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What are good ideas for photography assignment? I need to do stop action, pan and blur, no moving vehicles.?

I need good ideas and this is for an intro. to photography class. Thanks.

Check your local sports page for 10K races this weekend.

Find a good vantage point, preferably with buildings or some other interesting background.

To "stop action" requires a fast shutter speed. Use ISO 200 and if its a sunny day you should be able to shoot at f5.6 and 1/500 sec. If possible, 1/1000 would be even better. Shoot the runners as they run by and you should have excellent stop-action photos.

The "panning" technique requires some practice. Say the runners are coming from your left to right. You have to "pre-focus" on a spot maybe 10' directly in front of you. Maybe have a friend stand there, focus on him and DON'T TOUCH THE FOCUS RING. Here you can use a slower shutter speed so try f8 or even f11. With your feet shoulder-width apart, turn your upper body to the left. Choose a runner (or runners if there's a small group) and then smoothly turn - keeping them in the viewfinder - until they are directly in front of you. Depress the shutter and KEEP following them to the right. Turn - click - turn. This has to be done as one smooth, continuous motion. Practice practice practice. Properly done your runner will be fairly sharp (since you used f8 or f11 the depth of field will help) and the background will be a blur. Gives a great impression of speed.

For the blur part you'll need a tripod and cable release. You may also need a Neutral Density filter*. Stop your lens down as far as it will go - f16 or f22. We want our shutter speed to be 1/30 sec. or less. Focus at a spot approximately 10' in front of you and make your exposures as the runners go by. They should be a nice blur against a sharp in-focus background.

* If you don't have a Neutral Density filter a circular polarizer will suffice. Simply aim at the sky (with the sun at your right or left) rotate the polarizer until the sky darkens and leave it there. This will decrease exposure by approximately 2 stops. If you're at your minimum aperture of f16 and the shutter speed is still at 1/125 the polarizer will decrease it to 1/30 sec. If you don't own a polarizer now is the time to buy one.

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