Pixiq

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For almost two hundred years the goal of photography has been to freeze motion with fast shutter speeds or a fast flash to create detailed pictures of people and objects. Sharp, clear pictures have been and still are the order of the day; most people don’t want a blurry photo of a birthday party for the family album. Yet for the experimental photographer there is a range of remarkable imagery and unusual effects that can only be taken using slow shutter speeds.

Motion and Photography

The world is always in motion. Children, traffic, airplanes, football players, dogs in the park, the family at the dinner table, dancers, people who gesture when they talk, trees in the wind, and thousands of other things move. In fact, the real world is in motion all of the time. As a doctor once explained, if a person is alive, they are moving and—he added—a complete lack of movement is a sign of death! So, a photograph that can capture and convey a sense of this movement can be powerful. People and objects (such as cars or trains) in motion can create a dramatic streaking effect not unlike a painter’s brush that is swept across a canvas. With bright colors, the effect can be quite painterly.

Slower than 1/30 Second

Motion photography was quite difficult and expensive before the advent of digital photography; consequently, very little work was done in this area. Photography of motion with film cameras was impractical without the immediate feedback of the LCD monitor to accurately judge the subtle effects of different shutter speeds with different types of motion under different lighting conditions, and as a result, traditional photographers virtually ignored motion, even to the point of labeling photos that deliberately used blur as flawed photographs. Thus photography, for the most part, has been restricted to shutter speeds of 1/30 or faster unless a camera was anchored to a tripod and the subject was not moving.

However, below 1/30 second there is another world—a world that photography has not studied in much depth. Since there are few photos in this genre, it is a rich area for exploration and there is a lot to be discovered.

Reveal Hidden Worlds

The phrase “exploring new worlds” with digital photography is more than just a metaphor. Experimental digital photography that utilizes slow shutter speeds has the ability to reveal worlds that have not been seen before. This idea is not new in photography. There are many examples of this in photography’s short history. The camera can see things that the human eye cannot see and record new worlds at both extremes of slow and fast shutter speeds. For example, when Eadweard Muybridge took a series of high-speed photographs of a horse trotting, he proved that all four legs left the ground and revealed a world that horseriders, trainers, and spectators had not been able to see clearly.

Photography and Time

Photography may be the visual art best suited to creating still images of subjects in time. This is because a photograph is made by recording an object (via the lens) over time (by opening the shutter for a specific duration). Therefore, a photographic exposure is a combination of space and time, a recording of space and time.

Start by Photographing What You Know

When you photograph what you know, you can anticipate many of the moves and be ready to take advantage of your knowledge. If you like football, for example, go photograph a game or scrimmage; the background and lighting are always about the same, and because you know the sport, you can predict the action. The more familiar you are with an activity, the more you will be able to anticipate both where you should be to get the best photo and just how the subject will move. The more you know about a sport, art, or pastime, the better your photographs will be as a general rule.

Framing Motion

When it comes to framing, motion photography has its own quirks. Especially in candid situations with subject movement, you may not know exactly how a subject is going to move. Therefore, give the subject(s) more room than you would if you were taking a still photo. You want to give your subjects space to move around within the frame while you are taking the shot. If you shoot at a high resolution, you will have plenty of room to crop if you find you left too much room. While this advice applies mostly to subject movement, I have found that it is a good idea to include a little extra frame room in fast moving candid situations that you crop out later.

Ambient Light and Motion

Because photographs of motion require long shutter speeds, low light and nighttime are often the best times to shoot. So, motion photography requires that you not only learn the technical skills but also that you find situations where you will not overexpose the image. You can shoot in the daylight, but you may have to use a number of neutral density filters to reduce the exposure.