Action!!



A pan shot. Note the blurry background.

          Action photography is mostly made up of two types of procedures: The pan shot and the frozen action. That’s a little over-simplified but for the purposes of this blog, it will do.



          Beginning photo students are introduced to action photography with those two methods first. Both are tricky when you first try either shot but a photographer needs to have both skills. Each makes an important tool. It’s amazing how often the two skills come in to play.

THE PAN SHOT

Another pan shot

          I’ve had a lot of experience with this technique, most frequently at auto races. The idea is to capture the idea of movement with a clear image of the subject surrounded by a blurred foreground and background. Done properly, this type of image also produces a look of speed.

          You’ll want a location where you know the path the subject will follow. You need to pre-focus and pre-meter on a spot in the subject’s path so when the subject hits the spot, the image with be crisp and properly lit.

          I typically stand with my feet roughly shoulder width apart and one slightly ahead of the other. I want to be moving smoothly when I follow the subject with the camera from an area in front of the pre-selected spot to an area beyond the pre-selected spot. I tuck my left elbow into my ribs, hold the lens in my left hand and use my right hand to trigger the shutter.

          I seldom use a tripod, especially in an action situation. But I make great use of my monopod in panning situations. A monopod is a single pod used to help stabilize the camera, but it offers more maneuverability than a tripod.

          It is very important that the camera moves at the same speed as the subject when you pan. Otherwise your subject will be blurred. The best way to keep the camera and subject in sync is to keep your subject smack in the middle of the view in your eyepiece.

This is a three-quarter pan shot. This is a neat way to
capture intensity.

          The shutter speed needs to be slow, in order to blur the background. I sometimes try to keep the f-stop as open as possible because the flat range of focus can help blur the background and foreground, depending upon the situation.

          There is a slightly different pan shot I use frequently, which I call the three-quarter pan. I use a slightly faster shutter speed in a racing application in order to capture the Goodyear stickers above the wheel wells of the cars when I am photographing a race car in a corner. Everything else is done the same. Otherwise, pan shots work best from a 90-degree angle.

         

FROZEN ACTION

Frozen action. Sunny day and a high shutter speed.

          This procedure is simpler to accomplish than a pan shot. Basically, you crank up the shutter speed as fast as the light conditions will allow and start shooting.

          There are times when your shutter speed can be too fast in a frozen action situation. I once shot sprint cars on a dirt track and used a super fast shutter speed that caught the tires so clearly that you could read the brand name on the sidewalls. The cars looked as though they’d been parked.

Frozen action with a nice, solid wall to protect me.

          The frozen action procedure works well when the action is coming at the camera or nearly at the camera.

          I blogged last year about shooting various sports. You can scroll down for that piece if sports photography is your particular interest.

          Good luck and thanks for reading.

Frozen action. Notice the background is blurred so the subject, the quarterback, stands out.