Ever lost something that you loved? I have, I lost a necklace that my very first girlfriend gave me - I was fourteen at the time I think, All I remember is that she used to cry during “Listen to your heart by Roxette” I know, that’s touching…  Anyway, I lost the necklace that she’d given me for my birthday. I realize that I couldn’t “Back that up” but I still remember how it made me feel…

Things that you can backup include your digital photos and the rest of the contents of your computer… These days drive space is cheap and easy to set up, but unless you follow some golden rules there is almost no point.

Erin from Fabrik dropped me an email with her ten points to a good backup for you all to try, I’ll post them below.

Win a G-Drive Q 1TB

That isn’t the only thing that Erin came up with, Oh No!..G-Technology have kindly donated one of their G-Drive Q 1TB external drives to us as a prize for this weeks DPS ASSIGNMENT. The topic for this week is going to be “Drive” You can translate that any way you would like, but to catch my eye you’re going to need to be creative and trying your very hardest!

Here are Erin’s ten tips to a decent backup…

1. Reliability - Select a storage solution that has a good reputation, and is built to last.  For example, to ensure reliability, all G-Tech drives come in an all-aluminum enclosure (no plastic), which acts as a heat sink, keeping the drive cool. Heat kills drives.

2. Capacity – Select a drive with enough capacity so you have room to grow. Rule of thumb is to by 2x to 3x the amount of space you’ll need.

3. Connectivity – Future proof your investment. There are many solutions on the market, such as the G-Drive Q 1TB that come with USB 2.0, FireWire 400, FireWire 800 and eSATA interfaces so you can be sure to connect with any system today, as well as in the future.

4. Local Backup Software – Mac users prefer to use Time Machine (it’s a beautiful app and is very simple). There is a plethora of PC backup software tools available – Arcsoft, EMC Retrospect and more. Any of them will do fine. The important thing is to just do it.

5. Online Backup – For added protection, in case of fire, theft, or other natural disaster, it’s wise to keep a separate copy of your most important stuff offsite, and available online. Solutions such as Fabrik Ultimate Backup offer 2GB for free of online backup space. If you want to upgrade, it’s only $4.95 per month for unlimited capacity.

6. Develop a Backup Schedule -  Good backup software will require you to set an automatic backup schedule once – on a day or time that’s convenient for you; daily, weekly or monthly.  You just simply set it and forget it. Rule of thumb, backup weekly at a minimum, or as often as you save/store important work or irreplaceable files to your hard drive.

7. Back up Everything - Today you can easily back up all of your hard drive data. No need to spend time sorting through every file or folder. Again, invest in a storage solution that’s twice the size of your internal hard drive, to give your system room to grow.

8. Rotate Backups – Even though they’re secure, some people are not comfortable using an online backup service. If this is the case, give yourself added protection. Use two drives and rotate one offsite. You should always, always, always have two copies of your most important stuff…did I say “always”?

9. RAID it – Solutions like the G-Raid Mini (it will ship w/RAID 1 later this quarter) or G-Safe solution provide RAID 1, mirroring. Whatever gets written to the first drive is automatically copied, or “mirrored,” to the second, so if anything should happen to either disk, your data is still there.

10. Don’t procrastinate – Unfortunately, the need to back up data is often a lesson learned from a bitter experience. Don’t let it happen to you.

Thanks Erin!

I work in IT and (All jokes about a missing necklace and a bad eighties pop song aside) have seen “Disaster” happen, The company I work for, due to documented budget cuts wouldn’t replace a piece of hardware, and as a result we had a massive failure of one of our nine tb disk arrays and lost just over a million documents, now, you may only lose a couple of hundred photos, but if you’d had that backup in place you would have lost nothing and you wouldn’t have that sad face on!

Join us in the DPS FORUMS this week for the assignment and win yourself a fantastic, award winning G-Drive Q 1TB

Sime

I once met a very talented photographer at a digital photography class. The topic of discussion was digital image organization. Of all the students attending this class, she was extremely distraught. When asked if she needed assistance, her response was, “I never knew how to organize my pictures before, so I kept them all in one file. Where do I start?!?

Not the best-case scenario.

Though not an overwhelmingly fascinating subject, without a doubt digital storage and file handling is one of the most important lessons a photographer can learn. In the digital age, when we have opportunity to store hundreds of thousands of images on one laptop or hard drive, things can get pretty complicated to go back and try to find “that one picture of Aunt Helen at Johnny’s 6^th birthday party”. Especially if you don’t have an established workflow and file handling system.

