Digital Photography 1 on 1: Episode 18: Freezing Motion with your shutter

In this episode Mark talks about using a fast shutter speed to freeze motion. This is a great technique that can be used to capture sports or even kids on the move!

Category:

Education

Tags:

• snapfactory
• Canon
• Nikon
• Mark Wallace
• digital photography
• shutter speed
• motion
• freeze

[DantePasquale]

Mark, does the rule of thumb rule work for cameras that aren't full frame like my XTi? I usually use 2x the length, but was curious if I can go slower if I need to when shooting hand held. For example with 200mm zoom I don't shoot slower than 1/400

[snapfactory]

@DantePasquale The rule of thumb still works. But I'd do some tests. I usually compensate more for longer lenses. I'm normally shooting around 1/500 when shooting a 200mm lens. So I think you're right on target with the speeds you're already using. An IS lens will allow you to shoot slower and a tripod will let you shoot much, much slower (of course). :)

[SG3089]

Lol Biggest Fan

[Claggy]

"My biggest fan" haha!

[konargimblih]

He looks alike Lily Aldrin's pop from How I Met Your Mother.

[igobyte]

Great video, Mark. Thank you.

[FIREHAWK1979]

I'm using a Canon Powershot SX30 IS with a frame rate of 1.3 frames/second for continuous shooting, this is a bit slow to catch the moment. Would I get comparable results shooting video at 30fps and capturing a frame on the computer?

[LAtrailers]

Fantastic video, Mark... Thanks!!!

[denmar1998]

Hey Mark, Thank you!!! Now I finally know what to do with that selector switch on the side of my lens. I go to dog trials where I shoot dogs running 35mph+ and I was always told to turn off IS but I never did but used it on 1 instead of 2. Thank you ever so much!

[VirginiaBand]

@urbanlion100 Don't get me wrong. You were right about the "noise" part, but it can be noticeable just at a "very" professional level or at ISO's higher than 800-1600 or in very dark situations. If you are not a professional, for sure you would increase the ISO from 400 to 800 for the sake of one shot, rather than losing the content of the photo. A higher ISO of the camera works better (in this case) than in postproduction when one tries to increase the brightness of the same picture @lower ISO

[urbanlion100]

@VirginiaBand Low ISO darker pictures???? ISO  amplifies the light the only boost of light is not actualy light, is noise. Make sure u copy and paste it properly next time.

[VirginiaBand]

@yes350yes hey, when pictures are too dark there are 3 main reasons:

A) shutter speed is too fast

B) aperture opening is too low

C) ISO too low

Since your IS0 is high, and your aperture opening is also wide, that means there is something wrong with your shutter speed. 1/1600 was way too fast for the light you had. If you were using the rule of thumb, you would have been using a maximum of 1/250 (but if you add crop factor(1.6) it becomes 1/400) considering a full zoom(250).

[toshiroo]

@shlomki

and it depends on your sensor, the rule is correct is u have a full frame sensor 24x36

meaning example a 50mm would be 1/50s to avoid blurry ( caused by shaking , not to freeze motion)

but if u have a APS-c sensor, u need to know the crop factor, example for canon 550d : x1,6

so for 50mm, the shutter speed minimal would be 1/ (50 x 1.6) = 1/80s