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How to Make a Flag Look Like It is Moving?

The image of a flag blowing in the wind can inspire a sense of pride and patriotism in your viewers. However, it's not always possible to photograph a flag being whipped about naturally by a strong wind. If you prefer to shoot indoors, or in a professional studio, you'll need to recreate the effect of a strong gust. With a few standing fans and a fast shutter speed, you can make your flag blow and billow without stepping outside.

Things You'll Need

Standing fans
Camera

Instructions

- 1
  Arrange your flag as desired. Mount the flag vertically in a support stand, hang it from a rafter so that it unfurls sideways, or have an assistant stretch it out. If you are using any studio lights in your shoot, position these at this point.
- 2
  Create a backdrop if necessary. Use a white bed sheet for a bright, clean background, or a black sheet for added contrast in your resulting image. If you will be shooting close-up photographs of your flag, no backdrop is needed.
- 3
  Place one or two standing fans roughly 3 feet from the flag. Turn the fans to their highest setting, and experiment with the positioning of the fans until you achieve the desired effect.
- 4
  Set your camera to shutter priority mode, symbolized as "S" or "Tv" on most mode dials. This allows you to control the speed of your shutter while the camera selects the other exposure settings.
- 5
  Select a shutter speed of 1/1000th of a second or faster to freeze the flag's motion. To create an artistic motion blur in your image, use a 1/60th of a second or slower.
- 6
  Look through the viewfinder and compose your image as desired. Take care to leave the standing fans out of your framing. Make several test shots and review them on your camera's LCD screen before deciding on a specific shutter speed or composition.

Photography