Project 2 -
Exercise 3.2: Trace
" Start by doing your own research into some of the artists discussed above" -
"Using slow shutter speeds, the multiple exposure function, or another technique inspired by the examples above, try to record the trace of movement within the frame. You can be as experimental as you like. Add a selection of shots together with shooting data and a description of the process (how you captured the shoots) to your learning log."
Response to the brief...
The use of slow shutter speeds and long exposure is a technique that has never really appealed to me and I had never tried to master it before this exercise but I was open minded and eager to learn. I wanted to experiment and play around a lot with this exercise and see what I could gain from it.
I found the research for this exercise particularly interesting. Each artist used motion blur in their own very unique way with great outcomes and impressions. I also did a lot of reading up on long exposure techniques before hand to help in my practice.
Flowers in the wind...
A particularly windy day made it a good day to start experimenting with slow shutter speeds and recording traces of movement within a frame. I set up my tripod to keep the camera steady and waited for the intermittent gusts of wind to blow the garden about. Most of the shots above were taken with the shutter speed of 1/15sec which seemed a good speed matched with the gusty winds and none are over exposed. It was an overcast day but I kept my ISO at 100.
ISO 100 ~ 55mm ~ f/36 ~ 1/8sec. ISO 100 ~ 38mm ~ f/18 ~ 1/15sec. ISO 100 ~ 45mm ~ f/29 ~ 1/15sec.
ISO 100 ~ 55mm ~ f/32 ~ 1/15sec. ISO 100 ~ 45mm ~ f/29 ~ 1/15sec. ISO 100 ~ 55mm ~ f/22 ~ 1/15sec
A walk in the garden...
ISO 100 ~ 18mm ~ f/22 1/10sec
After having a play around with the flowers blowing in the wind, I wanted to experiment with a subject moving across the frame. This proved harder as more light was able to enter the camera where it was set further back, so I had to play around with shutter speeds more, keeping the ISO low to see how my camera would cope and what it would allow me to do without an ND filter. (Something I will invest in)
The above shots were taken at 1/10sec which worked well and shows a good trace of movement within the frame but I wanted to see if I could slow the shutter down even more without any over exposure.
ISO 100 ~ 20mm ~ f/22 ~ 1/6sec
In the shots above I used a shutter speed of 1/6sec. The finished product is slightly edging towards being over exposed.
ISO 100 ~ 20mm ~ f/22 ~ 1/3sec
These shots are over exposed and if I had slowed the shutter speeds down even more, beyond 1/3sec there would have been too much light entering the camera for a distinguished shot. I wanted to achieve a ghostly subject moving in the frame. I wanted to see if I could achieve a transparency in the moving subject with the background coming through.
Although over exposed, I would imagine if I put this photo into LightRoom I could easily correct the colours and light but that would defeat the object of this exercise.
Horse and Rider...
ISO 200 ~ 34-55mm ~ f/29 ~ 1/10sec
Taking my camera off of its tripod I wanted to test out a technique that I had read about while reading up on slow shutter speeds and motion blur. With the shutter speed set at 1/10sec I zoomed the lens in and then out as the shutter was opening and closing and gained the desired result. An almost hypnotic kaleidoscope effect. Abstract and not your typical sought after photo but an interesting end result. There is a slight similarity in looks to that of Chunking Express here - the blur and the feeling of being unsettled with the finished product. Both also shot hand held.
Below are a couple more series of experimenting with shutter speed on a faster moving subject. The horse was moving forward in a steady trot.
ISO 100 ~ 18mm ~ f/22 ~ 1/20sec
ISO ~ 200 ~ 18mm ~ f/16 ~ 1/15sec
ISO 200 ~ 18mm ~ f/22 ~ 1/8sec ISO 200 ~ 18mm ~ f/22 ~ 1/5 sec ISO 200 ~ 18mm ~ f/22 ~ 1/2sec
Again with the shots above, I wanted to push how much I could slow sown the shutter speed before over exposure became an issue.
ISO 100 ~ 42mm ~ f/18 ~ 1/15sec
Similar to Robert Capa's soldier crawling out of the surf on D-Day, the image above was taken by moving the camera at the same time as the subject. Creating a blur of the background and the horse and rider.
Santorini...
ISO 100 ~ 20mm ~ f/22 ~ 25sec
I took the photo above whilst on holiday in Santorini. The view is of the Caldera and the famous Oia sunset. I wanted to try to get some long exposures of the sky with it changing colour every second, not realising I had actually captured the lights from the boats moving across the water and the waves merging together to create a soft look. My shutter speed was set at 25 seconds (the longest shutter speed my camera has is 30 seconds).
In the style of Hiroshi Sugimoto...
ISO 100 ~ 21mm ~ f/25 ~ 30sec
Intrigued by Hiroshi Sugimoto's series 'Theatres', I wanted to explore the idea with my own camera. With the slowest shutter speed of my Nikon being 30 seconds I wondered what sort of end product I would get.. I had to shut the curtains to achieve the above two images - there was just two much light coming into the room. The camera was placed on a sturdy surface and each shot was taken with a shutter speed of 30 seconds and you can see how each individual frame playing on the TV has merged together, starting to create the same bright whiteness like that of Sugimoto's. If the shutter had been left open for a further 30 seconds I think the whole screen would have been bright white.
Reflection...
I am pleased with what I have achieved with this exercise and I have definitely gained a lot of knowledge from experimenting so much with different ways to capture motion.
What I found challenging was trying to balance the amount of light that is let into the camera lens and realising that when its too sunny, a long exposure just won't work without filters etc.
I stated in the response to the brief that slow shutter speeds was something that had never caught my interest before but after doing this exercise I think it is something I will definitely dabble in more in the future.
Contact sheets...
