8 Steps To Photograph Motion Blur Seascapes

[Music] you know their legends welcome to this week's YouTube video and we are on the beach this week and I want to show you how I shoot my motion blurs using the panning technique so over the last few weeks I've shot a few of these and I get asked a little bit about how I do them so I thought I'll make a little short short tutorial on my 8 steps or eight tricks so I think 8 or 9 tricks that I have that I get going to get these happening the best that I can get them anyway let's get started with my top 8 tips ok so tip 1 it's probably the biggest tip that I reckon for getting correct motion blurs or the best motion blurs you can get and that's using a sturdy tripod with a panning head so this head here on top of the tripod pans and the ice and smoothly you can do them handheld but you're not going to get as good results because there's no way that once you get this tripod all locked off in the right position that you'll be able to get that precise pan and getting the precise pan is one of the most important parts of a motion blur when you're shooting out to a horizon because you want that horizon nice and crispy crispy and not like you know fuzzy and blurry and if you're hand holding the chances of you getting a fuzzy fuzzy horizon is is going to be quite apparent so yeah so using a tripod is going to help but there's no use using your tripod if it's not leveled so you've got to make sure that your legs so most tripods got a spirit level so you've got to make sure that bubble is dead set in the middle so it's panning from right here and as you pay in from left to right or right to left if that spirit levels in the middle your horizon is going to stay dead straight the whole time if yours you using a tripod than that spirit level is not then straight well your hands going to tilt and you're going to get that fuzzy horizon so number one tip use a tripod and make sure Eaton's level by actually also add this little level that clips onto the top of my camera which I can check as well how level the cameras at the top but this is the most crucial part to be level right there at the base okay so the lens choice is also pretty important I prefer using the 70-200 for mine you want that sort of telephoto look for this a wide-angle will sort of catch too many things and warp the image when I do I switch between the zoom of 70 and right up to 200 just to get different effects and instead of using a prime lens say like a hundred mil the 70-200 is a little bit more versatile because I can get a lot of different looks in a short amount of time so 7200 is definitely my choice of lens for that today I'm using the 5d Mark 3 camera I would usually use the EOS are these days but that's using I'm using that to film myself so if I do will do the trick just fine okay so the next trick is to preset the focus so I use I do in manual focus so what I generally do is take a look through the lens or compose I compose my image I focus on the breaking wave in autofocus and then I switch my lens to manual focus once it's in manual focus it won't move from that distance that I've locked in and as long as I don't move the tripod or I'll move the focal length well then it's going to be in a good focused distance by also with the 70-200 lens I've got image stabilisation so I make sure that's actually turned to off because you're going to be panning you don't want to be confusing image stabilization mode by trying to stabilize when you're moving so if you've got any stabilization lenses I suggest you turn it off so yeah manual focus image stabilization off and you're set to go okay so the next step to consider of course is which mode you're going to shoot in and I shoot these in full manual mode but you can use TV mode or shutter speed preferred mode my shutter speeds to start with I set between from one second to a tenth of a second but I change in between and then I get an aperture to suit whatever shutter speed that I want and I always keep my ISO on 100 because you're using such a slow shutter speed your apertures are actually going to be quite small so a high number so normally this time of day you're probably looking at f-16 to f-22 if you're shooting at a shutter speed of a quarter of a second or something like that okay so yes so manual mode or choice be preferred mode if you enjoy speed prefer mode just select a shutter speed of a quarter of a second have your ISO on 100 and the aperture will swing up and down to get you correct exposure step 5 is to compose your image so it looks nice you know so you don't want sort of really not always but rarely do you want half half water half sky I always either go for 3/4 sky quarter water or the opposite normally I'm trying to get more sky with this shot and just get get in the bottom of the way and sorry bottom of the composure the breaking wave and then up until the sky but play around with the composure but make sure that is all set okay step six is I use a cable release I reckon this is an amazing tool I think you can pick them up that the aftermarket ones for about 30 40 bucks maybe from any Photography store just get the right one for your camera and that clips into the side of my camera so