Organizing your images will be one of the most time intensive and equally time saving tasks you can perform as a photographer. You don’t want to spend hours looking for that one picture if you can simply search your catalogue for it by a single keyword or date.

Various photo organizing programs can assist you in your organizing. You can customize this organization with most programs if you import directly into the program. This list of programs would include Picasa by Google, Aperture by Apple, and Lightroom2 by Adobe. Though these programs will help you exponentially, it’s helpful to begin with these general starting points:

1. Upload your images using a unique file naming system. This way, each image has a unique name in your catalogue. This makes for super fast retrieval later on and no worries on 2 images having the same name! You have a few options with file naming, just choose a system that works well for you, and don’t change it. I find the following works best for me: Date, day, initials, image number: [2008-10-20_CND_0001.jpg]
2. Upload your images into dated folders. For example, if I have two shoots on the 20^th of November, I upload all of my images into that date [11-20-2008]. In my organizing program, I will then make separate collections for each shoot – all still in that single folder. [Folder >11-20-2008> Folder > Harmon Shoot]. Retrieval becomes a matter of less than 2 minutes.
3. Once you have uploaded your images, go through and rate each image. It sounds like a pain, but once you get used to your system the rating goes by fairly fast. The rating options defer from program to program, but in Lightroom2, I rate my images on a 0 to 5 scale. Images rated 0 – 1 gets trashed. Images rated 2 get stored and major time is spent on editing them later. Images rated 3-5 are the ones I edit immediately and are happy with showing them to clients right away.
4. If you can, it is really smart to keyword your images. In image programs like Portfolio – dedicated to massive amounts of photo storage – and Lightroom2 also, each keyword will be kept in a collection of its own. If I have just finished a portrait shoot, I will keyword something like this: Client, location, type of images, expression [smiling, laughing etc], on location, in studio…etc. If my client is a mother who wants any other pictures of her graduating son that are smiling, I don’t scroll through all my images to find those smile pictures. I simply go to my “smiling” keywords of that client and viola!

Organizing your images is a photographer’s lifesaver that cannot be stressed enough! If you are a beginner, take some time to figure out what system will work best for you. Whether putting together a family photo book, or going back to make prints for a client from last year, or even archiving your images, image organization will save you time and energy in the future.

If you’ve ever seen images like the one at right and wondered how they are created, this post from Peter Carey helps explain the steps needed to produce your own star trail images.

Creating star trail images is a fun technique that can deliver a wide range of results depending on location, foreground objects and number of visible stars.  While the technique can be relatively simple, proper setup and then proper post-processing are essential.  To get started, let’s look at the equipment and tools needed for a normal star trail image:

• Digital Camera, with or without Bulb mode
• Tripod
• Remote shutter release with timer (optional, but it helps)
• Open view of the sky
• A lack of city lights
• Image stacking software
• Patience and warm clothes if you don’t live in the Tropics

Any camera will work for creating images while it should be noted cameras with exposure length control (shutter priority, manual or bulb modes) work best.  The remote shutter release unit is best used to reduce camera shake from pressing the shutter release button as it is used off camera (some are even cordless).  If the remote has a timer function it is golden for use with this type of photography.  A good timer will allow for setting of the shutter speed, number of shots and interval between shots.  This is the best unattended setup if you wish to wait some place warm while your camera takes care of the pictures.  Image stacking software allows for the overlay of multiple images while combining the details.  A few options will be discussed at the end of this post as well as in the comments section.

Photo by Sam Meztli

1. Location, Location, Location

Finding a location away from city lights is an important consideration.  As the stacking software will combine light areas of the picture, it’s best to have as dark of a sky as possible.  As you can see from the examples in this post, a lot of images are taken in deserts, as is the example at top(Arches National Park, Utah, USA).  Once a good location is established check the foreground for interesting subject matter.  A shot of just the sky, while cool for a few shots, looses its luster without an Earthbound object to anchor the action.  Mountains, trees, mesas, even people or buildings can be used to add some interest to the shot.  Make sure your tripod is set on firm ground and not in a location it’ll be bumped or walked in front of.

