21.6.12

Panning with different shutter speeds


Having found an appropriate spot between two posts (kept out of shot) and a willing subject, I got my daughter, Amber to run back and forth between the posts. I started at a slow shutter speed of 0.4sec as I knew that this would create a good blur and slowly worked my way up.
My starting shot shows a green blur and a mass of arms, legs and heads all morphing into each other. It shows a great sense of movement and the cooling tower in the background has completely disappeared.

Shot two (1/4sec) has caught a little more detail, the body is slightly more defined while there still appear to be multiple limbs.
In shot three (1/5sec) we only have one of each limb, although very blurred, yet the right foot still has multiples.

By shot four (1/8sec) the torso, although still a little blurred is easily distinguishable while the feet are still showing a lot of movement. The cooling tower in the background has now come into view. Shot five (1/15sec) is pretty similar but slightly more defined.



By shot six (1/30) we can clearly see the face and torso, even down to creases on the jacket. The feet now look like feet yet they still have a fair amount of motion blur. On shot seven (1/60), Amber doesn’t look much more in focus than in the previous photo, however the main difference is in the background. The cooling tower is much more clear and the steps up the side of the large tank are now visible.

By my final photo (1/125), Amber was getting pretty tired and I thought I was finished. Having uploaded the photos to my laptop, I now realise I could have gone further. Amber’s feet still have some motion blur and at a faster shutter speed, the grass in the background would have also looked much sharper.
We could return to the setting in order to complete the assignment in the future, however I don’t think it is worth it from an aesthetic point of view. I feel that for this type of shot, a certain amount of motion blur is necessary in order to show movement so any further shots with quicker shutter speeds would be much less pleasing to the eye.
My favourite shot of the set is shot two (1/4sec) as I like the effect of seeing a fairly solid torso with the spinning limbs. I also like shot six (1/30) as Amber’s image is fairly sharp, yet the background is still blurred enough to show movement.



Photographing movement


Cricket
My first attempt at the motion blur exercise came about during a family game of French cricket. Although there were many factors affecting motion blur aside from shutter speed, I still felt that it was worth showing in my learning log.

I started with a slow shutter speed of 0.3s which produced motion blur in all subjects. Batter and fielders were all considerably blurred, although none as much as the boy running for the ball. My second shot, 1/4s still shows blur in all subjects and the first shot to show any clarity is shot 3; 1/8s showing some clarity in the fielder’s clothing.
The next few shots were all taken from a different perspective with different lighting. In shot 4; 1/15s, we see the batter and one fielder with a large proportion of their bodies in focus, while there is still considerable motion blur in more quickly moving parts such as the bat and other fielder. Shot 5; 1/30s shows only moving limbs, bat and ball blurred, as does shot 6; 1/60, although this shot shows much more clarity to the batter’s face than in any previous shots. By shot 7; 1/125, the ball is looking a little more focused as are the arms, leaving only the bat with noticeable motion blur.


By the final shot; 1/200, most of the motion blur has gone. I feel that this is most noticeable in the ball which is in full focus for the first time. I like this shot as it demonstrates a moment frozen in time although it is not my favourite. The image I like the most is shot 2 as it is focused enough to show the act of batting and catching, while having enough blur to give a definite sense of movement.
Water
As there were so many other factors distracting from the motion blur in the French cricket set, I felt the need to repeat the exercise with a much simpler subject. For this I chose a fountain in the city centre as I knew that for this set, the only change would be in the shutter speed.
The first shot in this set; 0.3s gives the effect of milky tubes of water creating arches above the bowl. By shot 3; 1/8s, the tubes are starting to gradually break up until in shot 6;1/60s, we see definite gaps in the tubes for the first time.
Shot 7; 1/125s is interesting one as the water ascending from the bowl is still fairly tubular, although thinner and no longer milky, yet the descending water is slower and therefore much more broken up. From shot 8; 1/250s onwards, the tubes gradually break down until by the final shot at 1/1000s all we have left is a faint hint of very thin, broken up ascending tubes, mixed with several globules of water in varying shapes. The water at this shutter speed looks like beads of ice suspended in mid air, a definite moment frozen in time.



Focus at different apertures


For this exercise, I focused on the midpoint of a piece of wood found on a walk. I stood at an angle to the wood so that one end was further away from me than the other. With my camera set to a wide aperture of 5.6, only a small strip of the wood remained in focus. I like this effect as it shows a definite sense of depth to the subject. As I narrowed the aperture to 14 and then to 36, a wider depth of field was created bringing more of the log into focus. I have highlighted the limits of sharpness on each photo to show the depth of field at each aperture. My favourite is the middle photo as I feel the cut of point between sharpness and blur feels more natural. Although the first photo shows more depth, I feel that the focused area being a straight strip doesn’t fit with the organic nature of the wood.


Focus with set aperture


During a walk at a nearby power station, I found several opportunities to practise this technique. My first set is of three nuts in a line on a railing.  I felt that on this set, the photo with the middle nut in focus looked the best as the photo looks the most balanced. With the focus on the right hand nut I felt a need to search the photo as my eye didn’t readily rest on the nut. Focus on the left hand nut was much easier on the eye but I thought it made the railing look a weird shape.


My second set shows bolts on a circular drum. I quite like all of these shots; however the front bolt in focus holds the least interest for me. I really like the centre nut in focus because quite a large area is highlighted showing the contrasting reds and greens which aren’t so noticeable in the other two. I like the rear bolt for totally contrasting reasons. This photo has the smallest percentage of the shot in focus and the colours are quite muted as a result. I think that for these reasons, the photo creates some tension but not so much as to make it uncomfortable to look at. The point of focus is also in the top third of the photo which often creates a more interesting shot.


Focal length and angle of view


My task for the first exercise was to take a photo with both eyes open so that the image seen through the lens was the same size as through the other eye. As I needed to be in a set position for this shot and the next, I photographed my bookshelf while sitting at the dinner table. I found that I had to have the zoom at its furthest telephoto setting of 55mm in order for the size to match in both eyes.
I then had to set the zoom to its widest view of 18mm and take the photo from the same spot. This made a big difference to the photo as almost the whole wall was in shot rather than the couple of shelves in the previous shot.
(Post to be updated when I have completed part two of this exercise)