Movement

Definition & Theory
Movement: the act or process of moving people or things from one place or position to another.
Motion blur is the apparent streaking of rapidly moving objects in a still photo or a sequence of photos such as a movie or animation. It results when the photo being recorded changes during the recording of a single exposure, either due to rapid movement or long exposure. 
To capture this, shutter speed is used:

Shutter speed means the timing and duration of opening and closing of the shutter curtain at the back of the camera. A fast shutter speed will freeze action while slower speed creates a blurring effect. 

Research

Gabi Costea

Costea is as a Romanian photographer/coordinator for a company called BULB. He's well renowned for his street motion photos of regular people living their lives.

This photo of a group of people walking past a seating area I feel represents cultural behaviour. Assuming Costea captured this in his home country, Romania owns seems like a place where parties and such are quite joyous and interesting; this photo appears as though this group of people are having a fun night. The atmosphere around them appears dark, but well lit by building lights possibly, the fencing behind them and the outside furniture suggests a pub setting, linking better with the suggestion that they are partying. Costea has used a slow shutter speed to capture these people, potentially at 1/4 due to how much of the people has actually been captured by the camera. The only representation of movement is the group, while the outside furniture is still and frozen in the photo; I feel like the furniture is to help present the atmosphere of partying. 

Image Bank

These photos represent the type of movement photography I enjoy and would like to take inspiration from for my own movement portfolio. These photos are from the photographers Athanasios Antonakopoulos and Giulio Annibali, their work is very similar to my further research into Gabi Costea. I enjoy the presentation of human life and find the use of motion to be an intriguing way to present it; it adds actual life and more direction into the lives of these people in the photos. I plan to capture myself using shutter speed and intend to represent distortion within the photos out of personal preference.

Selected Photos
Contact Sheet

These are my raw photos for movement, captured on my DSLR camera.

Best Photos
These are my best-captured photos, untouched.

Photos that require improvement

I believe these photos did not present movement the way I intended. Both photos are using an aspect of light drawing to the photo, these were also early on in the process of creating this set, during which I wasn't certain of the poses I thought would appear well.
For the first photo of a circle of light next to me while I look away from the camera. I am firstly blurry, which means I wasn't perfectly still while this photo was being captured; this overall is the main issue. Secondly, there doesn't seem to be much meaning to the circle of light in the photo, I am not communicating with it in any way, and just appears to be in the background; this makes the whole aspect of the photo seem meaningless which was not my intention. If I were to retake this photo, I would make sure I was either perfectly still, or actually moved with the light so it seemed to own more purpose.
For the second photo of a looped light line while I stare into the camera has the same issues as the first photo of improvement. Firstly, I am blurry, when the intention of me being still, is clear in the photo, making it appear less professional. Secondly, the light line owns no meaning, once again, I'm not interacting with it in any way and it's simply just in front of me; this makes the photo, in general, own nothing to it, which was not my intentions for these photos. If I were to retake this photo, I would make sure I was either perfectly still, or actually moved with the light so it seemed to own more purpose.

AO3: Record ideas, observations, and insights relevant to intentions reflecting critically on work and progress.

My Ideas

My ideas for capturing movement were based on my research into Gabi Costea, Athanasios Antonakopoulos, and Giulio Annibali; all of which captured people and their lives out in public, I do enjoy this form a lot but felt more comfortable with the idea of capturing myself and creating distorted photos to possibly suggest things like mental health. I believe my photos have come out as intended since they own a distorted appearance to the human form and majority suggest a distress. I was aware that when taking the photos, some of the features I want visible won't be visible till edited so I'm aware the raw photos haven't met my full potential yet.

Reference to my best photos

The first photo of me appearing distressed and in motion as if I was shaking my head while in my hands was obviously inspired by my photo intentions. I wanted my photos to own distortion and symbolism of things such as mental distortion. Everything is in motion in this photo so everything owns a sense of intensity, removing any tranquillity; my face is still visible in the motion, making the symbolism easier to understand.

The fourth photo of me fairly still why my arms/hands are in constant motion I believe I enjoy the most. My visible facial expressions display distress and discomfort; due to my movement with my expressions, my eyes have been muted colour wise and it enhances the suggestion that I'm out of reality in this photo. Once edited I know a lot darker features will be revealed and will add to the distortion.

The fifth photo of me in a relatively fast motion isn't very clear in detail, but I'm aware once edited will appear more detailed and distorted. From what you can already see though, in one of the frames, I appear still and contained but with a distressed expression; then in the other frames, it appears that I'm in a quick movement like I was screaming. I enjoy this photo because the appearance of distress and intensity meets my intentions perfectly.

AO2: Explore and select appropriate resources, media, materials, techniques, and processes, reviewing and refining ideas as work develops.

Use of Camera

I used a Nikon D3400 DSLR camera and a tripod for every photo taken. Since these photos were taken of myself, I had to capture myself using self-timer while my camera was on a tripod, I used someone else to make sure all the camera settings, focus, and alignments were right. The camera was in manual mode, aperture at F8, exposure at ISO 100 since the lighting was fairly harsh and shutter speed was at "3-5 depending on the photo. The ISO needed to be at 100 since the shutter speed was capturing frames in longer than a second, meaning it was collecting already a lot of light, so the exposure needed to be set to bright conditions. Once making sure everything was set right, I put the camera on self-timer (taking a photo every 5 seconds for 5 photos each time) and captured myself in various motion poses.

Final Pieces

Since my inspirations were from Gabi Costea, Athanasios Antonakopoulos, and Giulio Annibali, and all their work being black and white, I wanted to do the same. So I put my photos onto Photoshop.
I firstly pressed CTRL+SHIFT+U to remove all saturation from the photo. Then pressing CTRL+L to open up 'Levels...' and dragging the dark tones slightly down so it's not too heavy or removing any little details. Then moving the mid-tones also down a little more so some of the faint details are revealed better. Then the white tones only slightly up so the contrast in the photo is still there, making sure nothing is flat in detail.

Then pressing CTRL+M to open up 'Curves', dragging the centre of the line lower, so everything in the photo is darkened; this is to help reveal some of the fainter details.

AO1: Develop ideas through sustained and focused investigations informed by contextual and other sources, demonstrating analytical and critical understanding.

My portfolio inspiration being from the photographers Gabi Costea, Athanasios Antonakopoulos, and Giulio Annibali made me understand my interest in human form photography better, and my fascination for human behaviour. They captured people's lives and the motion they live in using the form of movement in photography. Movement adds more life into photos, they feel less flat and instead more alive in that moment; it also adds to understanding a photo and what it's trying to reveal to a viewer. I've learnt from this topic my further fascination in the human form and to understand other effective ways to present that fascination.

AO4: Present a personal and meaningful response that realises intentions and, where appropriate, makes connections between visual and other elements.  

I believe my final pieces for movement represent my intentions and passion for distorted human form photography. They own a distressed emotion to them and still own an aspect of the human form. These are my final pieces for movement.