you were photographing a truck doing thirty miles an hour? If you froze it
until everything was perfectly sharp, it would probably look like it wasn't
moving at all.
By deliberately introducing some blur, the viewer will
realize that the truck was actually moving during the time the exposure was
made (and by extrapolation, probably before and after as well). There are
two ways to show blur.
(a) By holding the camera still and letting the action move across
the picture area, the thing moving will be blurred against a sharp
background.
(This, of course, assumes the background is in focus.
Blur
caused by lack of focus isn't what we're talking about here.) This could be
another good way of showing boxers in action.
The speed of the gloves
moving through the frame would cause them to be quite blurred, but the
referee, standing relatively still, would appear much sharper. There would
be no doubt about what was moving rapidly and what was standing still.
Figure 3-16.
Using blur to show action
(b) Another technique is called panning.
This simply means that
instead of keeping the camera still, you move the camera to follow the
action, keeping the image in the same place in the picture area. But since
the camera is moving the background will be blurred and the subject will be
sharp.
You've probably seen this many times in photos of race cars or
anything else which moves rapidly in a predictable way.
Cars, airplanes,
horse races or any other similar action can be shot while panning. But it
would be very hard to pan with the action of a boxing glove since the
glove's wearer is actually trying to fool his opponent (and you) about where
the glove will be going in the next instant.
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