• Motion Photography

      posted in Photography by cleverchristie on May 8, 2019

      Blurred Motion

      05-03-19; 7am; FL 50mm 1.4; Nikon D5200; f/16; 1/6; +1; ISO 200; tripod

      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:

      1:30pm; 05-07-19; FL 50mm 1.4; Nikon D5200; f/16; 4/0; -2.33; ISO 200; tripod

      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):

      05-04-19; 8:00pm; FL 50mm 1.4; Nikon D5200; f/8.0; 1/100; -2/33; ISO 200

      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.

      8:15pm; 05-07-19; FL 50mm 1.4; Nikon D5200; f/4.5; 1/100; -2.33; ISO 200

      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.

    • Comments

      1. 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!

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