Blur, Freeze, Pan, Experiment

Our second portfolio in digital photography class consisted of:

MOTION BLUR:

Motion blur is pretty self-explanatory. The main subject should show motion blur and the background should be in focus. Don't get blur confused with something just being out of focus. Blur is achieved with a slow shutter speed. The umbrella was shot at 0.025 sec (1/40) shutter speed. The flag was shot at 0.4 seconds.

FREEZE:

Freeze is stopping motion. Freezing the main subject while it's in motion. I must say, I'm pretty happy with that flying doll. Throwing her in the air with my left hand while snapping the picture with the other. That took a few tries. To freeze something in motion you need a faster shutter speed. The scarf was shot at 0.005 sec (1/200) and the doll was shot at 0.006 sec (1/160).

EXPERIMENTAL:

This was my favorite. Experimental is doing all kinds of funky stuff with the lens. The tree was done while turning the lens zoom in one direction and the camera body in the opposite direction while snapping the picture. All three actions in one swift movement. The night shot was just zooming the lens out while snapping the picture. I love the colors in that one.

and PANNING:

And finally there is panning. We only had to turn in one of these. I guess because it's the hardest one to accomplish. Panning is just that. Snapping a moving target while panning your body and the camera along with it in one smooth motion so the background blurs and the moving target is in focus. And I'd also consider my doll picture to be a pan, but in a downward vertical direction, since she is caught in focus and the background shows motion blur, and not just soft focus. Harder to do than panning horizontally.

We had to turn in a contact sheet with 225 photos with equal amounts of all techniques and only had to fully edit 7 photos to be critiqued.

Our next portfolio project is all about depth of field.   We'll be shooting 250 total photos for this assignment. This should be fun.