Playing with Movement

Patti

I tried some movement blur shots recently with varying success

#1





#2




#3

sara505

Patti wrote: »

I tried some movement blur shots recently with varying success

#1





#2




#3

Patti, I like the first two. You've captured the ethereal side of man.
Looks like we're still in Chicago.

Juano

I like #1 a lot, the man look ghostly...

bbjones

I'm diggin' #3. Can't really say exactly why, but it seems to incorporate the blur perfectly.

Maybe it's that I know it's the El, so the blur conveys the bustle and hurry without making me worry about what it is that is blurred out.

Richard

Hey Patti,

You have a talent for spotting men wearing 1950s hats. . I agree with Juano that there's something a little spooky about #1. Having grown up in Chicago, #2 and #3 are instantly recognizable. Mostly they remind me of freezing my butt off in January. . Regarding motion, I think the last one works best.

Joco

I agree - I like the last one best too. The movement has a clear context that it is happening in. #2 has that, but not quite enough I feel. It's always worthwhile to come back to the location of a promising experiment and try to get it better.

Patti

Juano wrote: »

I like #1 a lot, the man look ghostly...

bbjones wrote: »

I'm diggin' #3. Can't really say exactly why, but it seems to incorporate the blur perfectly.

Maybe it's that I know it's the El, so the blur conveys the bustle and hurry without making me worry about what it is that is blurred out.

sara505 wrote: »

Patti, I like the first two. You've captured the ethereal side of man.
Looks like we're still in Chicago.

Joco wrote: »

I agree - I like the last one best too. The movement has a clear context that it is happening in. #2 has that, but not quite enough I feel. It's always worthwhile to come back to the location of a promising experiment and try to get it better.

Richard wrote: »

Hey Patti,

You have a talent for spotting men wearing 1950s hats. . I agree with Juano that there's something a little spooky about #1. Having grown up in Chicago, #2 and #3 are instantly recognizable. Mostly they remind me of freezing my butt off in January. . Regarding motion, I think the last one works best.

Thanks for the feedback folks. I agree that #1 has a spooky ghost-like quality. The last is the smoothest from a motion standpoint. With #2, I stood on the Wabash St Bridge and clicked as different people walked through the frame. This was the best from a position in the frame standpoint.
Does anyone have suggestions about an optimal range of shutterspeed to aim for to get the correct amount of blur for these sorts of shots?

P.S. Yes, they're Chicago shots Sara. Joco, I'd love to take another go at it if you could take up a collection to fly me back to Chicago but not by United Air - they tried to ding me $400 for overweight luggage. :fish

Richard

Patti wrote: »

Does anyone have suggestions about an optimal range of shutterspeed to aim for to get the correct amount of blur for these sorts of shots?

I learned in the Action exercise that it's more complicated than I realized. You have to take into account both the speed at which the subject is moving and the focal length (to avoid camera shake). 1/20 sec. is a reasonable starting point if you have a steady grip. You also want to avoid using too narrow an aperture, as many lenses will lose sharpness due to diffraction. I think the best approach is to take some test shots at the scene first and adjust the speed as needed.

Nyarthlopic

I'm with Juano. The first word that came to mind when I saw #1 was "ghost." Very cool!