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June Photography Challenge


Ashanali
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I'm just getting the thread ready so I can put the information in here :laugh: I will try and put the challenge in here later tonight but I'm off to a friend's house today and not sure how long I'm going to be there for so it might be tomorrow morning.

so just letting you know, June is going ahead and it should be fun! Let's try and encourage some newbies to join in the challenge this month. :rofl:

and yes... it is based on movement :)

MOVEMENT

Okay, I'll keep this month as simple as possible and it's a challenge to master "panning" and "frozen motion"

This is actually an exercise that you would be doing in the first semester of a diploma of photography (except you would be shooting on black and white film and would have to process the images and repeat the exercise over and over until you have it perfect. :thumbsup: )

To be fair... the examples are the actual shots I photographed when I was at tafe 5 years ago. They aren't perfect and they are scanned from film so the quality is lacking, but I figure that they might encourage people because many of you are already shooting better than this.

PANNING showing movement

Most people already know what panning is but I'll go over it again. Panning is when the photographer is grounded in one position and there is a moving subject in front of them. The photographer will track the movement of the subject with the camera, press the shutter button but they will keep moving with the subject whilst doing so. A correct panning with movement image will show movement as a blur but there MUST be an area of sharpness of the subject (obviously the area you have focussed on and tracked).

run2.jpg

ashrunb.jpg

HOW to set up your camera

For those using an SLR, flick it onto Tv mode. This is shutter speed priority which means that you tell the camera what speed you want to shoot at and it will automatically meter for you. To achieve the motion effect, you want the speed to be lower than 125th/sec. Obviously the slower the shutter speed is, the more pronounced the effect.

If you shoot a few images and they are over-exposed, try decreasing your ISO.

if using a point and shoot, set your camera to landscape mode. This isn't going to give you awesome results but it should get you close-ish.

The best subjects to practice panning techniques on are cars or bikes because they move at a constant rate from side to side without much up or down motion.

FROZEN MOTION

This is for those times when you want everything to be super sharp and crisp. Birds in flight can look incredible mid motion. Dog's running or catching a frisbee are something else you might want to 'freeze'.

Essentially you want to do the opposite to 'panning'. You want to force your camera to shoot the image as fast as possible so the movement within the image is limited. There are already a couple of other threads around on DOL explaining a few techniques for frozen motion that you can use if you want, but for those who don't want to go looking, here is the easy version to get you started.

Again in Tv mode, set the camera to the shutter speed you want. More than 500th/sec should be getting to the point of frozen motion (I have photographed waves breaking over rocks at 8000th of a second so you can essentially go as high as you want/need to go). Depending on your subject you may need to 'pan' with them slightly to keep them within focus. Shoot when ready!

If your image is under exposed, increase your ISO. If it's overexposed, decrease your ISO. Obviously this will depend on your lighting situation.

if using a point and shoot - set your camera to portrait or sport mode.

Now this is one of my images from about 9 years ago (pre tafe :laugh: ), it looks a bit soft because it's a scan from slide film but you get the idea. The splash of water at her feet is frozen, her hair is frozen you can see detail in their clothes.

pvj011.jpg

PLAYING WITH MOVEMENT and LONG EXPOSURE

Once you figure out how to change your settings to get the desired effect you can start playing around with movment. The classic 'car lights' down the street is a long exposure with the camera set on a tripod (or something firm so it doesn't move). Usually you will put the camera on a tripod, switch to manual focus and focus your camera, use as low an ISO as possible (depending on your camera that will be 50, 100 or 200 ) then set your shutter speed to 5 or more seconds. Use the timer or a remote tigger to set off your camera as if you touch the camera you can end up with a blurred image from camera shake.

If 5 seconds isn't enough to get the image you want, increase it to 10 seconds. There is no right or wrong, it's all experimentation. (and here's an image from when I first started experimenting. I was leaning on the side of the car to get this... not as stable as a tripod. :laugh: )

streetscape.jpg

You can also do some daytime images using similar techniques (hehe... you guys are getting to see my really early wedding work now. It's bad :laugh: )

4-contemp04.jpg

THE CHALLENGE

Step one: To capture 5 'panning' images of different subjects and 5 'frozen motion' images of different subjects.

Step two: To capture 2 'long expoures' of different subjects where the shutter speed is 2 seconds or longer.

These challenges are integral to understanding next month's challenge which will be quite technical but lots of fun and the satisfaction you will feel when you get a great image will be worth it. :)

HAPPY SHOOTING EVERYONE!!! Can't wait to see your work. :thumbsup:

Edited by Ashanali
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I'm keen :thumbsup: I broke our camera a couple of weeks ago, but our new one doesn't come in for two weeks. In the meantime, we have been given a loaner to play with, so I'm all newly inspired and stuff.

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Oh boy. I used my only 2 good movement photos in the last challenge!

I contacted the Melbourne Camera Club and the guy who takes the beginner lesson is giving my mate and I a private 3 hour lesson on Saturday. Cant wait!

Looks like we will be focusing on movement!

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Ooh this one sounds like fun!! I don't know that I'll be able to do a whole MONTH of movement shots though (for my Month Of.... series)! No longer would I be able to just 'find something' to shoot at midnight before I go to bed :rofl: It should be okay though - I am on holidays for most of the month.

Now... to go make the dogs do zoomies in the yard.

Edited by TerraNik
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OK. i'll play this months. but i don't have a tripod so the long exposours will be really hard :) but i have been tying for some time to get a good shot of my Saint in full flight, coz she is stunning when she is, so this can be my motivation. and OH is home tomorrow so he can throw the ball.

Question: when doing continous shooting does the camera refocus between shots? say if somethign was coming towards you? i figured it would, but some shots i took yesterday suggest different (but i had it set to a small depth of field as i was taking shots while giving the baby a bottle and didn't have a spare hand or pressence of mind to change the setting)

LOL, for some reason that frozen motion pic makes me think of Tampon ads ???

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CL - it depends on your camera. Mine does but it is a "Special" feature for my point n shot b/c it's a wanna be SLR. Shame it has no manual functions.

OK thanks

Does anyone know whatthis function would be called if i were to look it up in the manual? or, off-hand, if a Cannon 1000D would do it?

OK. found it. aparently it does continually focus. now to work out where i went wrong yesterday.....

Edited by Crysti_Lei
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