Action Photo Shoot Tips From Photojournalist Neal Menschel

Action Photo Shoot Tips From Photojournalist Neal Menschel

Guest blogger and past AYP guest, photojournalist Neal Menschel talks about two methods of capturing action in these two very different images.

These two skateboard photographs illustrate two different methods of photographing the same subject.  They were both taken on the same hill during a competition and they were both traveling at the same speed, very fast.

The first one was shot at 1/800^th of a second with a Nikon D200 set to ISO 200 and an 80 to 200mm zoom at 200mm at f2.8.  It freezes the action very well.  The background is blurred because of the large aperture and serves to isolate the person and their skateboard.

The problem is that there is no indication of the terrific speed that he is traveling at.

The second photo was taken with the same camera but with a 12 to 24 zoom set to 1/20^th of a second and f16.  I panned with the skateboarder at this slow shutter speed to create the streaks in the road and background which gives the sense of  speed and motion.  Panning takes practice and you usually need to take a dozen images or more to get one that will work.  In this case the subject punching the air with his arm and hand was the frosting on the cake.

Be sure to have a look at Neal’s site and if you haven’t our interview with him, see it here