Welcome to Ella's four week Photography Series. Thanks to the expertise of Noel and Moon we have been instructed over the last three weeks on light, focus, perspective, and this week it is all about action!

From Noel:
Action is sometimes a tricky thing to catch when you are looking at it one frame at a time. Try these tricks to catch some action in your daily life.




Panning is a really effective way of showing motion. You focus on your subject and follow their action with your camera. This keeps your subject in focus, but blurs the background. Think looking out of the passenger window of a moving car. Things are whizzing by while the car window remains in focus. It takes a little practice, but be patient and shoot LOTS of pictures. Then thank your lucky stars that you have a digital camera!

Find a subject that is moving in a consistent motion. They don't have to be going a million miles an hour, just moving in a predictable way. Set your camera to Shutter Priority (usually the "S" on your camera's dial).You'll want your shutter speed to be on the slower side around 1/20 to 1/25. (the bike picture was a 1/25 of a sec at f9, and the scooter image was at 1/20 of a sec at f25.) I was holding my camera, but you may have better luck with a monopod. But since I am monopod-less, I'll tell you how I did it. Focus on your subject, then follow them with your camera, keeping them in the frame as they move. Click your shutter at some point while you're following them in camera, making sure to continue to follow them after you press the shutter. It'll take some practice, but the end result is something like these.  I'm sure there are zillions of applications for panning, but I've only tried it with my girls riding bikes and scooters. It's a good place to start since it's a generally consistent motion to follow. Panning also works wonders with track runners, moving cars and trains, etc.



Taking a shot while someone is in motion can take a fast trigger finger. Catching your subject just at the precise moment their action is taking place can take some practice. In the beginning, if your camera has a burst mode, this is a great time to use it. The burst mode will often take several pictures in a row. This is especially handy with point and shoot cameras as they are known for their delayed shutters. With the picture of my daughter jump roping, I took a number of pictures to get her as she was in the air and the jump rope hit the puddle. It worked to both show her movement, and her goal of splashing as much water as possible.


The movement of fabric, clothing and hair can all show motion as well. In this picture my daughters dress was fluttering as she jumped from square to square.


Mid-air is almost always shows off action in a fun way. Since gravity keeps us grounded, catching those brief moments of flight adds superhero type action to our pictures. Try snapping pictures of a child in mid-air while jumping or running. This picture is of my daughter's thrill of beating her sister to home plate in a game of backyard baseball. You can almost feel her thrill of victory.

From Moon:
As Noel discussed how to take action shots, I'm going to talk a little about action, as in Photoshop actions. You can use actions in most versions of Photoshop, and there are even some for PS Elements. With actions, you can create certain moods or looks to your photographs from one touch of a button. My favorite free actions are created by The Pioneer Woman and you can find her actions here. She does a wonderful job of showing you each of her actions at work.
 
Another great resource is this website. Pifphoto.com is a great resource for photographers where readers share actions and templates and anything photo related with each other.
 
Thanks for spending the last four weeks with Noel and me. We thoroughly enjoyed it!

Did you know you can save 20% when you purchase BOTH of Ella's top-selling photography eBooks? Use the coupon code SUMMERPICS before July 5, 2010.

Picture Perfect 

40 Top Tips for Better Photographs

Also, be sure and check out the other three posts in our Friday photo lesson series.
Light
Focus
Perspective