Exercise 5

Project - Getting to know your camera

Exercise - Panning with different shutter speeds

This exercise is similar to exercise 4, however in these shots as the exposure time is increased the camera is moved to track the movement of the subject.

Just as in exercise 4, at 1/1000 the subject is frozen. However, in these shots the background is also suspect to blur as the camera is panning. Unsurprisingly at 1/1000 the background is also frozen.

Shutter speed - 1/1000

At 1/640, it's still the case that subject and background are frozen.

Shutter speed - 1/640

However at 1/250 you can start to see some blur in the fastest moving parts of the body and also very slightly in the background. The subject is less blurred than on the non-panned shots.

Shutter speed - 1/250

At 1/125 the background is starting to blur more obviously. However, somewhat disappointingly, so is the subject. I'm not a fan of any of these shots so far. They lack any real impact.

Shutter speed - 1/125

Blur is becoming more obvious now, but the shot still looks more accidental than anything - i.e. nothing is particularly sharp, but nor does it look intentionally blurred.

Shutter speed - 1/80

It may just be the point of capture (a mid-flight pose and also square to the lens), but this shot is starting to look more intentional and has a dynamic that was missing from the other shots.

Shutter speed - 1/40

Again, the blur is looking increasingly intentional - but the previous shot is more dynamic, probably for the reasons stated.

Shutter speed - 1/25

This is getting more interesting. The background is streaking along the lines of the pan, but the subject is displaying it's own lines of movement. The colour of the shrubbery is also looking more saturated and deep as the highlights and shadows blur and mix in with each other. This effect increases over the next few shots. The circular rotation of the pan starts to show more and more. This adds to the sense of movement in an interesting way.

The shots are now markedly different to the non-panned shots where the background remained sharp.

Shutter speed - 1/15

Shutter speed - 1/8

Shutter speed - 1/4

As with the non-panned shots, movement of the subject is sometimes captured in interesting ways.

Shutter speed - 1/2

At 1 second the subject has actually being caught at the side and then at the end of the shot from behind - because it's moved into the distance.

Shutter speed - 1 second

Observations & Learnings

Overall I wasn't very happy that I wasn't able to make the subject look still while the background was in motion, so I had another attempt while the subject was at a slight angle. This proved to be more successful (see 3 images below all taken at 1/60), probably because while the subject speed is the same due to the subject being angled toward the camera it's relative movement across the frame is lessened.

In each one, parts of the subject are comparatively sharp in comparison to the background. 2nd attempt 1 and 2nd attempt 3 really capture the running pose of the subject and are my preferred shots related to this exercise.

It's also interesting that the line of the fence which runs down and through the image also helps stress the movement - showing the direction of the subject.

2nd attempt 1

2nd attempt 2

2nd attempt 3