Analogue Photojournalism & Street Photography

When photographing action we have a choice of stopping, or freezing the action, or allowing some degree of blurring to impart the idea of motion. So after choosing an approach we must understand how the camera sees action. The important factors are the speed and direction of travel of the subject. It is easier to capture, movement directly into or away from the camera, using slower shutter speeds, while action moving perpendicular to the lens axis typically requires a higher shutter speed to stop or freeze. Try this experiment on a city street photograph someone walking straight towards you at 1/60sec. Notice that the image is mostly captured intact. Try again at 1/125sec and 1/250sec. to see the difference. Now repeat the same with a subject moving from left to right and notice the blurring of the hands and feet. Try again at faster shutter speeds to get a feel for what you can capture. Try the same with a moving car or motorcyclist. You will soon get a feel for what shutter speed is required to stop the action. This motorcycle racer was captured at 1/250sec but notice the blurring of the wheels as they are travelling faster than the main subject. / You may want to show some blurring of the action if so then slow down the shutter speed. So when, a camera is held in a static position the background may record sharply but the moving object will blur. Or try panning, moving the camera in sync with the moving object, to give the prime subject a sharper image while blurring the background. Panning can be difficult requiring significant hand =eye coordination. Pick up and follow the moving subject before you trip the shutter and hold the follow thru for a couple of seconds after taking the photo. Panning the camera and shooting at 1/60sec managed a sharp capture of the carnival ride while blurring the faster moving silhouettes of the riders. / And of course we have seen the many images from a tripod mounted camera focused on the falling or rushing waters of a wild land stream. So make the decision to freeze the action or let it blur. So go shoot some action and enjoy that camera-Larry Grayam

Depth of field (DOF) refers to that part of a photograph that appears to be in focus. It exists within a plane perpendicular to the axis of the cameras viewpoint. The photographer chooses which affect of depth of field to choose. Narrow DOF tends to separate the subject from an out of focus background, in this image notice how a line of sharpness moves through this photograph of a tray of sewing bobbins. / / While greater DOF incorporates the background as an essential element in the photo. Increasing the light allowes for a stopped down aperture and a greater depth of field. / / A photographer has three tools to manage the DOF, choice of lens, aperture and focal point. The focal length of a lens affects one element of the DOF available from that lens. Generally speaking the shorter the focal length of the lens, the greater the DOF. When set at the same aperture and focal point a longer lens will always have a shallower DOF then a wide angle lens will. A focus point 2 feet from the camera will have less DOF than a focus point of 10 or 100 feet. Aperture selection is the third tool. When a lens is stopped down to, let’s say f22 it will always have greater DOF then if shot wide open at f2.8. / An example of a depth of field chart illustrates the concepts of managing DOF. The cells give two distances the first is the closest distance to the camera that the subject will be in acceptable focus. The later number is the furthest distance from the camera that the subject will be in acceptable focus. / / Hyperfocal distance is a focus point that will give the greatest range of DOF keeping acceptable focus only to infinity but not beyond. / Example / 24mm lens aperture of f11, focused to 9’ gives a DOF of 4’4”/infinity / 200mm lens aperture of f11, focused to 550’ gives a depth of field of 282’6”/infinity / So as the chart points out if you were shooting with a 200mm lens at f11 and the main subject is 290’ from the camera focusing on infinity would put the prime subject out of focus. But focusing to 550’ moves your DOF forward so the subject and background will be sharply focused. / So have fun and happy shooting-Larry “Revisiting On Depth of Field” was featured in TUTORIALS 11/05/09