How can I avoid motion blur when photographing horses with a Nikon D3100 and 18-55mm lens?
Asked 12/23/2015
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I shoot horses with a Nikon D3100 and the 18-55mm kit lens. Many of my photos come out blurry, especially the horses’ legs when they are moving. What settings should I change to freeze the action and get sharper images?
Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
Photography Stack Exchange contributor
10y ago
2 Answers
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What you are seeing is called motion blur. Simply stated, it is blur caused by motion during exposure. Horses obviously move and their legs will show even more motion. The solution to this is to use a faster shutter-speed.
You can control the shutter-speed in Shutter-Priority mode or in Manual mode. For the former you will get a metered exposure which will make this easy. Turn the Mode-Dial to S mode and use the control-dial to select the shutter-speed.
The faster the horse moves across the field-of-view, the faster the shutter-speed needs to be. I would start with 1/1000s. If there is still blur, raise the speed. If images come out too dark, lower it. Eventually though, if it is dark and you still get blur, there is no way out but to buy a brighter lens.
You can also go at it backwards, open the aperture to the maximum in Aperture priority mode and put the ISO at the maximum acceptable setting. This way, the camera will choose the faster speed to get a proper exposure. Some shots may still end up blurry when it is darker, but this would give you some good odds of usable results.
Originally by user1620. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
user1620
10y ago
0
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This looks like motion blur from the horse moving during the exposure, not necessarily a focus problem. The legs usually blur first because they move fastest.
To freeze motion, use a faster shutter speed. On your D3100, try Shutter Priority (S mode) and start around 1/1000 sec for running horses. If there’s still blur, go faster. If the horse is moving more slowly, you may get away with a lower speed.
If the image becomes too dark at fast shutter speeds:
- Raise the ISO
- Use a wider aperture (lower f-number) if available
Your 18-55mm lens may be limiting in lower light, so in dim conditions there may be a point where you can’t get both enough light and enough shutter speed. In that case, more light or a brighter lens helps.
A wider aperture can also blur the background more, but the main fix for blurry legs is shutter speed.
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