When taking pictures of action-motion in photography, you must make sure your camera’s settings are of your liking. Whether you want to take a motion-blurred or a sharp picture, your shutter speed will be the most important factor in capturing these effects. For one, in “freezing the action” you must choose a fast shutter speed. How fast you want it depends on what you’re shooting. For example, if trying to capture a picture of kids playing soccer, you’ll want a shutter speed of about 1/250^th of a second. But if you’re trying to take a picture of an object flying in the air, you’d need a much faster shutter speed. It’ll work in your favor if you choose to get closer to the subject, whether that’s physically moving closer or just using a longer lens. This allows you to have a unique change in perspective and possibly capture more expression in your subjects’ faces.

To add motion in your picture, it’s best to use a slow shutter speed. If needed, a wider aperture would also do your picture well to create a shallower depth of field and allow the moving subject to stand out. An aperture of f/3.5 or lower is ideal to pull this off. Timing is everything when trying to get the best shot of your subject. You want to get the moment something special happens, whether it’s someone kicking a ball or someone cheering, jumping in the air. Zooming into these people makes the picture much more memorable and moving as you can capture their joy, thrill, or agony of defeat. Having good focus will also determine how well your subject will stand out in this photo and whether or not they’ll remain the main target of the shoot.