There can be nothing more frustrating than trying to take a picture of a moving subject only to get a giant blur instead. Whether you’re trying to photograph your kids’ sports games, or you just want to make the most of any situation, there are a few ways you can maximize your pictures of motion to help eliminate the blur.
Slow Your Shutter Speed
There are a lot of different methods for capturing motion, all of which depend on the type of photo you want to get in the end. If what you want is to try to get a picture where your subject is completely in focus, even when they are moving, but the background blurs, you’ll want to slow your shutter speed. This will help ensure that the maximum amount of light and image enter your camera, which can help reduce the blur of some areas.
Try Panning
Another method that will help you keep your subject in focus, while blurring the area around it to give a greater sense of motion, is to pan. Rather than setting your camera on a tripod or attempting to keep it steady, move your camera with your subject. So if you’re photographing a bike race, move your camera as the bike goes by and snap at the same time. Combined with a slower shutter speed, you’ll get a crisp focus on the subject while the background blurs out.
Freezing the Scene
If what you’re taking a picture of implies movement on its own, and you want to get the entire scene in focus, not just the subject, then you’ll want to do what’s called “freezing the scene”. To do this, you’ll need to speed up your shutter speed to about 1/1000th of a second. This lightning fast speed will help capture motion in great detail.
Continuous Shooting
A very artistic way of trying to capture motion is through continuous shooting. In this method, what you’ll want to do is take multiple frames all within a couple of seconds by shooting in continuous mode. This produces a single photograph in which you have multiple images of a subject moving across the scene.
Freeze Frame
Finally, for those that don’t have access to a camera with these features, you can still get some amazing photos of motion with a point-and-shoot or a smartphone. Simply take a short video of your subject in motion, then play it back frame by frame. Take a screen shot of the action shot that you want to get crystal clear images of movement.
Learning to capture motion is definitely an art all its own. You’ll want to play around with the shutter speed and the amount of light in each situation until you find the perfect combination. Over time, learning to adjust will become second nature, allowing you to get the perfect shot each time.