I was so excited to tackle the movement theme again this month (as we have done every year since starting this project) because I feel it is so important to grasp how to incorporate movement in your photography. Movement gives a static, two-dimensional image so much dimension and emotion and brings life to it! Movement can transform an otherwise boring photo into something magical.
And bring the magic you did! I loved looking through all your images the past few weeks. From stopped and blurred motion to atmospheric movement, you guys delivered such incredible work! Here is a small handful to prove my point.
xo Angie Mahlke
Gear: Canon 6dmkii with Tamron 24-70mm 2.8 G2 lens
Settings: f3.5, 1/400, ISO 200
The Shot: I was crouching down low at the bottom of the slide trying to catch a shot of my little guy as he slid down and ended up catching him as he flew off the end
Post Processing: Hello Autumn preset plus tweaks. I used a radial filter to lift the shadows on his face.
Gear: Nikon D750, tamron 24-70
Settings: 50mm, f/2.8, 1/1000, iso 320
The Shot: Shot poolside at about 6:30 in the evening
Post Processing: Edited in Lightroom: white balance, brighten, contrast, lift shadows and whites, adjust color hue and luminance, local adjustments on skin. Additional edit in photoshop: levels, and sharpening.
Gear: Canon 6D Mark ii, Sigma Art 35 mm
Settings: ISO 100, f/1.6, 1/3200
The Shot: I love the morning light that comes through our stairs and have been wanting to get a picture of one of my kids in this spot. Had my oldest give me some twirls on the landing while I stood at the bottom of the stairs.
Post Processing: Applied SMAL 10 preset. Decreased blacks and increased whites & exposure.
Gear: Sony a7iii, 35mm
Settings: ISO 125, 1/800, 2.8
The Shot: I shot this in golden hour, the sun was to the right of me, my little girl was playing.
Post Processing: I edited in LR with adjustments to white balance, highlights down, shadows up, whites and blacks down, added a little contrast and sharpened subject with a brush, I darkened the edges slightly using an adjustment curve is PS.
Gear: Canon 80D with 35 mm
Settings: f/2.8, ISO 160, 1/800
The Shot: My kids were spraying each other with the water hose and falling into the pool.
Post Processing: Edited in Lightroom, SMAL 01, removed grain, increased warmth, adjusted hues, saturation.
Gear: Canon 6D mark II
Settings: ISO 100, f/s 2.0, SS 1/2000
The Shot: My son was on top of a dune in Indiana and I basically laid in the sand and shot upward towards him as he jumped off the dune!
Post Processing: I edited this actually using Lightroom mobile, used a personal preset upped the blues, added some contrast took out as much whites as possible as it was taken in the middle of the day and added texture and clarity to the sand.
Gear: 5D Mark III on a 35 mm lens
Settings: f2.2, ISO 250, 1/1000
The Shot: I had my camera set to high burst so that when my husband squeezed the balloon I would have an increased chance of capturing their reactions as well as the water movement. I did bribe my children with popsicles for this one. Although it didn’t take much convincing as it is 99 degrees with 95% humidity. Win-win.
Post Processing: I edited this with Soulmate Presets. I tweaked a lot. I changed the tone curve, as I don’t like the matte look that this preset gives. I moved the saturation & vibrancy sliders to 0. I increased the shadows. I decreased the blacks.
Gear: Canon 5D Mk iv Canon 85 mm 1.2
Settings: iso 500, 1/640, f/1.6
The Shot: It was raining a little, and my son loves to jump in puddles. To protect the camera, husband held an umbrella over me, and I put a plastic bag over my camera and poked a hole through for my lens.
Post Processing: Basic adjustments made in LR, raised clarity and texture to see more of the water splashing. Taken into PS: raised saturation of the raincoat and boots, played with tone curve, radial gradient added.
Gear: Fuji x100t
Settings: 1/15 sec, ISO 200, f16 with ND filter
The Shot: Seated on a bench hand hold camera
Post Processing: Lightroom CC
Gear: Canon 70D with Canon 50mm 1.8 lens and Gobe ND64 filter
Settings: 2.5 sec, f22, ISO 100
The Shot: I just got an inexpensive ND filter to use for silky water effects since we are outside at lakes and creeks a lot this year. I brought it along on the 4th when we went to a lake with the kids to fish and I saw my very bored daughter fishing on a rock and thought it would look cool to have her not moving and all the movement around her since it was insanely busy there that day. (Not a great day for fishing.) There was a railing on a fishing platform a good distance away so I put my camera on it and used a delay to take the picture since I didn't have a remote shutter with me. I didn't tell my daughter not to move (she doesn't like to cooperate for pictures most of the time anyway) so I had to shoot 6 or 7 pictures to get one where she didn't move at all.
Post Processing: I ended up liking the movement on the boats on a different picture more than the one where my daughter didn't move so I opened them both in PS and copied my daughter out of one image and into the one with the better boat movement. Used LR to increase exposure slightly, adjust colors and tone curve, straighten, dehaze mountains, sharpen my daughter and the rock she was on, used brush to increase exposure on my daughter slightly.
Gear: Nikon D850 + 35mm Sigma Art 1.4
Settings: ISO 320, 1/400 sec., f 1.6
The Shot: I actually planned to take the hair dryer by myself but then she wanted to take it on her own and she loved it - i could take really a lot shots, this one was my favorite - i stood her in front of a window door, so it was all natural light I used.
Post Processing: Edited in LR + PS --> used my own preset for low light indoors, deepened the blacks and also the lights and I played with the HSL-panel --> in PS I used a photoshop action from Totally Rad for the skin to make it more smooth.
Gear: Nikon D4 32mm
Settings: Iso 100, F 6.3, 0.5 seg
The Shot: I went yesterday to the beach with a friend of my daughter. She ended up very wet like my tripod I made a lot of paper boats but only use a few.
Post Processing: I edit the paper boat in photoshop.
Gear: Sony a7iii with sony 35 mm
Settings: 1/80 f10 iso 100
The Shot: I got her to sit as still as possible and got little brother to bike across. Put my camera on high burst and locked focus on her.
Post Processing: Cropped/straightened, adjusted curves/light adjustments/highlights down/shadows up/whites up/blacks down/adjusted greens.
Gear: Canon 6d mk ii, 35mm
Settings: ISO 320, f/6.3, 1/30sec
The Shot: Kids were riding down the street on the billy cart so i just waited on the side of the road and practised some panning.
Post Processing: In lightroom i applied a preset, ended up cropping a fair bit as i was too far back and he seemed a little lost in my original composition, i applied a radial filter around him to darken shadows and exposure a little, i also adjusted some of the HSL sliders to get the greens and reds a little more where i wanted them.
Gear: Nikon D7000, 35mm
Settings: ISO 125. f/2.0, 1/800
The Shot: I love watching my kids play on the tire swing! I asked my girls to fling their hair back and forth and I just snapped away!
Post Processing: I edited this in Adobe Photoshop. I pulled down highlights and increased blacks to darken up the background and give more contrast to the image. I then used a combo of LXC, SMAL and Brixton Film presets along with a subtle matte filter from Greater Than Gatsby presets. I added a little vignetting and used a highlight brush to bring out their hair and outfits.