14.12.10
Photographing Movement: Martin Middlebrook
Professional photographer Martin Middlebrook examines movement and goes all out to reveal the many ways we have to capture and illustrate speed in our images.
Time management, our most tangible tool, is the element that controls movement in our images at the flick of a switch. As we discover more and more the variables that allow us to stylise and improve our images, one of the most neglected factors, the one we control least and ignore the most, is speed. Unless we specialise in sports photography the vast majority of us will shoot in aperture priority or full automatic – letting our camera and available light dictate to us that frozen moment in time. Henri Cartier-Bresson talked of the ’decisive moment’; we all know what it is, we all strive for it. The thing is, the decisive moment is not entirely about the point of absolute capture, it’s not merely about the precise moment we press that shutter. It’s about a whole lot more than that. It’s about the duration of that moment, it’s about all that happens in between, it’s not just about the start and finish. Time is the perfect continuum, a controllable line along which we place our flags and measure out relativity. As photographers we have two flags to place, two shutters which slide across our sensors with an imperceptible brashness, the separation between which marks the start and the end of our story.
There are several different systems for capturing our images, but I will discuss the most common, and it will help us to really understand how shutter speed manages movement, and how we can use simple techniques to create stunning effects. Most SLRs use two shutters (often known as curtains). The illustration below shows the shutter when closed.
When we fire the shutter release, the first shutter begins to slide up from the bottom, followed by the second shutter. The distance between both shutters is the ’shutter speed’. Below are two illustrations, one representing a slow shutter speed, the second with a very narrow slit representing a fast shutter speed. This varies from camera to camera but the general range available is from 30 seconds to 1/8,000th of a second. Many SLRs also have a bulb function which allows manual control for speeds from 30 seconds and beyond.
Later I will describe a very useful flash technique which induces movement in our images, called Second Curtain Synching. This is when the flash fires as the second shutter curtain begins its ascent across the focal plane (as seen above).
Doing the maths
I have discussed this many times before, but we can shoot the same subject in so many ways, each imbuing the resulting image with a different sensibility, but never is this more true than when we control shutter speeds. Never before have we had so much control over speed as we have now. With modern sensors giving us such a range of usable ISOs to choose from, and with modern TTL/E-TTL flash units being so controllable, powerful and accurate, we can comfortably shoot at almost any speed in any light with stunning results. The key is to embrace this advance, because it liberates our long-held views on using speed, and therefore movement, in picture taking.
This curious link between ISO, shutter speed and aperture dictates everything, and the physics of the seinter-relationships is stead fastly set. As infuriating as this can sometimes appear to be, in fact it is an utter blessing, because we know, absolutely, how predictable every element is. When I shoot with fill flash, these links are my saviours. If I want twice the speed with the same depth of field, I just double the ISO. It’s an immutable truth that gives me exactly the same exposure at twice the speed.So let’s look at these interplays, the possibilities they allow and the pitfalls that stand before us.
As photographers we have total control of all three variables, speed, aperture and ISO, but in totalling up the values to give us a correct exposure, there is one variable that we can never control – available light. Most of the time this is not a problem, light falls into an attainable gamut that, through compensating, allows us to balance things successfully. However, just sometimes we have too much light and quite often we don’t have nearly enough.
Having too much light would not seem to be a major problem, but, curiously, it is the harder one to overcome. Too little light just means we up our ISOs, increase our apertures and decrease our shutter speeds. Too much light, however, often leaves us with nowhere to go. If we want to introduce movement by shooting at, say, 1/30th of a second, on a very bright day, even at f/22 we will probably have too much light, and overexpose the image. To reduce the relative light falling on the sensor we can choose a minimum ISO of 50 (on many cameras, however, the minimum is 100). Even at this rating we may still have too much light falling on the sensor. To solve this problem, we can use neutral density filters to further reduce the amount of light falling upon our sensors/ emulsions.
In low light the reverse is true, and instead of limiting it, we beg for more. With significant ISO range and flash, however, we can overcome these problems quite easily. Which explains why we tend to have spit-second images created during the day, and images animated by movement shot at night. The laws of physics dictate the style.
Controlling Movement
This talk of controlling shutter speeds would count for nothing, if it had no discernible effect on our images. But it should be at the centre of our decision making and we should not leave it to chance. It’s no different to controlling depth of field, it moderates the styling and mood of our images. It can suggest starkness or vivacity, the ethereal or stoic, creationist or scientific.
