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Motion photography - 1 - Special techniques .. How to take the most beautiful pictures .. Photography book

Special techniques

Motion photography

The ability to stop and freeze the movement of something moving quickly is the absolute advantage of photography.

The shutter speed, the position of the device, the angle of taking the picture, the use of flash and following the moving thing in its path, all these principles explain the movement in a qualitative way. A long pause following the moving thing expresses the regularity of movement and gives excellent color pictures. We get very different effects according to how we follow the moving thing in its movement with the panoramic movement of the device: a clear thing and an unclear background. If the device remains stationary, the thing appears moving and the background is clear. But both give the feeling of movement. This type of image is achieved in all photographic devices from the simplest to the most complete.

The way you process a moving image depends on the reason for the transition and the moment when this movement reaches the climax that summarizes the whole movement. You must therefore anticipate this moment: the moment when the diver enters the water or the horse jumps the barrier. If the subject is within reach, do a preliminary experiment. By moving your camera in the same direction as the movement to keep the frame, try to take the picture at the moment when your moving subject passes in front of a background surface composed of a mixture of shadows and strong lights, so that the strong lights, which form lines in the shadows, express the concept of movement perfectly. A blue sky or a snowy surface are bad decoration for a picture with a moving subject.

The proportion of the image space devoted to the subject is another factor that plays its role in giving the final result. The balance between the moving subject and the decoration requires a sure judgment: you have to decide whether the moving subject is entering or exiting the picture.

The use of perspective helps to show movement: so does the use of zoom or a wide-angle lens or even the side tilt of the camera to give the movement an oblique direction: this is a principle often used to make a moving picture more dynamic and lively.

- Driving the machine with the subject

By this principle, the machine follows the movement and direction of the moving subject. Change the machine to the surface where the subject will be at the time of taking the picture. Follow the moving object from a distance, keeping its image in the frame in the scope, then take the picture when it reaches the designated surface while you follow the scene. The above drawing shows the sequence of events: The shutter speed is related to the speed of the moving object. For example, a person walking can take a picture in 1/15 second, while a car requires 1/125 second. In general, the clouds of the back surface appear clearly the longer the stop. The picture of the cyclist is a typical example of a panoramic picture.
Rolleiflex 1/30 second Aperture 16 Kodak Tri X

- A scene of moving subjects

Something that is easy to achieve when the machine is calibrated on the surface where the movement is taking place. Choose a point of view with an empty back surface. Take a lens with a suitable focus to get a large picture of the subject.

Study the movement to get a prior idea of ​​the movement and composition, especially anticipate the moment when the composition reaches its climax. For this baseball game the picture was taken a few tenths of a second before the collision with the pitcher's pitch.

In such situations it is preferable to have another camera ready in case the film of the first one runs out.

- Illusion of speed:

To give the idea of ​​the speed and force of a train coming in front of the machine I first tried the direct method by placing the machine on the ground level between the tracks and using a wide angle lens (to exaggerate the perspective and give a great effect to the picture). I did several experiments and pressed the button when the locomotive was 6-7 meters away from me and jumped between the tracks at the last moment. But I noticed that the image of the approaching locomotive at speed was throwing up tails or speed clouds and the picture was a poor representation of the concept of movement. I took this picture at a speed of 1/15 second when the locomotive was moving backwards at its maximum speed.

Hasselblad wide angle 1/15 aperture 16 Kodak Tri X