25.01.2012.

TOAP Level 4.

Introduction.

Movement.

Panning with different shutter speeds.

Equipment: Canon G12. Employing shutter priority and hand held.

The aim of the exercised is ascertain which shutter speed gave the most pleasing illusion of movement in a still photograph.

For this exercise I chose to photograph cars driving north, left to right, on the seafront at Deal.  This gave me a good light background with sufficient detail to demonstrate the movement of the cars.  The cars were driving at a speed of about 30mph.

I took photographs at shutter speeds from 1/4sec to 1/500sec at one stop intervals.  Even in the camera’s viewer it was apparent that the best results were at around the 1/15sec to 1/30th mark.  I took more pictures at these settings to check the result.

At 1/4sec there was far too much background movement and I found I could not hold steady on the car for that length of time.  Too much movement.

At  1/8sec I again found it very difficult to hold steady on the car.  The movement of the background was pretty good.

At 1/15sec the result was much better.  The background had better detail and the car looked as though it was in motion past the blurred houses.

At 1/30sec the car was sharper but still with enough background blurring to vive the illusion of movement.  There was still sufficient blurring of the wheels to show that the car was in motion.  A car caught by accident traveling in the opposite direction gave an even better impression of motion.

At 1/60sec pretty much all impression of movement was gone.  It just looked like a bad case of camera shake.  Even the rotation of the wheels had been frozen.

At 1/125sec the movement of the background was barely discernible.

At 1/500sec the car looked as though it was parked at the side of the road. 

I have included two photographs, both at 1/30sec., that I think give the most pleasing results.