Shutter speed is the cut and thrust of picture taking, the most flamboyant control we have. This is why we should use it more, because in pre-visualising how best to say what we wish to, we can elevate the ordinary. It allows us to look at our subject and truly consider how we want our audience to see it. More so than aperture, controlling shutter speed allows us to seek out the hidden. So let’s consider the range of possibilities we have and what they look like.
Animate the inanimate
We often require contrast in our shots, often we want to animate the inanimate. In a lot of commercial work, I have to photograph rather dull installations. They need lifting and they also need a sense of humanity, because they are not empty spaces, they are living spaces. Suggestion is one of photography’s marvels, we can invoke and imbue, imply and infer. By simply adding the moving form, using tripods and slow shutter speeds, we turn a cluttered room into a living restaurant.
Reaching the limits
The range of time that we can record is so vast that almost nothing falls outside the gamut of possibility. In doing so we can distil the tiniest fraction of a moment, or watch the stars move across our horizon. The moonlit night (following page, top) (page 84) shot at f/9 and ISO 100 has a shutter speed of two minutes. Placed on a tripod with the mirror locked up, and using a shutter release, absolute stillness is crucial for success. What we gain by our diligence is the movement of the stars and the moon, and the richness of sky that is always there, but that our eyes can’t see. By slowing down time we see a truth that is usually hidden from us.
Below that image is its antithesis. This abstracted waterfall was shot in daylight with an ISO of 2,000 and a shutter speed of 1/8,000th of a second. We see every nuanced gush of energy plunging over the threshold. We have all seen images of waterfalls taken at 1/15th of second, creating that ghostly vapour, but we rarely smash it to its atomic level, we don’t stop time to see its reality.
Getting creative
There are no rules in photography, just the ones we impose on ourselves, because we forget that, first and foremost, we are making pictures. I was standing out inthe pouring rain, taking images of cars as they scurried down the road. I was using a tripod and long-exposure techniques. However, I am not that patient and the shutter speeds were about 13 seconds. So halfway through the exposures, I picked up the camera, jiggled it around a little and then put it back down ina slightly different place. The image above shows the kind of wonderful effects you can achieve by dismissing protocol and going with your heart.
Panning
Set a slow shutter speed for a moving subject, stand firmly and rotate as the subject swings by. This technique is all about practice; trying out appropriate shutter speeds for the subject, practising that smooth rotation. But when it comes off it energises our images.
Second Curtain synching
This is such a useful technique for capturing the energy of the momentin low light. I use it a lot when photographing events. The key is youcan freeze the main subject, create sufficient ambient light to illuminate the background and create real vitality in your shots. Again this is all about practice and settings. I know what ambient light, what settings and what lenses to use for my cameras.
The technique works by choosing a relatively slow shutter speed (around 1/15th of a second), moving the camera during exposure and setting the flash to fire as the second curtain of shutters is released. It produces fantastically bright, saturated images, with real energy but a sharp central subject. My standard settings are ISO 400 at 1/15th of a second and just the right amount of rotation in the shot.
Tripod or handheld
For very long exposures, use a firm tripod, lock up your mirror and always use a shutter release. And when handholding remember that your skill as a photographer is not just about setting exposure and maintaining focus. It’s about how much to move, and in what direction, or how still to be, and how to achieve this. Learn simple, bracing techniques, or by how much you should rotate the camera during second synching. These mechanistic matters are the difference between mastering techniques or not. They are about practice, but make all the difference –in fact they are the difference.
Get close to the action to accentuate movement
It’s a curious thing, but sometimes by just getting really close to our subject we induce movement in the shot, as demonstrated by the biking image at the start of this feature.
Time is the essence
Nothing changes the look and feel of our images more than controlling shutter speeds. It is an utterly neglected part of our armoury, and yet it has never been more manageable. If we shoot digitally we can make small adjustments, review our images and see the result. When I photographed a moonlit light, I didn’t take meter readings; I dialled in the ISO and aperture I wanted, used a stopwatch to record how long I had the shutter open for and then looked at the resulting image. In doing so I could repeatedly hone the shutter speed, at no cost, until I got the shot I wanted. From the infinitesimal to infinity, and somewhere in between, time is a place to create such diversity – we should grab what we can.
Online Resources
Henri Cartier-Bresson www.henricartierbresson.org
How Shutters Work www.penmachine.com/2008/09/camera-works-shutters-flashes-and-sync
Second Curtain Synching www.camerapedia.org/wiki/Flash_sync
Martin Middlebrook www.martinmiddlebrook.com
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