If you wish to get the circle effect in the photo up top, just point your camera toward the North Star or the Southern Cross depending on your hemisphere.

Image by jpstanley

2. Settings

With your camera firmly in place it’s time to check exposure settings before shooting.  In- camera metering is not going to like how things are set up and most settings will need to manually set.  If your camera can not focus in such darkness you’ll need to manually set focus either on a close by object or just off of your lens’ infinity setting.  This depends on how close to subjects the camera is set.  Having subjects further away allows for a larger aperture  and better light gathering at shorter shutter speeds, which has its advantages explained in a moment.

Next set the ISO around 200, but experiment as with all settings suggested here.  This depends largely on the amount of light and camera being used.  If the ISO is too high and the in camera noise reduction less than optimal you can experience a large amount of camera noise that will interfere with the star trails.  At best, it means more time in post processing removing the noise.

Shutter speed can be set as low (or high, depending on your point of view) as 1 second or the shutter held open for minutes at a time.  I’ve found my camera gets increased sensor noise on longer shots.  For me, shots in pitch black over 30 seconds will show ‘hot spots’ on the sensor; colored points that repeat in the same location picture after picture.  I’ve found optimal shutter lengths to be between 10 and 30 seconds, but some cameras work well with the shutter open for one or two minutes.  Aperture should be as open as you can stand it based on placement of subjects and required depth of field.

3. Modus Operandi

This is where the patience and warm clothes come in.  And a remote shutter release if you have one.  As the Earth is always moving and those stars keep walking across the sky, you’ll want to keep your shutter releases as close to the end of the last shot as possible.  Large breaks will cause blank spots in the trails.  This effect can actually be used to your advantage if you become real creative, just make sure it’s intentional.  Keep shooting until you have as many images as you desire.  As a point of reference, the image at the top of this post is a combination of shots over the course of 57 minutes.

If you have an item in the foreground, there are light painting techniques that can be used to highlight them.  Only one frame is needed because of the stacking method.  For more on painting with light, check out DPS’s post Tips on How To Light Paint.  A lot of fun can be had adding effects to the foreground.

Photo by Fishtail@Taipei

4. Putting It All Together

Now it’s time to let a computer take over.  Kind of.  The program I’ve found great success with is TawbaWare’s Image Stacker.  It is by no means the end all be all, however I have found it very simple to use with great results.  Astrophotographers have even more advanced tools they can suggest depending on needs.  A quick Google search can provide other options as well.

The premise here is the program will take your batch of photos and then add them all together to render the final image.  Anything reflecting light in all images in the batch will show as especially bright in the final image.  Individual starts, when moving across black sky, will combine to create the lines that are so captivating.  You may also average all the images of just use the brightest pixel from the batch to create an image.  Each pass creates a different view of the same batch of photos, so experiment (have I mentioned that before? :) )  Image Stacker will produce a jpg, bmp or tif file in the location of your choice.  Those proficient in Photoshop can also stack images, but the technique is a best left for another post.

And that’s it!  It really can be that simple and most importantly it’s usually a lot of fun.  Ok, there can be some frustrations as well…..planes flying across the field of view, people shining flashlights toward the camera wondering what you’re doing, small animals bumping the tripod unbeknownst to you.  But the results are worth the effort so give it a try and post a link here with your successes!

Image by motionblur

Peter is an avid photographer currently traveling through South America and Japan who enjoys travel, portraiture and wildlife photography. A travel related blog of his past and current shenanigans can be found at The Carey Adventures.  He also hosts a Photo of the Day RSS feed found here.

The three links that follow are quite varied in terms of their approach. The first is Obama’s Flickr account with photos by an unnamed photographer/s traveling with the Obama camp (with some very behind the scenes shots).The shots may not be as high a quality as the other links but they tell a fascinating story.

The 2nd and 3rd links are to collections of images by journalists on the road with Obama for at least part of his campaign. They contain some great insights as well as some wonderful imagery.

Barack Obama’s Photostream - including some very behind the scenes shot of election night.

Callie Shell - a great series of shots by Callie from the campaign trail

Scout Tufankjian - another fantastic collection of photos of the Obama campaign

I’m sure there are plenty of other links out there to both photography of Obama’s campaign and John McCains. Feel free to post links to election photography related pages below.

