In Motion (P6/Q3): Printing-Compositions

Print One: Rozy in Flight

This is the final of the print of Rozy jumping off of the cement block. I tried various other combinations, putting three separate images together with photoshop. I decided to use these two, as Rozy was perfectly in focus in these two shots, and I also like the poses and how active they look. The two shots that I started with were these two:


I took the first one and used it as the background in a photoshop canvas. I then copied Rozy from the second image and placed her as a layer on top of the background. then I erased the areas around Rozy in the second image so that she was superimposed on top of the first.

Then I took a piece of the blue wavy wall and fixed the size and angle and everything and added it to the lefthand side of the print in order to extend the wall.

This is the final print:


The final print is alright. I think that a landing would have been good, because it seems more logical to have three poses in a jump like this. On the other hand, I like the way that it is incomplete without a landing, and kind of fun that she is in the air in both poses. I also like the way the second pose looks like she is floating down onto the ground. Tried to apply a cool filter to the clouds, but this didn't improve them much, perhaps I should have tried more things to make the sky more dynamic and less bland.

Print Two: Rozy Cannonballing

This one was the one that I tried before doing the one above. It helped me to learn how to work with the different layers in photoshop, adding a new layer and erasing the extra stuff around Rozy to make it look like the poses are in the same frame.

I began with these three shots:

This one I chose because I like the cannonball and the way her hair flies and it looks like she is just on the verge of jumping out of the frame of the photo.


Final Print:
The final print is alright. As I mentioned in my diary entry, the print is very symetrical, and she is moving completely to horizontal with respect to the camera, so there isn't very much creative or new to this one. I do like the poses themselves individually, and also the way that she is in focus enough to see her poses, but not enough to really see her face or anything. Also, the launch of this one is really nice, because you can see her motion of literally pushing off of the cement block to lift into the air. Much more effort shown in this one than print one.

Extra Print: Lauren in Flight

I included this extra print just because I took it while in the middle of editing the one of Rozy at a track meet over the weekend, and think it follows with the whole idea of shooting motion. Besides not being sharp enough, the motion itself is good, as Lauren is caught mid-air, completely stretched out at the top of her jump. Also, I crouched pretty low down close to the track and shot at a slightly upwards angle to make her look more elevated.

In Motion (P6/Q3): Diary Entry

This project began with shooting with Rozy using her digital camera outside. The conditions began sunny, and then we came inside and realized some changes that we needed to make to the way we were shooting. We needed to use a faster shutter speed to freeze motion, and also shoot some with a slower shutter speed to blur the motion. All in all, we needed to focus on capturing the subject, in this case, Rozy jumping and clearly show the motion, not just by using the effect of blurring her while she jumped, but also in showing her position in the air, having her in an action pose. When we went back outside to shoot, it had clouded over.

We took the images into the lab and compiled them with the idea of making one print with three or four poses showing the progression of the jumps. Using photoshop, I tried to combine several different jumps, putting together the beginning middle and end of separate ones. This proved to be hard, because when they were put together, it was obvious that one of the poses was out of place, without being able to describe why. Even the slightest change in sharpness or direction of motion, or even where her legs were, gave away that the poses didn't all belong to one jump. So after that, I decided to go with the best progression, rather than going with the best beginning middle and end poses which ended up looking unnatural.

So for the first one, I chose a jump where she springs from the cement block, curls her legs into a cannonball and then lands on the ground. The jump is very symmetrical, and other than the middle jump, where her hair is flying up and it looks very much in motion, there wasn't much special about this one. I decided to include it anyways, and then moved on to the second print.

The second one was a series of two jumps which I like because the poses are similar, and very obviously followed one another. Also, the photo is very vertical, and she seems to be mid jump at the first pose and landing towards the ground on the second pose, so it looks like she came falling from pretty high. I like this one because the jump is not complete, and it is not just a horizontal motion, but rather looks like she is jumping at an angle to the camera. Also the way that she is close to the camera and large in the frame makes it look crowded, and like she was jumping really close by.

The way I did this was in photoshop, using one of the jumps and the background as the main photo, and adding the pose of another shot as a layer on top, erasing all the extra things around the pose so it seems to be in the same frame.

