a sleepover party. It was dusk by the time I was running after the boys trying to freeze motion with my camera.
With my camera set to a shutter speed of 1/100 of a second, I was able to capture a photo of my nephew, Cooper jumping in the air. I love that his tongue is sticking out as he looks at his younger brother (off camera):
While I still had light, I continued running after my nephews for the next half hour. I captured the following photo of my nephew, Bear and our little dog, Gracie. Gracie was running after birds, while Bear was running after Gracie.
It was able to capture some sweet moments using a fast shutter speed to capture frozen motion.
Experimenting with Motion is very fun! Take the time to set you camera to shutter priority and play with shutter speeds to freeze or blur motion.
Wow. You took some amazing pictures. Its amazing what you can do once you know something about the camera settings. My favorite was your first picture of the water. Perfect lighting. Was that at “golden hour”? Great job!
I love this! The waterfall shot is soooo pretty. I loved seeing you use real people from your life to capture for assignments! I have daughters so I am hoping to include them in my portfolio from this semester by the end. Here is my blog https://camiajudd.wordpress.com/2019/05/08/unlocking-the-secrets-of-shutter-speed/ and another one for you to check out. https://jennaschwarz.wordpress.com/comm300/
Wow, these photos are amazing! That waterfall photo is perfectly beautiful. You also can never go wrong with dogs or kids. Here is my blog: https://jmbellephotos.wordpress.com/2019/05/11/better-when-im-dancin/ and some others you might look at.
https://chandeliervideoproductions.wordpress.com/category/comm-300/
https://wilsoncomm130.wordpress.com/category/comm-300-digital-imaging/