Capturing Moments

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Capturing Moments

• Techniques for great photography

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Objective

• We will learn photography techniques that are
  used to capture great photos. These techniques
  are used by professional photographers everyday.
  Once you learn and understand these techniques,
  the way you take photos will change forever.

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Techniques and basics we will cover

• Panning
• Rule of Thirds
• Showing motion
• Stopping motion
• Candid
• Posed

• Angles
• Camera shots
• Headroom
• Nose room

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Panning

• The basic idea behind panning as a technique is
  that you pan your camera along in time with the
  moving subject and end up getting a relatively
  sharp subject but a blurred background.
• This gives the shot a feeling of movement and
  speed. Its particularly useful in capturing any
  fast moving subject whether it be a racing car,
  running pet, cyclist etc.

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Panning

• Panning seems to work best with moving subjects
  that are on a relatively straight path way which
  allows you to predict where theyll be moving to.
  Objects that are moving side to side are
  challenging and can result in messy looking shots
  as the motion blur can be quite erratic.

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Examples of Panning
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Rule of Thirds

• The basic principle behind the rule of thirds is
  to imagine breaking an image down into thirds
  (both horizontally and vertically) so that you
  have 9 parts.
• With this grid in mind the rule of thirds now
  identifies four important parts of the image that
  you should consider placing points of interest in
  as you frame your image.

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Rule of Thirds

• Not only this - but it also gives you four
  lines that are also useful positions for
  elements in your photo
• The theory is that if you place points of
  interest in the intersections or along the lines
  that your photo becomes more balanced and will
  enable a viewer of the image to interact with it
  more naturally. Studies have shown that when
  viewing images that peoples eyes usually go to
  one of the intersection points most naturally
  rather than the center of the shot -

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Examples of Rule of Thirds
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Showing Motion

• In most cases a blurred photo is the one that
  goes in the trash but, its also a neat technique
  for showing aggressive motion.  You see it a lot
  of this type of action photography in magazines
  for all kinds of high intensity sports like
  mountain biking and car racing.  It could also be
  used effectively on team sports, for example a
  soccer playing kicking a goal and having the
  movement of the foot and the ball be blurred. 
  The same could be applied to baseball and
  basketball too.

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Showing motion

• To really get a good effect with this technique
  you need to have some sharpness in the image, the
  background or the persons face.  For this you
  need a shutter speed thats not too fast to stop
  the motion, but not too slow for the subject to
  become a foggy blur.  There is no exact formula
  to get this, just trial and error, simply because
  different subjects move at different speeds.

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Showing motion

• I recommend experimenting with this technique
  only when you have multiple opportunities to
  photograph the same subject.  If you only have
  one chance to get the shot, try panning or
  stopping motion techniques.

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Examples of Showing Motion
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Stopping Motion

• Probably the most easiest technique, is to
  freeze all motion all together.  This works great
  to show drama and intensity in team sports, road
  racing and other slower paced activities.  This
  can be achieved two ways, by either stopping
  action with a flash or with a fast shutter speed.
  A shutter speed required to stop motion on its
  own without a flash unit may be upwards of 500 or
  1000, so plenty of light would be needed.

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Examples of Stopping Motion
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Candid

• Candid photography is photography that focuses on
  impulsiveness rather than technique, on the
  concentration of a camera within events rather
  than focusing on setting up a staged situation or
  on preparing a lengthy camera setup.

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Candid

• Candid photography is best described as un-posed
  and unplanned, immediate and unobtrusive. This is
  in contrast to classic photography, which
  includes aspects such as carefully staged
  portrait photography, landscape photography or
  object photography. Candid photography catches
  moments of life from captivation in it.

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Examples of Candid
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Posed

• It is what is it, you tell someone to look at you
  and smile. They do and you snap the picture.
  Posed pictures can also be set up scenes when the
  photographer wants to convey a message to the
  viewer of the photo, or capture a memory with
  everyone looking at the camera.

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Examples of Posed
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Angles

• Various positions of the camera with respect to
  the subject being photographed, each giving a
  different viewpoint and perspective.
• The angle at which a camera records a subject
  based on relative height differences. Low camera
  angles involve a camera lower than the subject
  and looking up. High camera angles involve a
  camera higher than the subject and looking down.

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Examples of Angles
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Camera Shots

• Extreme Long Shot (XLS)Use this shot to show the
  environment the subject is in. The XLS is great
  for taking landscape picture, giving a feel of
  the entire area.

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Camera Shots

• Long Shot (LS)The LS still shows the environment
  the subject is in. The difference is that more
  emphasis is on the subject. Its important to
  show the subject from head to toe filling in the
  frame.

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Camera Shots

• Medium Shot (MS)This choice of shot is used when
  the goal is to bring the subject closer to the
  viewer. It isolates the person from its
  surrounding. Its often a good idea to keep the
  subjects hands in the frame. The MS shows the
  subject waist or chest high. 

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Camera Shots

• Close Up Shot (CU)This Head and Shoulders shot
  establishes an intimacy between the subject and
  the viewer. The background is now detached. The
  neck and part of the shoulders must be included
  in the frame.

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Camera Shots

• Extreme Close Up Shot (XCU)This is the In Your
  Face shot. Only part of the head shows up. Note
  the way the top of the head is cut off, while the
  top of the shoulders is still in. When framing
  this tightly, make sure you dont cut the head
  off the shoulders, or it will look like a the
  subject was decapitated.

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Headroom

• In photography, the term headroom refers to the
  space that should be allowed for between the top
  of the subject's head in the frame. The persons
  head should reach near the top of the frame
  leaving only little white space

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Examples of Headroom
Too much headroom
Correct amount of headroom
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Nose room

• The space between the edge of the frame and a
  persons face when it is in profile.  In general,
  the space surrounding the subject should be 1/3
  behind and 2/3 in front of the subjects head. 
  It is considered a good thing if there exists
  excess space in front of the subjects face (as
  opposed to behind the persons head).

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Nose room

• Nose room applies not only to people, but to
  anyone or anything pointing or moving.  There
  should be relatively more empty space in the
  direction of the pointing or movement.

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Examples of nose room
Incorrect nose room
Correct nose room
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Questions