Action Photography

Capturing Motion
When photographing a moving subject, you can use a slow shutter speed, which blurs the subject. Alternatively, you can emphasize motion by using a fast shutter speed to “freeze” action.

Using Blur to Emphasize Motion
If your camera offers manual exposure control or shutter-priority AE (autoexposure), achieving the amount of blur you want is easy: just experiment with slow shutter speeds until you’re satisfied with the results. A long exposure turns car lights or lighted amusement park rides into ribbons of colour.

The one tricky aspect of using a blur-inducing shutter speed is getting a good exposure in very bright light. Even if you use the smallest possible aperture, a shutter speed that’s slow enough to produce the effect you want may overexpose the image. A special lens filter, called a neutral density (ND) filter, comes in handy for this situation. The filter reduces the amount of light without altering image colours.

Freezing Action
To freeze a subject in motion, switch to shutter-priority AE or manual exposure so that you can use a fast shutter speed to match the pace of your subject.

Don’t forget that you must add more light by shifting to a larger aperture (lower f-stop number) as you raise shutter speed. Otherwise, your image will get progressively darker.

So as to capture the moment, frame the image and set the exposure and focus in advance of the action. Just keep the shutter button pressed halfway down and then press it the rest of the way when the action occurs. If your subject isn’t already in the frame at the time, set the focus and exposure by pointing the camera at something that’s at the same distance and in similar lighting as your subject will be.