Shutter Drag
Dragging the shutter, what exactly does that mean? This is a technique that will really help your sports images stand out, as well as create unique images when you're shooting with a flash.
Shutter Drag is when you shoot a fast scene with a slow shutter. Usually when this happens, the entire scene is blurry due to camera shake or motion. However, we can stylistically use this effect to paint light into our background while still keeping our subject sharp, and there are two ways to accomplish this.
Sports and High Speed Motion
I took this picture at the St Petersburg Grand Prix in 2019. Notice the subtle blur of the background? We can exaggerate this even further to really make our subject pop. To accomplish this effect, we must slow our shutter substantially. Many people try to freeze motion, but we're going to do the opposite.
This can be done in either Shutter Priority or Manual, but I prefer shutter priority for fast movement such as this. Set your shutter to somewhere around 1/30th of a second. We will start here and adjust up or down to really dial in blur and subject sharpness. The perfect balance is a nice creamy background with a sharp subject. Notice the wheels above; there is a slight blur while the car itself is in focus.
Dragging the Shutter with Flash
Using a flash allows us to get some extremely creative shots. Here I left the shutter open for a full second - absolutely ridiculous in most circumstances!
To achieve this look, we will start in Manual exposure. Set your shutter to stay open for around a second to half a second depending on the look you're going for. After this, close down aperture (higher number) and set exposure so that image is fairly dark but lights still stand out. After this, we'll set our flash to fire with the second curtain so that the part of the image exposed with flash looks like it's leaving a trail behind.
When you fire your camera set up in this way, the shutter will stay open for your set exposure time and the flash will fire right before the shutter closes. Move the camera around before the flash to achieve light trails and give a sense of movement to your image!
Notice the blurred lights and column, but sharp shirt.
That's it! Pretty straightforward in terms of settings, but will definitely take some getting used to, especially with panning. Don't be discouraged if your images don't look great at first! It requires a steady hand but you'll be nailing shots in no time!
