Capturing Moments Techniques for great photography

Objective We will learn photography techniques that are used to capture great photos. These techniques are used by professional photographers everyday. Once you learn and understand these techniques, the way you take photos will change forever.

Techniques and basics we will cover Panning Rule of Thirds Showing motion Stopping motion Candid Posed Angles Camera shots Headroom Nose room

Panning The basic idea behind panning as a technique is that you pan your camera along in time with the moving subject and end up getting a relatively sharp subject but a blurred background. This gives the shot a feeling of movement and speed. It’s particularly useful in capturing any fast moving subject whether it be a racing car, running pet, cyclist etc.

Panning Panning seems to work best with moving subjects that are on a relatively straight path way which allows you to predict where they’ll be moving to. Objects that are moving side to side are challenging and can result in messy looking shots as the motion blur can be quite erratic.

Examples of Panning

Rule of Thirds The basic principle behind the rule of thirds is to imagine breaking an image down into thirds (both horizontally and vertically) so that you have 9 parts. With this grid in mind the ‘rule of thirds’ now identifies four important parts of the image that you should consider placing points of interest in as you frame your image.

Rule of Thirds Not only this - but it also gives you four ‘lines’ that are also useful positions for elements in your photo The theory is that if you place points of interest in the intersections or along the lines that your photo becomes more balanced and will enable a viewer of the image to interact with it more naturally. Studies have shown that when viewing images that people’s eyes usually go to one of the intersection points most naturally rather than the center of the shot -

Examples of Rule of Thirds

Showing Motion In most cases a blurred photo is the one that goes in the trash but, it’s also a neat technique for showing aggressive motion. You see it a lot of this type of action photography in magazines for all kinds of high intensity sports like mountain biking and car racing. It could also be used effectively on team sports, for example a soccer playing kicking a goal and having the movement of the foot and the ball be blurred. The same could be applied to baseball and basketball too.

Showing motion To really get a good effect with this technique you need to have some sharpness in the image, the background or the persons face. For this you need a shutter speed that’s not too fast to stop the motion, but not too slow for the subject to become a foggy blur. There is no exact formula to get this, just trial and error, simply because different subjects move at different speeds.

Showing motion I recommend experimenting with this technique only when you have multiple opportunities to photograph the same subject. If you only have one chance to get the shot, try panning or stopping motion techniques.

Examples of Showing Motion

Stopping Motion Probably the most easiest technique, is to freeze all motion all together. This works great to show drama and intensity in team sports, road racing and other slower paced activities. This can be achieved two ways, by either stopping action with a flash or with a fast shutter speed. A shutter speed required to stop motion on its own without a flash unit may be upwards of 500 or 1000, so plenty of light would be needed.

Examples of Stopping Motion

Candid Candid photography is photography that focuses on impulsiveness rather than technique, on the concentration of a camera within events rather than focusing on setting up a staged situation or on preparing a lengthy camera setup.

Candid Candid photography is best described as un-posed and unplanned, immediate and unobtrusive. This is in contrast to classic photography, which includes aspects such as carefully staged portrait photography, landscape photography or object photography. Candid photography catches moments of life from captivation in it.

Examples of Candid

Posed It is what is it, you tell someone to look at you and smile. They do and you snap the picture. Posed pictures can also be set up scenes when the photographer wants to convey a message to the viewer of the photo, or capture a memory with everyone looking at the camera.

Examples of Posed

Angles Various positions of the camera with respect to the subject being photographed, each giving a different viewpoint and perspective. The angle at which a camera records a subject based on relative height differences. Low camera angles involve a camera lower than the subject and looking up. High camera angles involve a camera higher than the subject and looking down.

Examples of Angles

Camera Shots Extreme Long Shot (XLS) Use this shot to show the environment the subject is in. The XLS is great for taking landscape picture, giving a feel of the entire area.

Long Shot (LS) The LS still shows the environment the subject is in. The difference is that more emphasis is on the subject. It’s important to show the subject from head to toe filling in the frame. Camera Shots

Medium Shot (MS) This choice of shot is used when the goal is to bring the subject closer to the viewer. It isolates the person from its surrounding. It’s often a good idea to keep the subject’s hands in the frame. The MS shows the subject waist or chest high.

Camera Shots Close Up Shot (CU) This “Head and Shoulders” shot establishes an intimacy between the subject and the viewer. The background is now detached. The neck and part of the shoulders must be included in the frame.

Camera Shots Extreme Close Up Shot (XCU) This is the “In Your Face” shot. Only part of the head shows up. Note the way the top of the head is cut off, while the top of the shoulders is still in. When framing this tightly, make sure you don’t cut the head off the shoulders, or it will look like a the subject was decapitated.

Headroom In photography, the term headroom refers to the space that should be allowed for between the top of the subject's head in the frame. The person’s head should reach near the top of the frame leaving only little “white space”

Examples of Headroom Too much headroom Correct amount of headroom

Nose room The space between the edge of the frame and a person’s face when it is in profile. In general, the space surrounding the subject should be 1/3 behind and 2/3 in front of the subject’s head. It is considered a good thing if there exists excess space in front of the subject’s face (as opposed to behind the person’s head).

Nose room Nose room applies not only to people, but to anyone or anything pointing or moving. There should be relatively more empty space in the direction of the pointing or movement.

Examples of nose room Incorrect nose roomCorrect nose room

Questions