P#12 Q2A: How Do You Get a Sense of Motion into Your Action Photos

Panning the Motion

Charlie Borland: Frozen action shots are a legitimate way to capture something that might be really extreme, but panning the motion in images is a very strong way to give the viewer of the photograph a sense of what's going on or how fast the event is happening.

I love to shoot this way. Some of the tricks are to pan with your subject or set your camera on a tripod and let your subject move. In that case, you have your camera stationary and the subject is moving by and blurring as it goes by. This gives the viewer as sense of, "Wow, that was moving really fast."

Another approach to blurring or moving subjects is to pan with them. With this method, you keep your camera focused on the subject. As they move by, you are moving with them. This gives a really great sense of motion because what happens is the background blurs while the subject stays in focus.

That's sort of the opposite of the stationary camera approach. It works really well and it gives the viewer a sense of how things were really moving. It's a powerful and dramatic way to express the movement of action photos.

If, for example, I was photographing a backpacker hiking through the forest, I'd lean my back on, then anchor my seat very firmly and tuck my elbows into my ribcage both hands on the camera. I'd select the autofocus points in my camera and place that focus on a certain part of the backpacker's body.

I don't really watch what's happening in the scene. I watch that autofocus point to make sure it stays on that same spot that I selected on the person. This allows you to get a sharper person or sharper subject as they're moving through the frame and a blurry background.

It's a little tricky and it takes a little practice, but it's a very powerful way to go about capturing moving subjects in action photos.

In Conclusion

There are various methods of getting movement into action photos. One of Charlie Borland's favorites is focusing on the subject while the scenery blurs in the background. It gives the people looking at the photographs a true sense of what was going on when the action photos were taken.