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Jack and Sue Drafahl began their photography careers at the Brooks Institute
of Photography. They’ve been involved in the digital revolution since
the early ‘80s and have written several books on photographic techniques.
It always requires keen anticipation to capture images at the height of the
action. In the early days of photography there were only a minimal amount of
film offerings, so film speeds were low, and flash was used in most cases to
stop the action. As photographic technologies evolved, motor drives appeared
on 35mm cameras. Action photographers could start shooting at the beginning
of the action and take multiple frames throughout the event. This allowed them
to capture the action, but focus and exposure were still problems since both
were manually controlled. Experience and luck were common ingredients in great
action photos of bygone days.
Thankfully, today’s digital photo technology provides the necessary tools
to get some dynamic action photos, even if you are just a beginner photographer.
Of course, that’s assuming that the tools are used correctly. We now have
autofocus, autoexposure, automatic bracketing, and high-speed continuous motorized
shooting. The term point-and-shoot can easily be applied to the small camera
wonders, but also their bigger SLR brothers.
In the following text and images we have laid out a typical step by step guide
designed to help photographers who want to expand their action photography.
Keep in mind that the equipment and camera settings used for these images represent
only one type of action photography. Your results will vary according to your
subject’s direction or speed, and your camera’s capabilities.
Our test site is Sand Lake, a large sandy basin that stretches for miles near
the Oregon coast, which is set aside for off-road vehicles like ATVs, motorbikes,
and dune buggies.
Film vs. Digital
When you are panning with action, it’s best to use your camera’s
continuous drive mode and shoot throughout the entire action sequence. You’ll
end up with more “keepers” that way. If you are using a 35mm camera,
this approach can be a bit expensive because you’ll burn a lot more film.
If you are shooting digitally. however, you don’t have to worry as long
as you have enough room on your memory card.
Step 1
Before venturing into the world of action photography, you need to understand
that there are two distinct approaches to capturing action. The first type of
image stops all the subject movement, and has very little blurring in the background.
This is the type of picture that most new photographers attempt when shooting
action images. The setup requires that you set your ISO to 400 or 800, which
allows shutter speeds in the 1¼2000–1¼8000 range using shutter-priority
exposure. This allows you to capture the action as it moves from side to side
or when moving directly toward the camera.
You should set your camera to continuous advance because trying to anticipate
the one perfect shot is going to be difficult. It’s almost always better
to shoot a series of images of the event, and then pick the best from the group.
Film shooters have always had fast frame rates, but only recently have digital
SLR cameras started to see frame rates faster than 2 fps. We found that 2–3
fps was more than enough to get the action shot.
The motorbike in the lower right was shot at 1¼2000 on a digital camera,
while the series in the lower left was shot at 1¼4000 on a film camera.
Both cameras used a 75–300mm zoom lens to capture the action.
Step 2
The second set of camera settings allows you to take action images with sharp
subjects, but blurred backgrounds. The difference is that you use very slow
shutter speeds as you use a method called panning. This is where you follow
your subject by moving the camera in the same glide path, squeezing the shutter
throughout the camera movement. This only works when the subject is moving from
side to side, not coming toward you. When you match the subject’s movement,
with the proper shutter speed, you will achieve a sharp subject and a blurred
background.
The first step in accomplishing this method is to set your camera to a slow
ISO speed such as 50–100. With subjects such as cars, motorbikes, and
ATVs, 1¼15–1¼60 is a good range of shutter speeds to start.
The 1¼60 speed keeps the bulk of the subject sharp, yet slightly blurs
the background; 1¼30 keeps about 50 percent of the subject sharp, and
results in considerable blurring of the background; and 1¼15 only keeps
about 25 percent of the subject sharp and results in extreme blurring of the
background.
The motorbike at the bottom of the illustration was shot at 1¼15 on a
2 fps digital SLR camera.
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