Slow Down!

Slightly overcast skies greeted me at Holland’s world-famous Alkmaar cheese market. Rows of bright orange and yellow Edam and Gouda cheese rounds stretched across the cobblestone square. At the centre of the square, pairs of cheese carriers loaded rounds onto wooden sleds fitted with shoulder straps. After loading the rounds the carriers pulled the straps over their shoulders, hoisted the sled and dashed off to the weigh scales amid a sea of popping flashes.

Most of the spectators were probably shooting on “auto” so the camera’s computer automatically fired the flash to compensate for the low light. In this case, the resulting image wouldn’t convey motion well because flash tends to freeze action.

Given the overcast day, I wanted to add some zip to the scene so I shot in shutter priority mode with a shutter speed of 1/10th of a second and panned (followed) the carriers as they breezed by. The slow shutter speed recorded their pumping legs and arms as blurs and the panning helped to streak the background. The resulting image conveys a sense of motion.

A slow shutter speed is one of the best ways to simulate action. Don’t get me wrong, flash or freeze action shots (taken with very fast shutter speeds), especially in sports, are effective techniques. Freezing a powwow dancer or a whitewater raft exploding through a wave looks great, but blurred action images work well for action photography.

Image shot at 1/500th

Running water like fountains, rivers and waterfalls also provide wonderful opportunities for slowing it down. On a recent early morning visit to southwest Montana near Yellowstone National Park, I used a variety of shutter speeds. I shot the two images shown here at 1/500th and 1/10th of a second. Both are acceptable, but I feel the slower 1/10th  version is a more appealing action image.

Image shot at 1/10th

Other ideal opportunities for slow shutter speeds include scooters in Rome, chuckwagon races at the Calgary Stampede, cyclists or rickshaws in Shanghai, dog and horse races in Florida or tuk-tuks in Bangkok.

For these and other types of moving subjects I use two methods to show motion: holding the camera steady while allowing the subject to move across the frame as a blur or streak, or panning the subject as it moves past you. The first method produces a fairly sharp background and blurred subject. The second blurs the background while keeping the subject fairly sharp.

I used the first method in Paris last year to shoot a cyclist passing in front of the Eiffel Tower. I wanted to emphasize the tower and add some interesting, but not too distracting, motion to the scene. Had I panned the cyclist, the tower would have been a blurred mess. The slow shutter speed recorded a fairly sharp Eiffel Tower and a blurred cyclist. I made sure I snapped the shot as the cyclist entered the frame.

If I want to deemphasize an unattractive or busy background and/or keep my moving subject fairly sharp, I use method two. Panning or following the subject blurs or streaks the background, but keeps the subject sharp. I used this method for my cheese carriers.

By practicing these slow shutter speed techniques, you’ll bring home some pretty cool images from your next trip—and score some bragging rights with your friends.

Pro Tips:

• For shots of running water, always use a tripod and shoot at 1/10th of a second or even a bit slower. If you shoot too slow the water will lose detail and wash out. So try varying your speeds.
• When panning, keep your feet apart, tuck your elbows into your body and keep the camera firmly against your face. Follow the subject by rotating at the hips.
• When capturing an object as it moves across the frame, use your left eye for the viewfinder when the subject is approaching from the right (and vice versa). This allows you to track the subject out of the corner of one eye, while framing with the other.
• Set your camera’s motor drive to continuous so you shoot as long as your finger remains on the release. The resulting burst of three or four images will usually produce one or two keepers.
• Don’t stab or jerk down on the shutter release button. It will produce vertical blurs. Take a deep breath, exhale and smoothly press the release button.

Gear Up:
Sometimes very bright light makes it difficult to slow the shutter speed enough to create the desired effect. You can use your camera’s exposure compensation control (the +/- exposure button), but that can be really tricky. Or you can use a neutral density (ND) filter. ND filters reduce the intensity of all wavelengths or colours of light equally, without altering the hue. ND filters by Cokin come in -1, -2 and -3 stop densities and cost $25 to $40.

All photos provided by Michael Defreitas

This entry was posted on Friday, June 11th, 2010 at 3:59 pm and is filed under Shutter Stop. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a comment, or trackback from your own site. Add to del.icio.us.