Attempt at capturing motion in a spinning top

It's a little too tightly cropped. I'd pull it back a bit. Needs a little more space.

It also appears that you used flash, which will limit your shutter speed to about 1/200 of a second, which isn't enough to freeze motion. That's why you have that ghosting around the subject. Use lamps or hot lights to light the top, then use a faster shutter speed (about 1/1000) to freeze the motion.

gibbit1 wrote in post #15336997
It also appears that you used flash, which will limit your shutter speed to about 1/200 of a second, which isn't enough to freeze motion. That's why you have that ghosting around the subject. Use lamps or hot lights to light the top, then use a faster shutter speed (about 1/1000) to freeze the motion.

Did you not read he is trying to capture motion? Not stop it.

I think the intent was accomplished, though the resulting image is not very interesting.

Numenorean wrote in post #15337263
Did you not read he is trying to capture motion? Not stop it.

I think the intent was accomplished, though the resulting image is not very interesting.

Oh, my mistake. I assumed he wanted to capture the top in a spinning position, but without motion blur.

If Numenorean's interpretation is indeed correct, I'd try using a longer shutter speed, with a burst of flash at the end using 2nd curtain sync. If you have a Canon speedlite, you could also try setting it on "Multi" and using the strobe effect to show the motion.

gibbit1 wrote in post #15336997
It also appears that you used flash, which will limit your shutter speed to about 1/200 of a second, which isn't enough to freeze motion. That's why you have that ghosting around the subject. Use lamps or hot lights to light the top, then use a faster shutter speed (about 1/1000) to freeze the motion.

Another way to do this is to use remote triggers with your flash. You can get faster shutter speeds but as was mentioned earlier the OP did not want to stop action.

Thanks CameraMan, Gibbit1and Numenorean.
I was indeed trying to show some motion in the shot. I agree that the shot is too tightly cropped. I was hoping for more movement from the top around the shot, but it stayed in the one spot. I like the idea of using flash on multi setting as it could give a more interesting shot.
Thanks all for your feedback.

gibbit1 wrote in post #15336997
It also appears that you used flash, which will limit your shutter speed to about 1/200 of a second, which isn't enough to freeze motion. That's why you have that ghosting around the subject. Use lamps or hot lights to light the top, then use a faster shutter speed (about 1/1000) to freeze the motion.

He can use flash duration instead of shutter speed to freeze motion if that were his goal. You dont have to have a shutter speed above x sync to do that.

If you want more movement you might want to try and slant the object it's spinning on just slightly. That would give you some movement in one direction. Then tilt the camera so the angle is the same as the tabletop.

If it's a table, try putting a book under one of the legs.

Just a thought.

I just had another thought. Before you take the shot, use a pen or pencil and tap the bottom of the top. Or slide a piece of paper or an index card to help throw it off it's axis. This will give it some forward motion and possibly make the top of the top wobble a bit as well. I'm not quite sure what you're going for. Hope that helps.

Two great ideas CameraMan. Must give them a try. Cheers
I had an idea of trying to put a groove in the surface & then attempting to get the top to follow it.

Hmmm. The top doesn't appear to have much of a point at the bottom. If you do, just make sure the groove is wide enough but not too deep. Maybe just scratching a groove with a screw tip might do the trick