Arlington Flyin - Slow shutter speed on fast moving objects.

[BobH]

I attended the Arlington Flyin on Saturday. It was my first time at the venue, and they put on a great show. Nice crowd but the place is big, so plenty of room right on the rope line for the big air show. Another photographer I know was there, and he encouraged me to try some slow shutter speeds to get good background blur. He gets down to as low as 1/40th. I'm not quite that good yet, so I was shooting at 1/80th. Shooting in a series, I had far more duds than keepers, but a few came out nicely. This one lined up with a flag and the plane is fairly sharp, so I'm happy with it.

 

[Bill Anderson]

Good shot. I want to try that method on trains.

 

[BobH]

Trains are a great subject for it, as their path is predictable and they move at a relatively steady speed. So they're really good for trying this out.

 

[BobH]

A word of caution about using it on trains though. Ideally, the sensor will remain parallel to the motion of the subject during the entire exposure. For the planes, that was easy, I shot with a long lens, and so the amount of arc I swung during the shot was small. For trains, you'd need to be a long ways away. Otherwise, you'll be swinging an arc as you track the motion, meaning the sides of the image would likely be blurred. Does that many any sense?

 

[Bill Anderson]

What I want to do is catch a train stopped at Sunset Ave. waiting for another train traveling in the opposite direction to pass by. I focus on the stationary train and shoot at a slow enought speed so that the train in motion is blurred. I have tried it at 1/125, but that is not slow enough to give the effect I want. I need to shoot at an even slower speed, which will require a tripod.