How to Do Stop Action Photography

Stop action photography is also known as stop motion photography and is a way of filming, most often used in animation, which allows an inanimate object movement. In essence, stop motion photography is making a motion picture one frame at a time.

Difficulty: Moderately Challenging

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• A camera or video camera

1. Decide on a film topic. For the purpose of explanation, the topic will be animation and an artist's wooden model with movable parts will be used.

2. Start with your model in standing position, and take a frame with your video camera or a shot with your still camera, focusing on your wooden model from the side view.

3. Bring the right foot of your model out front, ever so slightly and take a frame or shot. Bring the same foot out in front even more and take another frame or shot. Continue this process one or two more times.

4. Now start to bring the left foot forward ever so slightly and take a frame or a shot. Bring the same foot out in front a bit more and take another frame or shot. Continue this until the left foot has past the right and is a step's length in front of the right.

5. Continue to repeat the steps, alternating bringing the right and left foot forward. When you look at the frames as a slide show if you used a camera or as a movie in a video camera you will see your wooden model walking. This is stop motion photography in action, your end result of filming frame by frame.

Tips & Warnings

• If you use a digital camera in its action mode and it can take a large number of frames per second, you can easily make atop action photography while watching a sporting event for example. You are able to see photos as if they are in action if you place them in a slide-show on your computer. Animation can be a lengthy and time-consuming process but is overwhelmingly gratifying once you reach your end result.