Update: Here’s another great collection of shots of Obama during his campaign from Boston.com

thinkTANK Photo 

This week at DPS we finished our first assignment that had a sponsor! thinkTank photo kindly offered a thinkTANK Rotation 360 camera bag as a prize in our assignment; “What’s in your bag?” There were so many entries! We had so many interpretations of the theme and lots of thought went into your entries, thanks. I have given first place to lyskabar for her photo, congratulations! I really liked your take on this theme and, so, I’ll be sending you a thinkTANK Rotation 360 - Hope you like it! There were so many to choose from, I have chosen a second and a third place, but, I’ve also chosen a few more that I’d like to give a mention. Second place goes to kairos for “Teddy’s mean well” well done! and Third place is held by anagr for “Bag, What bag” - Thanks to everyone that has participated, and a special thanks to  the guys at thinkTANK photo!

My other runners up include the following…
Camera Bag Cave by oktronic
Brian Smith’s in my bag by westcoast91
My Dear Lenses by Zetson and Nuno’s Mirror shot

Coming into the busy Christmas period, it’s always best to take some time out and “Relax” which is our assignment theme this week. While you can post any pictures that fit the theme, if you want to be part of the mini-contest, we have a few rules. First, your picture must have been taken between 5 - 19th of November 2008. Second, your post must include the words “Assignment:Relax” to show you want it counted in the assignment. And last, your EXIF needs to be intact, and it’s very helpful if you post the main points (camera, lens, date taken, ISO, shutter speed & aperture) in your entry post.

Next week’s assignment will be “Drive” you can take that any way you’d like, But this assignment is also going to have a great sponsor in G-Technology who have kindly sent us a beautiful 1 Terrabyte G-Drive Q, This award winning drive is sure to sort out all your “Drive” needs… So, Get thinking and maybe you’ll walk away with this great prize.

Hot Threads

• Nudes Assignment | Light on skin Playing a big part in photography, nudes is a tricky subject to approach when you’re starting out. We thought we’d run an assignment alongside our main assignment thread and see how it went - well, we’ve had a handful of posts and it seems to be gaining momentum. If you’re interested, take a look, get inspired and join in.
• Help! angry customers and bad word of mouth..: Sometimes the shoots we do just don’t turn out as planned, adverse conditions, wrong clothing, bad locations.. These are all things we need to control as photographers, here is one persons account of such and a forum full of people helping out with their views on the topic.
• Studio portraits for children: I don’t have my own, but I know that kids can be tough to capture sometimes! moving about and having fun, here you’ll find some hand hints on just what to do to stop them in their tracks.
• Macbook advice?: Is it time for you to buy a new computer? Here, Cameragirl asks what she should be buying, with her thoughts initially turning towards the macbook, but is that where it ends?…

Photo by Auto matt

My first love in photography when I first got my trusty old Minolta SLR as a teenager was landscapes. There’s something about getting out in nature with the challenge of capturing some of the amazing beauty that you see. Perhaps it fits with my personality type - but I loved the quietness and stillness of waiting for the perfect moment for the shot, scoping out an area for the best vantage point and then seeing the way that the light changed a scene over a few hours.

While I don’t get as much time as I’d like for Landscape Photography these days - I thought I’d jot down a few of the lessons that I learned in my early years of doing it. I’d love to hear your own Landscape Photography tips in comments below.

Landscape Photography Tips

1. Maximize your Depth of Field

While there may be times that you want to get a little more creative and experiment with narrow depth of fields in your Landscape Photography - the normal approach is to ensure that as much of your scene is in focus as possible. The simplest way to do this is to choose a small Aperture setting (a large number) as the smaller your aperture the greater the depth of field in your shots.

Do keep in mind that smaller apertures mean less light is hitting your image sensor at any point in time so they will mean you need to compensate either by increasing your ISO or lengthening your shutter speed (or both).

PS: of course there are times when you can get some great results with a very shallow DOF in a landscape setting (see the picture of the double yellow line below).

Photo by hkvam

2. Use a Tripod

As a result of the longer shutter speed that you may need to select to compensate for a small aperture you will need to find a way of ensuring your camera is completely still during the exposure. In fact even if you’re able to shoot at a fast shutter speed the practice of using a tripod can be beneficial to you. Also consider a cable or wireless shutter release mechanism for extra camera stillness.

