Recording Movement

Recording movement 

Definition

Motion blur photography - the apparent streaking of rapidly moving objects in a still image or a sequence of images such as a movie or animation. It results when the image being recorded changes during the recording of a single exposure, either due to rapid movement or long exposure.

Freeze frame photography - an optical effect or technique in which a single frame of film is reprinted in a continuous series, which when shown gives the effect of a still photograph

Artist research - Shin.T

Shin Noguchi is an award winning street photographer based in Kamakura and Tokyo, Japan.  He uses his photography to capture moments of excitement, beauty and humanism whilst looking at the flow of everyday life.

Shin T takes photos of light trails of cars. I really like his images because they have an implication of movement however due to the long exposure within his images you cannot see the vehicles, you can only see the light trails. This creates a sense of mystery because some people may wonder where the the light is coming from. I also like the fact that in all of his photos the surroundings of the road is clearly visible because it makes each photo unique. Most of his images are taken at night which makes all of the light trails stand out. Also the contrast of the saturated red colour and the white gives the images the idea that there is more than one direction of movement. Also I like the fact that Shin T has made sure to capture the lines  moving in multiple directions because this allows for different connotations of each of the images. I really like the last image that I have looked at because the lines look as if they are everlasting and do not end. 

Practice Shoot

I do not feel as though this shoot was very successful purely because I wanted to try and use the camera settings and practice trying to capture movement. From this shoot I have learnt that I need to use a large f-stop to capture a wide depth of field. I also need a long shutter speed to allow me to capture all of the movement in the frame of the image. I want to use either the fully manual setting on my camera or the Tv setting which allows me to set the shutter speed and automatically sets the other settings. Below is an example of two images that I captured using incorrect camera setting therefore I would like to go out again and take photos that are more like the photographers photos that I have looked at.

Contact Sheet

My best images 

In reference to my best images...

Although my images are not ver varied because they are all of light trails using vehicles I tried to make them all different by looking at taking photos from different angles and poisons in reference to where the vehicles were. The first image that I chose as one of my best images was taken standing beside the road. I was standing at the same level that the cars were moving. I liked this because it is almost like the camera is a part of the light trails because it is shot next to them. The only disadvantage of this location was that there was not as many cars as I would have liked. Also there were very big street lights which, when using a long shutter speed, made some of the images look slightly over exposed. 

The rest of my images that I have chosen were taken on a bridge looking down onto the motorway. The second photo specifically was taken looking directly forward into the distance of the motorway. This allowed me to capture both red and white lights which I feel is very effective because this is what Shin T has within his images. This photo was inspired by Shin T's photo that includes raised roads and two bridges*. I really liked the way that he was almost looking down onto the vehicles as if the camera was able to capture something that the people driving cannot see. This makes the entire image look slightly surreal because it is not something that people come into contact with in their daily lives. 

*

The next image two images that I have selected were taken focusing on one side of the motorway. I angles my camera to the left and physically moved the tripod to this side of the road. I really liked these images because they include some of the environment that is beside the road. This is effective because it has connotations of how the cars and vehicles are in close proximity to nature and how people drive past and do not even realise that the nature is there. I also liked these images because the red light trails have created a slight undertone of red within the trees which gives them a majestic and surreal feeling. 

Images that require improvement 

The images above are images that I have chosen as needing improvement. I feel as though the first image is over exposed. I used the Tv setting on my camera which automatically sets the aperture but allows me to set the shutter speed. I used a 30 second shutter speed because I wanted to capture motion however I think that because the lights of the cars were white it over exposed the rest of the image. During my shoot I tried to change this issue by using a slower shutter speed which meant I captured slightly less light. 

The second image needs improving due to something that I did not have much control over. I do not feel as though there is enough light that has been captured. This could have been because of my shutter speed being on 20 seconds when it could have been slightly longer however I also think that there was not enough cars that went past during the time that I took the image. I took these photos on a Sunday night which meant that the roads weren't that busy so to improve I would probably choose a different day to capture this image.

A03 - Record ideas, observations and insights relevant to intentions, reflecting critically on work and progress.

This shoot was directly inspired by the photographer that I analysed named Shin.T. I have completed a shoot like this in a previous project, colour, however it was not as successful as this. This was because when shooting this I used a tripod which made the light trails a lot smoother and easier to capture. I chose this photographer so that I could re do a shoot similar to one that I had completed before but improve it in many different ways. I also shouted in multiple locations, unlike the previous shoot that I completed on light trails of vehicles. I feel as though this gave the photos a wider range of independence. When completing my practice shoot I did not use a tripod and found it quite challenging to use a long shutter speed because I could not hold the camera still for that length of time. This is the main reason why I decided to use a tripod. 

A02 - Explore and select appropriate resources, media, materials, techniques and processes, reviewing and refining ideas as work develops.

To ensure that I was able to capture movement I had to use a long shutter speed. To ensure that I had the right balance of settings I used the Tv setting on my camera. I used this because when completing my practice shoot this camera setting proved to work very well for me and it ensures that my photos were balanced in relation to the settings. This allowed me to specifically set the shutter speed and the camera automatically set the aperture. I used an ISO of 1600 because I completed this shoot at night which meant that there was not enough natural light for me to lower the ISO. When setting the shutter speed I altered it from 15 seconds to 30 seconds. I took my photos in two different locations and there were different numbers of cars in each of these places. When there was a lot of cars I usually used a shutter speed of 20 seconds. This is because there were enough vehicles driving by for me to capture the light trails. As you can see on the images that I felt needed improving there were not as many vehicles. Due to this I used a shutter speed of 30 seconds. 

To improve these photos I have edited them using photo shop. I have not heavily edited these images partly because Shin T's images are lightly edited and also because I feel like the images are high quality already and I did not want to over edit them and take away from the beauty of the image. I used the brightness and contrast tool to slightly enhance the colours. I also used the curves tool to slightly edit the contrast but not too much to make the image look unrealistic. Finally I used the colour balance tool to adjust the tones slightly.  

Final images