Photographing action and movement – in pictures

When you start to experiment with motion in photographs you can find all sorts of images lurking in every-day objects. The wonderful thing with digital cameras is that it costs you nothing to experiement.

Shutter speed: 1/30
Aperture: f/4.5
ISO: 800 Photograph: Greg Funnell/Guardian

In this shot I chose not to entirely freeze the action as I wanted to maintain a sense of the motion. I still used a relatively high shutter speed, 1/640, but this was slow enough to allow for some movement in the water droplets.

Shutter speed: 1/640
Aperture: f/4.0
ISO: 100 Photograph: Greg Funnell/Guardian

In this image I chose to freeze the action by using a very fast shutter speed. As I was shooting into the sun this meant creating a silhouette with the wakeboarder. This fast shutter speed froze the action capturing the water droplets and the shape of the wake.

Shutter speed: 1/3200
Aperture: f/4.0
ISO: 100 Photograph: Greg Funnell/Guardian

In this image I chose to use a lens equipped with Image Stabilisation (IS). This meant I could keep my subject sharp (as she was stood still) but capture the movement of others around her. My shutter speed of 1/25 was slow enough the catch their motion, but allowed me to still take the shot hand held because the IS cancelled out any camera shake caused by my hands.

Shutter speed: 1/25
Aperture: f/5.6
ISO: 200 Photograph: Greg Funnell/Guardian

In this image the moving water takes on a different quality when the shutter speed is slowed right down. Keeping the camera steady allows the building in the background to stay sharp. At this slow speed the camera either needs to have Image Stabilisation (IS) or be balanced firmly (on a bag in this case) or locked down on a tripod.

Shutter speed: 0.4 sec
Aperture: f/22
ISO: 100 Photograph: Greg Funnell/Guardian

I could have photographed this image with a faster shutter speed and frozen the moment but it probably would have lacked a lot of energy. By using a slow shutter speed and panning with the subject I was able to keep them relatively sharp compared to the surrounding elements thus drawing the viewers attention into the image and the subhject.

Shutter speed: 1/25
Aperture: f/3.5
ISO: 200 Photograph: Greg Funnell/Guardian

Adding motion to an image can add a sense of energy where otherwise there might be none. A slow shutter speed here catches the motion of a passer by.

Shutter speed: 1/15
Aperture: f/5.0
ISO: 800 Photograph: Greg Funnell/Guardian

Using flash on a moving subject can help freeze the motion and keep detail in the subject whilst still allowing some motion blur in the background of the image which helps give the sense of motion.

Shutter speed: 1/125
Aperture: f/5.6
ISO: 1600 Photograph: Greg Funnell/Guardian