Related Reading - Introduction to Tripods

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3. Look for a Focal Point

All shots need some sort of focal point to them and landscapes are no different - in fact landscape photographs without them end up looking rather empty and will leave your viewers eye wondering through the image with nowhere to rest (and they’ll generally move on quickly).

Focal points can take many forms in landscapes and could range from a building or structure, a striking tree, a boulder or rock formation, a silhouette etc.

Think not only about what the focal point is but where you place it. The rule of thirds might be useful here.

Related Reading - Focal Points in Photography

Photo by OneEighteen

4. Think Foregrounds

One element that can set apart your landscape shots is to think carefully about the foreground of your shots and by placing points of interest in them. When you do this you give those viewing the shot a way into the image as well as creating a sense of depth in your shot.

Related Reading: Getting Foregrounds right in photography

5. Consider the Sky

Another element to consider is the sky in your landscape.

Most landscapes will either have a dominant foreground or sky - unless you have one or the other your shot can end up being fairly boring.

If you have a bland, boring sky - don’t let it dominate your shot and place the horizon in the upper third of your shot (however you’ll want to make sure your foreground is interesting). However if the sky is filled with drama and interesting cloud formations and colors - let it shine by placing the horizon lower.

Consider enhancing skies either in post production or with the use of filters (for example a polarizing filter can add color and contrast).

Photo by hkvam

6. Lines

One of the questions to ask yourself as you take Landscape shots is ‘how am I leading the eye of those viewing this shot’? There are a number of ways of doing this (foregrounds is one) but one of the best ways into a shot is to provide viewers with lines that lead them into an image.

Lines give an image depth, scale and can be a point of interest in and of themselves by creating patterns in your shot.

Related Reading: lines in photography“>Using Lines in Photography (mini-series)

7. Capture Movement

When most people think about landscapes they think of calm, serene and passive environments - however landscapes are rarely completely still and to convey this movement in an image will add drama, mood and create a point of interest.

Examples - wind in trees, waves on a beach, water flowing over a waterfall, birds flying over head, moving clouds.

Capturing this movement generally means you need to look at a longer shutter speed (sometimes quite a few seconds). Of course this means more light hitting your sensor which will mean you need to either go for a small Aperture, use some sort of a filter or even shoot at the start or end of the day when there is less light.

Photo by 3amfromkyoto

8. Work with the Weather

A scene can change dramatically depending upon the weather at any given moment. As a result, choosing the right time to shoot is of real importance.

Many beginner photographers see a sunny day and think that it’s the best time to go out with their camera - however an overcast day that is threatening to rain might present you with a much better opportunity to create an image with real mood and ominous overtones. Look for storms, wind, mist, dramatic clouds, sun shining through dark skies, rainbows, sunsets and sunrises etc and work with these variations in the weather rather than just waiting for the next sunny blue sky day.

9. Work the Golden Hours

I chatted with one photographer recently who told me that he never shoots during the day - his only shooting times are around dawn and dusk - because that’s when the light is best and he find that landscapes come alive.

These ‘golden’ hours are great for landscapes for a number of reasons - none the least of which is the ‘golden’ light that it often presents us with. The other reason that I love these times is the angle of the light and how it can impact a scene - creating interesting patterns, dimensions and textures.

10. Think about Horizons

It’s an old tip but a good one - before you take a landscape shot always consider the horizon on two fronts.

• Is it straight? - while you can always straighten images later in post production it’s easier if you get it right in camera.
• Where is it compositionally? - a compositionally natural spot for a horizon is on one of the thirds lines in an image (either the top third or the bottom one) rather than completely in the middle. Of course rules are meant to be broken - but I find that unless it’s a very striking image that the rule of thirds usually works here.

Related Reading: Getting Horizons Horizontal

Photo by curious_spider

11. Change your Point of View

You drive up to the scenic lookout, get out of the car, grab your camera, turn it on, walk up to the barrier, raise the camera to your eye, rotate left and right a little, zoom a little and take your shot before getting back in the car to go to the next scenic lookout.

We’ve all done it - however this process doesn’t generally lead to the ‘wow’ shot that many of us are looking for.

Take a little more time with your shots - particularly in finding a more interesting point of view to shoot from. This might start with finding a different spot to shoot from than the scenic look out (wander down paths, look for new angles etc), could mean getting down onto the ground to shot from down low or finding a higher up vantage point to shoot from.

Explore the environment and experiment with different view points and you could find something truly unique.