instead of using the shutter button to take my photo I can use a cable release which is good for anytime you're using slow shutter but also because you've got your right hand moving you're going to be panning with your right hand I've got my left hand to click click the button so it just makes it easier and look a little bit more technically perfect alright so step 7 we've got everything set up here we've got our cable release we've got our manual mode or shutter speed preferred mode we've got our tripod nice and level now it's time start panning and taking the shots so I start as I always go into Live View mode so I can see on the back of my camera what I'm shooting at so rather than looking through the viewfinder I can just pan and look at the screen just makes a little bit easier so in my left hand I've got my cable release in my right hand I start moving the pan in one motion so I haven't practiced before you even take a photo start further that way to your left or to your right and then half way through the plan is when you click the button because then you get a nice smooth action so instead of clicking the button at the start of the pan it can get a bit jerky so to get that nice smooth action this is a really big tip make sure you you're panning first and then in the middle of your frame take take the picture so that's a nice smooth pan nice smooth pan as you go okay step eight is about the breaking wave so if you've got right hand waves breaking or left-hand waves breaking go with the direction that the white water is heading so that makes for a nice looking picture rather than going against the grain so if waves breaking out here from left to right I make sure I'm going with that white water so you just look smoother and looks nice and neat and if you can pan at the same speed as the breaking wave well then it looks even you know even crisper so that's something to play around with as well okay so step nine or another thing to consider would be to play around with shutter speeds so if you're getting great shots a quarter of a second that's great but make sure you play around with it a bit like we've got digital cameras so take as many shots as you want and slow it down to one second and see if you get a better looking picture one seconds probably about it's slow as I would go yeah there's no reason why got to one tenth of a second one eighth of a second one second just play around and see how you go so yeah that wraps up eight or nine steps to get really cool motion blur shots I reckon they look really good I mean let's take I'll just take a picture to show you you just in without with exactly the same settings but nope and and we'll put that up on the screen and you'll see how boring that picture really is without the pan it's still got the slower shutter speed so it's still getting movement in the waves and and all that but without the pan it just you know it doesn't doesn't have that wow factor so giving that pan definitely just gives another dimension to a slow shutter spot shot that's normally just taken stationary on them on the tripod I've been taking these motion blurs for years I used to do them in the days of slide film where you had no instant reference and you didn't know how you're going and you had to wait you know two or three weeks before you've got your film back to find out how you did and then you always forget what you did right and what you did wrong so you can get really good now with digital cameras at motion blurs really quickly so you know why not give them a go they work on lots of different evenings I like using them at Sun sunset normally on the East Coast so the sunset behind me and sometimes you get this beautiful pink glow and it just gives it it just gives it a nice soft musty look and it also looks good in the morning actually that vibrant morning look 15 minutes before the sunrise can really give a good look to so either end of the day is when you obviously want to do these because your shutter speeds will be low enough to you know go for one one second Pan's or tenth of the second Pan's in the middle of the day it's a different story it can be done but I might might show you how to do that in another tutorial but for now try them out either dawn or dusk if you're going to try them with a Rising Sun so depends where you are in the world but if the sun's gonna rise over the ocean we'll make sure you're there at least 15 minutes before to do them when the Sun setting behind you you've got a little bit more time you can do it 10 minutes before the Sun sets to about 10 minutes 15 minutes after the sunset so there's a few tips at this week's video like always sent through any questions or your suggestions you might have some epic tips that you can add into the comments below I'd love to hear them and yeah thanks for tuning in we'll see you next week [Music] [Music]

Channel: Dream life through photography - Tom Woods

Views: 14,522

Rating: 4.9848294 out of 5

Keywords: Photo tips, Surf Photography, learn photography, how to photography, Motion blur images, how to pan, slow shutter photography, speed blurs, ST Images, Photography tutorials

Id: mlhVsTKe9_s

Length: 11min 41sec (701 seconds)

Published: Sat May 30 2020