Dragging the shutter-

lizzard_nyc

So I've been trying to learn photography and entering the contests here on dgrin to force me to try new things.
The current contest is "showing motion". I've decided I want to try and use the method "drag the shutter".

I will be shooting in a room with nice light coming in from the window plus some lights around the room. I will be using my 40-150 mm lens. I will play around with shutter speed and will use prob 1/30 to start and I will use my on camera flash.

Is it necessary to use a tripod for this? I'm not sure if the flash allows you to get away with more hand held shots or not?

And just to make sure I'm clear, all this entails is me using a slow shutter speed in combination with the flash in order to have some parts blurred but the main subject relatively in focus? Or am I making all this up? It sounds too easy, like I'm missing steps.

adbsgicom

Partly depends on your ambient light. Here's why. The time that the flash is active, is very short. So, even with 1/30 second, the flash will only be active for a very small time. So if you have your cat jumping across the room, he might appear very frozen if the abient is low and your light is all flash. If the flash is filling, it will be much blurrier.

Also, see if your flash has a rear-curtain sync. This means that the flash happens toward the end of the shutter release. For motion you want this in most cases since you want the blur behind your image. Now for something artsy, you may want things the other way around, but in general rear-curtain for anything with stopping motion.

Scott_Quier

Don't over-think this. It's quite easy and you sound like you have a pretty good handle on it. Additionally, what Andrew is saying is spot-on.

The extent to which you will show motion is controlled by ratio between the ambient and flash contributions to your exposure. For example, if the room is dark your flash will be supplying 80% or more of the light used in the exposure and the jumping cat will appear frozen in mid-jump.

Do you need a tripod? Depends on how much you want the stationary items in your scene to be sharp. If it's important, then a tripod will be required. On the other hand, it's not a really necessary if you don't have that need.

Here's one of my favorites that I made almost exactly 2 years ago to demonstrate:


Hand-held, EF-S 17-55 f/2.8 IS on Canon 30D, ISO 800, f/2.8, 1/15s using off-camera flash (AlienBees)

lizzard_nyc

adbsgicom wrote:

Partly depends on your ambient light. Here's why. The time that the flash is active, is very short. So, even with 1/30 second, the flash will only be active for a very small time. So if you have your cat jumping across the room, he might appear very frozen if the abient is low and your light is all flash. If the flash is filling, it will be much blurrier.

Thank you Andrew,
I will have plenty of light, so I hope I will be able to show motion by using this method--I will also play around with my shutter speed.

lizzard_nyc

Thank you Scott,
This is pretty much what I had in mind and your photo is a good illustration of exactly what I'm trying to achieve.
Shows motion but the subjects are not blurred.

I will try this handheld but will break out the gorillapod if need be.

Doesn't look so difficult--famous last words.

Now I'm off to find a Whirling Dervish who will come to my house!

bf2015

A good rule of thumb for tripods: Always use a tripod for shutter speeds slower than 60 (1/60 second). This is generally regarded as the slowest shutter speed that can be used without a tripod to avoid out of focus due to normal hand shake.

lizzard_nyc

bf2015 wrote:

A good rule of thumb for tripods: Always use a tripod for shutter speeds slower than 60 (1/60 second). This is generally regarded as the slowest shutter speed that can be used without a tripod to avoid out of focus due to normal hand shake.

Hi Brian,
Thanks for the useful tip .