Today, as a followup to our post earlier in the week A Beginners Guide to Capturing Motion in Your Photography I want to post a series of posts from Flickr that all illustrate a variation on the same theme - movement.

The following shots are all of moving subjects where the photographer has made the choice to set their camera to capture the movement as blur rather than freezing it. This is in all cases by choosing (or letting the camera choose) a ’slow’ shutter speed (although by slow you’ll see that the speeds (noted under each image) vary from anything from 1/30 second to up to 40 minutes).

Photo by Ben McLeod - Shutter Speed - 8 seconds

Photo by zane&inzane - Exposure Time - 10 minutes

Photo by PhotoToasty - Composition of 3 images at shutter speeds of between 1.6 seconds and 25 seconds

Photo by Amnemona - No exposure settings given

Photo by Sara Heinrichs - Exposure Time: 20 seconds

Photo by Mace2000 - 50 second exposure time

Photo by WisDoc - Shutter Speed - 1/30

Photo by Mace2000 - Shutter Speed - 50 seconds

Photo by Wam Mosely - Shutter speed - 4/5 of a second

Photo by Mace2000 - Exposure Time - 43 seconds

Photo by jon madison - Exposure - photographer estimates somewhere between 30-40 minutes

Photo by thorinside - Shutter Speed - 13 seconds

Photo by tschnitzlein - No Exposure information given

Photo by markal - No exposure settings given

For more tips like this subscribe to Digital Photography.

Got some shots to share that use a slow shutter speed and capture movement? Share them with us at the DPS Forums in the Share Your Shots section.

Let’s face it, today’s digital cameras come packed with a LOT of features and buttons we never use.  Snow Scene Mode, flash bracketing, infinity mode and the list goes on.  One feature that deserves a bit more attention is automatic exposure bias.  It goes by various names depending on the brand of camera you own but the premise is the same; adjust the exposure a certain amount of f-stops either over or under the camera’s metering.  Its use is usually quick and easy and the results can make the difference between a washed out photo or one with plenty of depth to it.

There are times when your camera will have difficulty picking the right exposure.  Some scenes that cause this are:

• Snow pictures with a dark subject in the foreground
• Bright, cloudy skies
• A single light source such as a candle

The common theme here is high contrast.  While the human eye and brain do an amazing job of adjusting to high contrast situations, digital cameras have to compromise much more so.  When using a general evaluative mode, your camera looks at the whole scene and picks a median setting to compromise between the highs and lows.  The problem with using the camera’s default settings is highlights tend to get washed out during this compromise, which are hard to recover correctly in post-processing (as compared to dark areas where there is less loss of data).

To overcome this limit, use your camera’s Exposure Bias adjustment to either underexpose or overexpose what the camera believes are the correct settings.  Below is an example showing the difference in detail of the mountain Cho Oyu on the Nepal/Tibet border.  Both images are straight out of the camera and cropped as close as possible in exactness.  The left image has no bias.  The right image is underexposed by 1 2/3 stops.  Following the images are the histograms for each zoomed picture.

Click on each image to see a larger view.

While the second shot is notably darker, the amount of detail retained is the important factor.  The histogram for the first shot shows evidence of some slight clipping while the brights are pushed near their limit.  The second shot is far more balanced and will be an easier image to pull detail from.

If you happen to be shooting in RAW mode, you already have about 1 decent stop of latitude and will not need to use the Exposure Bias as frequently.  But if you’re shooting in JPG mode most of the time, it’s vital to make sure the details are retained for crispness and clarity.  So experiment a bit the next time you find yourself in a high contrast situation.  You might find your brain is sometimes a better judge of the lighting in a situation than your camera.

Peter is an avid photographer currently traveling through South America who enjoys travel, portraiture and wildlife photography. A travel related blog of his past and current shenanigans can be found at The Carey Adventures.  He also hosts a Photo of the Day RSS feed found here.

Image by T.MoE

Photographs, by definition, capture and immortalize a small slice of life. There is little for the viewer to infer what happens before or after that moment. However, there are images that need to communicate motion. For example, you may want to capture a dog running, a train barreling down the tracks, or trees that are blowing in the wind. Each of these scenes can come alive within your photographs if you learn how to convey motion properly.

Today, I’ll describe how you can use different shutter speeds and panning to capture motion in your photography. I’ll also explain a potential issue you might experience along with tips to resolve it.

