Panning with different shutter speeds

The aim of this exercise was to use a panning technique whilst reducing the shutter speed for each incremental photograph and thus showing the effect of motion blur on the background. I remember trying this when I got my first digital SLR, and being extremely disappointed with the results. Coincidentally I was using exactly the same subject for that first attempt as I used for this exercise. As with the previous exercise or movement I took around 15 photographs but I will only use four to illustrate the point.

I found the tripod method very difficult as the legs of the tripod were starting to collapse so I removed the camera and carried out the exercise handheld. As you can see from the photograph above the spokes are frozen, the cyclist is frozen, and there is no motion blur in the background. There is some level of blur in the background but this is due to the depth of field rather than the motion of the camera as it follows the cyclist. For this to be motion blur we would expect to see a streaked appearance as you will see in the later photographs. Motion is frozen due to very high shutter speed 1/2000 of a second.

It isn't until we get down to a shutter speed of 1/100 sec that we start to notice motion blur and the background, it is also interesting to note that at this speed we are also getting motion blur in the subject similar to the previous exercise (this can be seen on the spokes of the wheels).

In the third photograph another element of blur is added, that of “camera shake”. This is evident due to the fact that although the cyclist’s head isn’t moving with any great speed and should be captured as sharp due as a pan, it is clearly out of focus because hand movement becomes a factor at shutter speeds of less than 1/60 of a second.

In this fourth photograph we can clearly see a very pronounced effect of motion blur on the background. You will also note that the photograph is overexposed and this is because the camera has adjusted the f-stop to the f/22 but because the shutter speed is so low more light is heading the sensor and overexposing the image. We can also see the blurring of the spokes and the reflectors attached to the spokes and the winds themselves but there are is no streaking or deformation to the shape of the wheel because the camera is panning with the subject.

So which of the photos in the series that I prefer. The answer is they are all dreadful. As I was chimping at the back of the camera I realised they were all awful and decided that I wanted something better to finish this blog post on. So we moved closer to the buildings I asked the subject to increase his speed. The result is the photograph below which is probably exposed. The subject’s head is relatively sharp because the panning is reasonably accurate. The subject's legs and wheels are blurred due to the fast motion. The leather is tie on the hat flowing out behind the subject also adds to the sensation of speed in the photograph.

Shutter speeds.

The idea of this exercise was to demonstrate how motion blurs through the use of a fixed camera, moving subject, and ever increasing shutter speeds. The subject I decided to use was my son on his BMX bicycle. This was one way of getting him out from in front of his Xbox as well as helping me complete some of the syllabus. I set the camera to shutter priority to ensure a fairly consistent exposure through the series of photographs below. Although I took a series of 15 exposures I am only including 4 images on the blog to show the effect of increasing the shutter speed.

In the photograph above the subject is in effect frozen in time, there are no discernible indications of movement. This is due to the very high shutter speed. The shutter mechanism, in this case, only lets light hit the sensor for 1/3200 of a sec (0.0003125 seconds). To facilitate enough light hitting the sensor to make a well exposed photograph, the camera has adjusted the aperture to f2.8 (i.e. wide open for the lens I was using). It was by setting up several cameras in a row with a fast shutter speed that Eadweard Muybridge was able to prove for the first time that all four horse’s feet come off the ground when it gallops

In the second image, the subject again appears to be frozen, but if you look at the spokes of the wheel (you may need to click on the photograph above and view the full-size image) you will see the spokes are starting to blur towards the outer edge of the wheel. This is starting to give the fact of movement but because the spokes are the only thing fast enough to be blurred at this point the effect is minimal.

In the third photograph the cyclist is starting to blur. In my opinion the effect is quite unpleasant and discordant with the rest of the photograph. In many cases for the most part as photographers we are striving for that pin sharp image so when we come across something like this it tends to be discarded.

It is not always the case that this level of blurring is unpleasant to examples of this being used to great effect are two iconic photographs by Henri Cartier Bresson. They are the man jumping across the puddle and the bicycle shot from the staircase. I think that in both of these photographs there is enough sharp interesting detail to show that the blur is intentionally there to emphasise the movement of the jumper and the cyclist, whereas in my photograph the only thing of interest is the cyclist so the blur is somewhat jarring to look at.

It is also worth noting here that the camera has reduced the aperture to an f-stop of F10 to counteract the effect of the slower shutter speed on the exposure.

In the fourth and final image, the subject is not only blurred but also distorted we can see the wheels are no longer circular, and the cyclist is almost smearing his way from right to left across the photograph.

In the fourth and final image, the subject is not only blurred but also distorted we can see the wheels are no longer circular, and the cyclist is almost smearing his way from right to left across the photograph, similar to the photograph of a racing car by Jacques Henri Lartigue. This is my favourite photograph of the sequence because although the subject is not in focus it is clear to the viewer that it is a picture of a cyclist moving quickly from right to left.

So what could have done better? As any estate agent will tell you “location location location” perhaps by giving the photograph a better background than an commercial car park it may have been a more interesting final product but the sequence of photographs meets the brief of the exercise.