ISO 100 for moving subject

[abhishek_kak]

I shot a few portraits with ISO 100 on a sunny day, the subject moved

in a few of those and they all came out partly blurred. Is 100 a good

choice for portraits?

 

I plan to take a few shots of/inside a moving train and I was

planning to use 100 film.Are there other speed films I should be

looking at, I was thinking of 200 .I'd prefer not to use 400 film on

bright sunny days

 

Comments appreciated.

[steviewander]

Abhishek,

 

100 ISO should be more than adequate for portraits, unless, of

course, your subject is in motion. If your subject is still, shutter

speeds down to 1/15 sec can work well, but > 1/30 sec is best.

 

Are you sure you aren't confusing motion blur with depth of field?

When you say 'blurry' is there ANY part of the photo that's clear,

such as a cheek or the tip of the nose?? If so, it's probably not

motion blur.

 

I use 400 speed inside trains because it's so dark in there and

you DO want an adequate shutter speed. 100 or 200 ain't going

to cut it unless there's PLENTY of natural light in that train!

 

But you're right, I wouldn't use 400 in bright conditions.

 

I haven't seen your work, so I hope the above hasn't insulted your

intelligence! : )

Steve

[walter_strong3]

Hey Ab, this is the TRAVEL forum. You need to scoot over to the PEOPLE forum and post this.

[aardvarko]

Steven, a moving subject that is photographed with a similarly moving camera will provide a still subject with a blurred background. An area of sharpness within the photograph is not indicative of a lack of motion blur.

[Brian]

I don't know what camera you are using but it's possible you can set aperture and/or shutter speed. Try experimenting with these to see if ISO 100 will give you reasonable shutter speeds. If not, move up to a faster film.

[stephen hazelton]

You might post a shot of the blurred pics to show what the problem is.

 

Shooting in the sun, you should be able to use a high enough shutter speed to freeze everything, even if people are jumping up and down while you shoot. In a shaded area might be different.

 

Assuming motion blur is the problem, you should be able to shoot a portrait fairly wide open at decent shutter speed.

 

If you're shooting kids or other people that don't stay still, switch to 400. You'll lose a big of grain/ sharpness, but the overall gain would be worth it. Fine grain doesn't help if the subject is blurred.

[steviewander]

Chris, these are portraits he's shooting, not sports photography. I think he's talking about inadvertant movement of the subject. That's the way I interpreted it, anyway. Besides, show my one panned photograph with a perfectly still subject and I would be might impressed for sure. : )

[aardvarko]

OK. well, nearly. ;-) shot's bad, though.<div></div>

[nevilleb]

Abhishek,

 

As the others have said, it's impossible to tell what went wrong until one views the images. So post them up here and we should have an idea.

 

Just another think - try not to have too much caffiene in your bloodstream befoe a shoot - I know because it gives me the shakes when I'm down to 1/30th of a second. :)

 

Regarding the trains - keep in mind that a moving train - especially here in India - shakes a lot. That motion will be passed up to your hands from the seat / floor of the compartment. As such, a faster film speed will be called for, considering the ambient lighting conditions inside trains. A flash will also help to freeze the moment. Hope that helps.

 

Find below a link to an image I shot inside a train.

 

http://www.photo.net/photo/1972619

[abhishek_kak]

Thanks all for your answers.

 

Neville,Stephen, this was shot on Ilford Pan 100 BW film on a sunny day, printed on color paper.The subject moved while combing his beard :). If i remember correctly, the shutter speed was 1/30 or 1/40. There are areas of sharpness around/ near his neck though.<div></div>

[Julio Fernandez]

The image has some sharp zones, for instance the folding creases next to the neck. Definitely motion blurring in the hands and beard region, head is not sharp because of movement. It would have been an interesting image!

 

Was background moving relative to camera or is it out of focus (which would be "good" technique in a portrait)?

 

Now 1/30 (and it looks more like 1/15 to me) is not a good shutter speed for portraits of moving people, not to speak of moving camera or environment such as trains.

 

When holding the camera by hand you normally need a shutter speed of 1/100 for this portrait situation and with relatively fast hand movements 1/250 or even higher would be better, to get sharp images. Most people cannot get sharp pictures with < 1/30 hand held. I try not to go below 1/60.

 

What was time of day and lighting conditions for this photograph? Do you remember the aperture you used?

 

ISO 100 should be more than adequate for normal portraits in the outdoors with sunlight. If you are photographing in low light situations (inside the train for instance or in deep shadow) 400 would be better. 400 works well enough in the sun unless you are looking for some very special selective focus effect and need too fast a shutter speed for it.

 

I would not use ISO 200 - either you have enough light and use ISO 100, or you don't and then 400 or even higher is the answer.

[stephen hazelton]

Looking at the photo, my first thought would be to use wider aperature and faster shutter speed. The background is completely out of focus anyway, so you should be able to shoot at f/2.8 or so and have the subject in focus. If it's too time for that, then time for 400 speed or faster film.

 

If you shoot B&W and do your own processing, you can push process for an extra stop or two.

 

If you're using a zoom- it's probably faster at the shorter end, and you get less motion problem at the shorter end, so using the shorter end in low light situations will help.

 

& I'd vote for something faster on a train- 400 or higher.

[nevilleb]

Hmmm agree with what most of the people above have said. Go with a wider aperture / faster shutterspeed combo, but then if the focal length is 90-100 which is best for portraits, DOF is going to be an issue with too wide an aperture.

 

Fill flash may help. As will a higher speed film. 400, as has been said above, is a safe bet.

[nevilleb]

Wonderful subject by the way. Point me to some of your work, willya Abs?

[steviewander]

Don't be fooled (like I was) in thinking that a super fast lens (and therefore faster shutter speed) will solve all your problems. I recently took my new Canon 100mm f2.0 to India just for portraits and was sorely disappointed when most of my shots (shot wide open) were off focus; the DOF was SO shallow that getting the focus perfect on the eyes was almost impossible (even w/auto focus). And those where the focus on the eyes was good, the DOF was too shallow to make a good portrait. What to do now!!???

[nevilleb]

Stephen:

 

That's what I said in my post above yours with respect to wide apertures and a large focal length - the DOF is going to be very narrow. And your experience echoes that.

 

Which is where fill flash comes in. As does a faster film.

 

And by the way, the real feature of a fast lens is that the wide aperture allows for a much brighter image as viewed through the viewfinder and better and faster focusing.

[nevilleb]

Steven, sorry I called you stephen. Typo!

[neil_lupin]

that was definitely shot at slower than 1/40!! - 1/8 more like!