Reasons To Capture Motion

Beginning photographers have likely seen captivating photographs that capture motion which they’d like to duplicate. There are several ways to accomplish this and each has a slightly different goal. Sometimes, there is a need to blur certain elements in the image while focusing sharply on a few subjects in the foreground. Other times, you may want to freeze or blur everything. The direction you take depends upon your objective for your photograph.

A lot of photographers capture motion simply to convey that an object is moving. But, there are other reasons to so. Movement can communicate mood. Trees rustling in the wind suggest serenity while throngs of people on a busy city block imply harried activity.

You can also use motion to eliminate elements in a scene that may serve as distractions to the viewer. For example, you may want to photograph a person standing on a sidewalk corner as cars move behind him. By blurring everything but your primary subject (i.e. the man on the corner), you can eliminate potential distractions and focus the viewer’s attention.

Two Primary Techniques For Capturing Motion

The shutter speed that you use while photographing a scene plays a key role in capturing motion in your image. The faster the shutter speed, the sharper the focus on your subject. On the other hand, a slower shutter speed will blur a moving object. There are two main approaches (we’ll discuss a couple of alternatives in a moment).

1. Blurred Subject With Background In Focus

photo by paulaloe

Let’s assume you’re photographing a speeding train against a wall of trees in the background. You can blur the train while leaving the trees in focus. Doing so would instantly communicate to the viewer that the train is moving quickly. To accomplish this, you would use a slow shutter speed. (It’s also important to use a tripod. That way, your camera remains steady.) You’ll often see this technique used in nighttime photographs with car headlights cutting through the image.

Image by Extra Medium

2. Blurred Background With Subject In Focus

This second technique keeps your photograph’s subject in sharp focus while the background is blurred. Using our train example, the train would be in focus and the wall of trees would be blurred, thereby conveying the train’s movement. Similar to the first method, you need to use a slow shutter speed. However, instead of using a tripod, you’ll be panning your camera along the directional path of your subject.

Panning Explained

Photo by fabbriciuse

Most beginning photographers are trained to “secure” their cameras. That is, your camera should remain as still as possible for certain types of shots. By contrast, panning requires that you move your camera with your subject. Specifically, you’ll be matching your subject’s rate of movement and the direction in which it is traveling.

In our train example, assume the man on the bike is moving from east to west. In that case, you’ll need to pan your camera along the same direction, matching the speed of the bike. The best results occur when you have a clear view of the moving object and ample room to swivel your camera along a parallel axis to it.

Panning effectively can be difficult. You can practice and perfect your technique by photographing athletes who move quickly (for example, basketball players). Try to capture their facial expressions while blurring everything in the background. It will take some time to get it right, but once you do, the technique can be a valuable addition to your repertoire.

Other Techniques To Capture Motion

Besides the two main techniques described above, you can also freeze the entire field of vision or blur everything. Freezing the entire scene can give your photographs a unique look, especially if the objects strongly imply movement. For example, consider a bird that is flying in front of a waterfall. Both imply motion to the viewer. Freezing the entire scene captures that motion in a single moment and can produce a breathtaking image. You should use a shutter speed of at least 1/1000th of a second for this type of shot.

Photo by llimllib

Blurring everything produces the best results when the scene offers bright, contrasting colors or varying shades on the grayscale. In most cases, capturing motion in this manner is done purely for artistic purposes.

Another effective method for capturing motion within your images is ‘chrono photography’.

Photo by monkeyc

Using the continuous shooting feature on your camera, you can capture a series of shots and join them together in the post processing stage to create the effect shown above. A tripod is essential when attempting to shoot motion using this method.

Image by Jolantis

Determine The Proper Shutter Speed

A lot of novice photographers ask what the proper shutter speed is, given their objective for their photographs. Every situation is unique. One speed doesn’t suit all circumstances. To identify the right shutter speed, you’ll need to ask yourself a few questions:

1. How fast is your subject moving?
2. How much distance exists between the camera and the subject?
3. How much motion do you want your photograph to convey to the viewer?

The faster the shutter speed, the more frozen and crisply-defined your subject will be. Most cameras today will allow you to freeze a scene using 1/8000th of a second or faster. That being said, the numbers only serve as a rough guideline. You’ll need to experiment with different shutter speeds in a variety of situations.

