Not Accounting for the Moving Subject’s Direction
Here’s a common idea: It doesn’t matter which direction a subject is running, the subject will be blurry if the camera’s speed is set too slow. Gotcha! Couldn’t resist. Just had to include this myth that my mother taught me decades ago. When I give a photography test, 95 percent of my students get this question wrong. The truth is, you will have a better chance of avoiding blur if the moving object is coming toward you rather than running laterally across your line of sight. (Obviously, common sense would dictate that you avoid this technique with trains or any other potentially dangerous objects coming toward you at a high speed!)
“When I give a photography test, 95 percent of my students get this question wrong.”
When the girl is running toward the camera and photographed at a shutter speed of 1/40 second, the areas of extreme blur are limited to her hands and feet.
However, when she is running laterally across the frame (and photographed at the same shutter speed of 1/40 second), the blur is really accentuated.