Depends on how you want to capture the motion.
Three basic ways to represent it :
freeze the motion
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This requires a fast shutter speed to stop the action. You can get a faster shutter speed by using a wider aperture (smaller F number) or higher ISO number.
You can also increase the motion stopping by using the flash. Each of these approaches have differing drawbacks - smaller aperture means smaller depth of field, so focusing might be harder. Higher ISO number means more noise and digital grain. Flash means subject is lit with flash, there are range issues, and you also might want to consider using a different flash sync mode to get more normal looking blur around the crisp subject. Its a trade-off between these.
What shutter speed do you need ? Well it depends on the speed of the subject you are stopping, how far away it is from you, and what sort of angle it is moving at compared to you. 1/60s might freeze a slow moving car, 1/4000s might be required to stop a hummingbird's wings. The more light that is falling on the subject, the easier it is to get a crisp stopped motion shot.
The problem is that often if you do this well, it looks like nothing is moving at all. Possibly not what you wanted:
A fast shutter speed was used to freeze this rollercoaster as it thundered by:
( Click on the thumbnails for a larger version )
Blur the subject
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The second approach to capturing motion is to capture the motion blur. In this case you want a slower shutter speed, so that the subject has some blur. Again, the shutter speed you want is controlled by how fast the subject is moving - this is easier to do but often not what you want.
I used a very slow shutter speed to blur the motion of the water fall and capture it as a blurry stream.
Blur the background
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This is probably the hardest approach, called panning. In this you follow the subject as it moves, while pressing the shutter and taking the picture. The hardest part is again getting the right shutter speed, and smoothly following the subject. This records the subject as sharp, while the background is blurred and makes anything look like it is moving fast.
The approach to take is to pre-focus your camera and set an appropriate shutter speed for the subject - maybe try somewhere around 1/30s or 1/60s in shutter priorty move (Tv on the G3) Start tracking the subject, and while still following it, press the shutter button, and keep following the subject. After you hear the shot has been taken, keep going - a smooth follow through is important for panning too - its kinda like golf in that respect.
Here I panned the camera to follow the person carrying the ball, recording everything else as a blur.
Also the amount of zoom you are at will impact how fast the shutter has to be - generally the more zoomed in you are, the faster shutter speed you'll need, for panning.
Message edited by author 2003-10-03 10:33:05.
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