Potential Issue: Excess Light

When you slow your shutter speed to blur elements in your image, there’s a chance that too much light will enter and impact your photograph. It’s a common problem, but there are a couple of ways to resolve it. First, check the aperture on your camera. The larger it is, the more likely excess light will enter. Try adjusting the settings to reduce its size. Second, review the setting of your ISO. When it is set high, the image sensor in your camera may be overly-sensitive to light. This can create unwanted noise in your image.

Mastering The Art Of Motion Capture

Like other photography skills, becoming proficient at capturing motion requires practice and experience. You’ll need to spend time learning how shutter speeds will impact the quality of your images. Even if you’re just setting your camera on its tripod, timing a perfect shot of a fast-moving object can be difficult. In the end, capturing motion in your photography is part technique and part art. Fortunately, with practice, you can master it.

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1. When did you start taking photos and at what point did you know that you wanted to make a career of it?

Quite late compared to some. I was about 21 I think and thats when I got my first camera. Had no master plan at that time, just took pictures of anything and everything but it wasn’t long before I took photography seriously and looked into how I could make a career out of it.

Basically since leaving school I was hopping from job to job, having fun at the weekends but not really going anywhere in life so when I knew I wanted to get into photography I gave up a decent job with decent pay (covered the bills anyway) for a lower paying job assisting at a company that shot stuff for catalogues. Did that for a few years, then did a few years as a family portrait photographer.

Whilst making families look perfect, I’d been blagging photo passes and going to the odd gig. I loved music and it just made sense to mix it with my photography. The more gigs I went to the more I knew this is what I wanted to do and when I licensed out a few photos, and had been commissioned a few times, I scarily quit my job went for it!

2. You’re a music photographer, what sent you in this direction and what is your favorite type of shoot in this area (Live / Portrait etc)

Hmmm, I’ve already gone into this a little in the last question, sorry. Well, like I said, I love music and photography. Makes sense to mix it. The more I got involved in music photography the more I branched out into portrait and reportage. Eventually most of my work became portrait and reportage - and I was totally happy about that.

Live photography comes with a lot of crap. Not much money in it (if you’re lucky), getting to the gig and not being allowed in because some one somewhere was slacking when it came to sorting out the passes and occasionally you’d be asked to sign all copyright away to the artist!!

Anyways, I was finding myself documenting a band called The Hours more and more. Working with them opened a few doors and alongside shooting them I had been out there shooting local bands for their promo. If I really had to choose my favourite now it would have to be portrait, followed closely with reportage.

3. Have there been times when you were ready to “chuck it all in” and become an accountant… (Not that there’s anything wrong with being an accountant!..ha)

Yes, to chucking it in! No to being an accountant (sorry accountants)!

Starting out is hard! Very hard! Still is as I feel I’m still at the beginning of my career. There is so much competition out there and record companies are changing models left right and centre to deal with this digital and download revolution, which in turn means smaller budgets from them, smaller fees for photographers….you see where I’m going with this.

Those feelings of chucking it all in will always come and go, although now, this very moment, all’s good.

4. What gear do you use when you’re working? Is it different than what you would take if you just went out to take a few photos for yourself?

I’ve been using a Canon 5D. It’s a great camera and yes I take it out when I’m not ‘working’. The only problem with the 5D is that it’s ISO rating isn’t high enough. Due to the nature of my work, I’ll find myself at a badly lit gig or a dark and dingy dressing room and sometimes I could have done with something like the Canon 5D MarkII (yes its on my shoppping list!!!!!). Oh and before anyone mentions flash, yes I use it only when absolutely necessary, I’m more a natural shoot-it-as-it-is guy. I’ll also hire for some shoots.

5. Do you have any pointers for people that are looking to become photographers, or more specifically, music photographers?

Yeah I guess you need to be very hard working, ambitious, lucky, charming, consistent, and good at what you do. I got lots of advice in the beginning but deep down I had to figure it out as I went along.

Experience is the best way to learn. Talk to other photographers though, shoot tons of stuff and build up your contacts. I started by blagging passes and licensing out a few photos. From doing that I had made a few contacts, and so on….I pushed myself into portraits (promos) and eventually someone gave me a break.

I also don’t feel qualified to offer advice, as I said before, I feel I’m still at the beginning of my career, but anyone else wanting to get into music photography - good luck, have fun!!!