Assignment: Capture Motion Creatively! Produce 3 photos showcasing different shutter effects.

1. A Night-Time Photo Showing Light-Trails From A Moving, Illuminated Subject

(car headlights and taillights, a Ferris wheel, a person with an attached glow stick, etc.)
PhotoClassOne This photograph was exposed for 5 seconds using the ‘Long Exposure’ mode in the Lightroom IOS App

In order to create a successful light-trail photograph, you will first need to find an appropriate subject and location. In the example above, I chose a street corner that had traffic going in both directions. This allowed me to create light-trails that show both the white colored headlights, as well as the red colored taillights of the moving cars. The building in the background is my main subject and primary point of interest.

The second step is choosing an appropriate shutter-speed for your subject. You’ll need to consider several factors; how fast are the illuminated objects moving, how far a distance are they crossing? — In the example above, the cars had to travel a significant distance in order to cross my frame from side to side. I left the shutter open for 5 seconds to allow for the lights to streak.

Follow this guide to setup your Lightroom Mobile App for photographing long exposures between 0.5 seconds to 5 seconds.

2. Motion Freeze Of A Fast Moving Subject

(a basketball in mid air, a person jumping on a trampoline, etc.)
PhotoClassOne In this photograph, the shutter speed used was 1/500 sec., enough to ‘freeze’ the motion of the soccer players as well as the ball

Generally, when shooting sports or other fast moving subjects, we want to use a fast shutter speed to “freeze” the motion of the subject we are photographing.

How fast is fast? Well, speed is relative; an athlete running across a soccer field is fast, but not as fast as a race-car driving on a track. Knowing what shutter speed to use for any given subject requires experience, but a general starting point for sports should be around 1/500th of a second. If your are photographing race horses, race cars or motorcycles, a more appropriate starting point may be 1/2000th of a second. Always consider the distance between you and the subject, especially when using a telephoto lens with a narrow field-of-view.

3. Freezing The Subject While Blurring The Background 

PhotoClassOne

This technique is a bit more complex and requires some practice to get right. It entails tracking the subject’s motion while maintaining the same speed and then releasing the shutter while still panning the camera. Here, a shutter speed of 1/40 sec. was used, the specific shutter speed depends on a variety of factors; the distance between camera and subject, the focal-length of the lens and the speed at which the subject is moving.

Optional Extra Credit Assignment: Slow Shutter Selfie

PhotoClassOne Selfie taken using the Lightroom Mobile App. The shutter speed used was 1/20 sec. Make sure your background is interesting.

As you can guess by the title, the background blur was achieved due to a slow shutter, but how is my face still sharp?

Can you recreate a similar selfie of yourself? This could be a good photo opportunity for your Portfolio’s “About Me” section…

TIPS:

• Use a slow shutter Speed, maybe about a 1/20 sec.

• Shoot indoors or under dim lights if outdoors

• Take multiple shots, once you are confident in your technique, work on your facial expression and camera angle (don’t shoot up at your nose)

• Make sure you background looks interesting once it’s blurred, maybe it’s colorful, maybe there are lights that streak…