In Motion (P6/Q3): Image Bank

Subject in Motion, Background out of Focus

Carl Zoch Carl Zoch Fine Art is an American photographer of fine art, portraiture, and weddings. His style tends to be spacious and calm, in contrast to the chosen image. In this image, there are two subjects. One is the man sitting on the sidewalk, out of focus, and the other is the person moving quickly into the frame, his motion blurred and what he looks like concealed. Apart from looking interesting, having two subjects in drastically different clarity and focus, the use of motion helps to enforce the idea of the image. While the possibly homeless man is holding up a sign, steady, and constantly sitting there, various people come and go, walking past him and then fading into the background. Then there is the main blurred man, unrecognizable and moving fast. This helps to evoke a somber emotion. While the homeless man stays and asks for help, other people are free to walk by and enjoy the night, moving fast and not looking back. This helps to show the contrast in pace of life between those relatively fortunate and those unfortunate. One gets left behind, where the rest of the world is transient and moving fast onto other things, and he just stays, and watches it all pass by.


Subject in Focus, Background out of Focus

Chris Ditto grew up playing little league sports in West U, Texas. Later he developed an interest in photographing these sports, disciplining himself to get to sports events early to find interesting angles and plan out the shots he hoped to take later on. Self-trained, he is now a freelance photographer based out of Austin, Texas. His work is displayed by magazines such as ESPN, The Houston Chronicle, People magazine, TIME magazine, and Sports Illustrated. This image from the sports collection of his gallery at Ditto Photography captures the motion of both the ball and the diving volleyball player. The background is out of focus; you can barely see the spectators looking on. Both the man and the ball, though clearly in motion, are sharply in focus, a nice contrast with the blurry background. The sun is also a nice touch for the image, gleaming off of the top of his back and enhancing how horizontal he is. This image is particularly nice for how it "freezes" the motion, showing a huge amount of detail including the expression of effort and concentration on the volleyball player's face.

In Motion (P6/Q3): Theory Notes

Shooting Motion

There are several things to think about when shooting motion. The trouble with shooting motion is getting a photo sharp if you want to to freeze the motion and retain detail, or choosing to blur the motion. If you choose to freeze the motion and have the moving object or person in focus, it is still important to represent the motion of the subject in some way.

Freezing Motion
In order to free motion, the priority should be to set your shutter speed very high, to something upwards of 1/300th of a second. (aperture should then be adjusted appropriately to compensate for the fact that a fast shutter speed lets in very little light - that is, the aperture should be very wide). This number could be even higher, such as 1/1000th of a second in the case that the object is moving very very quickly or that the object is extremely close to the camera, in which case it is going much quicker relative to the camera lens.

In this shot of soccer players, from Kodak: Photographing Sports and Action, the players as well as the water drops are frozen, clearly visible. The use of a VERY fast shutter speed means that the drops were exposed just at the moment they were in the air, and the players stopped in their motion. In this way, we are able to clearly see the strained looks on the faces and the effort the kids are putting in to get to the ball. It's also nice to see the confusing tangle of players and water sharply to see what's going on.

Blurring Motion
Can be done in the opposite way. By having a slow shutter speed, from the time of opening the shutter to the time when it closes again, the subject has traveled from point A to point B. The area in between will capture all the motion in between leaving a blurred subject which shows exactly what path the subject took. The movements are annotated in the following, where starting and ending points of motion are shown and the spots in between blurred.


Panning Panning is a technique for making the subject in focus and the background or any moving parts of the subject in motion and blurred. This is achieved by moving the camera with the action of the subject. You have to keep the subject in the viewfinder and have it moving slowly and steadily at the same speed as the subject before, during, and after the shutter is opened (using a relatively slow shutter speed). In this way, the subject will be sharp, while the background will be blurred, usually streaked in the direction of motion to show how rapidly the subject is moving past.

In this case, from Kodak: Photographing Sports and Action, the top of the horse and the rider are sharp and in focus, while the feet of the horse are blurred and you can see the motion. The background is also blurred, but differently than the feet, for instead of being out of focus, it is streaked and looks like you are speeding by with the horse. It's also worth noting that the horse is off center, as when photographing motion, it is helpful to leave space in front of the subject to more or less give them room in the frame.

In this example, from Photoshop Methods of Expressing Motion in Photography Tutorial, the rider is also in an interesting position. While he is not sharp necesarily, he is less blurred than the background, which seems to be going by at an angle. The effect of panning angularly is very interesting, because you can see the direction of motion and the diagonal nature of the streaks and the riders direction of motion makes the image dynamic.

Blurring Only the Subject
Is done using a tripod and a slow shutter speed. In this way, when the shutter opens for a long time, the background will not move, and hence will show up clear and sharp. However, allowing the shutter to be open long means that whatever is moving in the viewfinder will be blurred. This is commonly done with headlights of cars and trains.

This example, from Kudos Photography Portfolio, shows headlights blurred along highway. It is interesting because the image appears to be in focus, as the sides of the highway are clear, and the bright headlights show clearly the motion of the cars and define the direction of the highway.