Photographing movement exercise 1

I chose to photograph pedestrians walking in front of a couple of buildings in Guildford town centre. I used the 70-210 mm Nikon Zoom set at about 100 mm from about 30 metres distance across a roadway at each location.

Under these conditions, the shutter speed needed to be about 1/250th or more to keep the persons body reasonably sharp:-

70-210 mm zoom: 1/250th at f/4.2. ASA 400

As soon as the shutter speed dropped to 1/100th, parts of the body and face started to blur:-


Nikon 70-210 mm: 1/100th sec at f/7.1. ASA 400

The blur effect became more marked at about 1/25th of a second. The head and body are still distinguishable but there is more focus on the posture and the impersonal. The identity of the individual is not so predominant.

Nikon 70-210 mm: 1/25th sec at f/14. ASA 400

Between 1/10th to 1/2 of a second, the head and body become a smudge of colour, with just one foot distinct. The parts of the body are no longer distinguishable.

Nikon 70-210 mm: 1/5th sec at f/36: ASA 400

At an exposure of about 1 second, the subjects body has totally disappeared apart from a ghostly transparent foot and no more than a shadow where the body should be.

Nikon 70-210 mm: 0.8 sec at f/36: ASA 400