Mastering Motion Photography Techniques

Frozen in Time: The First Technique

Skateboarder doing an ollie in black and white — Airborne – 5/3/22, 6:29PM, Porter Park – 50mm – f/1.8 – 1/800 – Canon 70D

This first photo was the most simple to capture. Thankfully, I had a lens which can open up to quite a wide aperture (f/1.8) so I was able to shoot with a fast shutter speed. It was cloudy outside, so getting this kind of shot would have been impossible without it. I sat on the tennis court, set the camera to high-speed continuous shooting, and had my friend do tricks on the court. I’m definitely happy with the result.

Drop – 5/3/22, 7:35PM, Porter Park – 50mm – f/1.8 – 1/2000 – Canon 70D

I wanted to get a blurred motion shot of my friend on the swing set, but it was being used. However, each swing had a large puddle underneath. I kept the aperture open to get a nice, blurred background and had my friend drop pebbles into the puddle. After some trial and error, we got this.

Blurred Motion

Slide – 5/3/22, 7:23PM, Porter Park – 24mm – f/16 – 1/8 – Canon 70D

We were looking around for a good place to get a blurred motion photo. After an unsuccessful attempt at securing some swings, we gravitated to the slide. My tripod had broken, so I improvised. I sat on some concrete surrounding the playground and rested the camera on my knees. Thankfully, this provided a stable enough foundation to get some clear shots.

Skateboarder – 5/3/22, 6:19PM, Porter Park – 50mm – f/5 – 1/25 – Canon 70D

Getting this motion pan took a lot of trial and error. First, I had to find a shutter speed that would make the background blurred while maintaining clarity in the subject. After that, I had to find a good composition with a moving subject. To get proper lighting, I had to close the aperture a bit to accommodate for the slow shutter speed.