Photographing fan blades in rotation

[Durga Prasad]

I use Panasonic FZ 50. I tried to photograph the still image of pedastal fan blades while the fan is 'running' . I tried all combinations of shutter speed, aperture and ISO without using flash. I get only a blur of the blades similar to what we see with normal eye. Is there a solution?

 

[Digital Matt]

Depending on the speed of the fan, you might need a shutter speed of 1/500 or greater to freeze the motion. You might even need to go as fast as 1/2000 or 1/4000 if the fan is on high. This means you'll need a lot of light. Your best bet is outside at high noon.

Is this for a photo class? This is a pretty typical photography 101 project.

 

[Torus34]

Very dark room and strobe.

 

[sabbath999]

How about just turning the fan off?

 

[CBRfanatic]

How about just turning the fan off?

i thought the same exact thing...

 

[DSLR noob]

Well I just tried all sorts of shutter combinations. I went from the highest my meter wanted me to do in the room (1/200) and went down to speeds as slow as 5 seconds. As long as I used flash, the fan blades looked stopped, and the fan setting is 2/3. I can't see with the naked eye. the blades are white and the flash reflects the position of the blades at that exact moment, even of a 5 second shutter. Simply put, I could NOT blur the blades with a single curtain flash.

 

[Sandra Lero]

There are two different way:

1. Capture a still blades and processing in PS
2. Spin a blades just a little and then shoot with shutter speed 1/60 or similar.