Beecher's Handouts /
Assignments /
#4 - Shutter Speed
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Why Are
You Doing this Assignment?
Shutter speed is a valuable tool
for showing time and motion in your photography.
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A Little History
Freezing motion, or showing motion as blurs, has been done by
photographers from the early days to the present.
The French inventor Niépce succeeded in fixing (making it insensitive
to light after developing) a photographic image as early as 1817.
His earliest existing picture was taken in 1827 using an eight-hour
exposure.
By 1859, faster shutters, and more sensitive films, enabled photographers
to freeze the motion of pedestrians.
The writer and physician, Oliver Wendell Holmes (his son became
a Supreme Court judge), used photographs of people walking to design
better artificial limbs for Civil War veterans.
Eadweard Muybridge created a sensation in 1879 when he photographed
a trotting horse with twelve cameras.
The shutters were tripped by wires across the track.
He discovered that horses have all four legs up in the air at
one point in their stride, but the legs are tucked under the belly.
The legs never extend out like in a hobbyhorse.
In 1880, he projected these images on a screen in quick succession,
making an early motion picture.
Do the Following
Look for motion and photograph it using two different
shutter speeds.
Fast & Slow
When you find some motion, photograph it with a fast shutter
speed (1/1,000th of a second) and slow shutter speed (1/8th of a
second).
S or Tv
Use the shutter-priority exposure mode: S or Tv.
1/1,000th or 1/8th
Use the above shutter speeds: 1/1,000th of a second and 1/8th
of a second.
Blinking Hi or Lo
Hi
If you're using a slow shutter speed, and there's too much light,
Hi will blink in your viewfinder.
Your camera may not operate.
Why?
If you set the shutter speed to 1/8th of a second, there's lots
of light coming through the shutter.
Your camera blocks this abundance of light by making the lens
opening smaller.
But, when the light is too bright, the lens opening can't go
any smaller than about f/29.
For proper exposure, the lens opening has to be f/32, or f/64,
and so forth.
But, your camera doesn't have such miniscule lens openings, so,
it blinks Hi.
Do This
You can lower the ISO, and/or photograph in the shade or at twilight.
Lo
If you're using a high shutter speed, and there's very little
much light, Lo will blink in your viewfinder.
Your camera may not operate.
Why?
If you set the shutter speed to 1/1,000th of a second, there's
very little light coming through the shutter.
Your camera augments this scarcity of light by making the lens
opening larger.
But, when the light is too dim, the lens opening can't become
larger than about f/3.5 or f/4.5.
For proper exposure, the lens opening has to be f/2.8 or f/1.4.
But, your lens doesn't have such huge lens openings, so, it blinks
Lo.
Do This
You can increase the ISO, and/or photograph in brighter light.
Tips
• Don't confuse 8" with 1/8th.
Most cameras denote full-second shutter speeds with quote marks.
Thus, 8 represents an exposure of 1/8th of a second.
Whereas, 8" represents an eight second exposure.
Don't set your camera to do eight second exposures when you want
to do exposures of 1/8th of a second.
• Set your camera on, say, a newspaper box, when using slow shutter
speeds.
• If you're using slow shutter speeds in bright light, set the
ISO to the lowest value, such as 100.
• Point-and-shoot cameras don’t have small lens openings,
due to diffraction.
The smallest lens opening is often f/8.
Therefore, when using slow shutter speeds with a point-and-shoot
camera, the light must be dim.
More Tips
• Motion that is moving left to right will be more evident than
motion that is coming toward you.
• There's a delay between when you press the shutter, and the
shutter actually opens.
Therefore, for action photography, you have to take the picture
a little before you think you should.
• Flags are difficult to photograph with slow shutter speeds.
You need a very windy day, with quickly changing wind gusts.
For More Experienced Students
If you know your way around your camera, try some of the suggestions
below.
A Bungee Jumper Frozen
In Mid-fall Panic
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Fast shutter speed
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Steady
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Moving
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Frozen subject
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Autumn Leaves Floating Down
A Stream as Streaks of Yellow
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Slow shutter speed
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Steady
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Moving
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Blurred subject
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City Lights as Streaks, Jiggles, & Swirls
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Slow shutter speed
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Moved, panned, swirled, etc.
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Moving
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Lights leave streaks
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Panning
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Slow shutter speed
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Moving
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Moving
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Background is blurred left-to-right.
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Panning is a film/video technique.
You pan, or move, the camera
along with the subject.
Panning Tips
• Use 1/8th and 1/15th of a second
• Use a telephoto lens at its most telephoto setting, such as
200mm.
• Set the switch on or near your lens to manual focus.
Manually
focus where the subject will be in front of you.
• Plan on continuing the motion of your camera past the time
the picture is taken, like the follow-through when you swing a tennis
racket or golf club.
• If your camera or lens have image stabilization, turn this
feature off.
A few cameras will sense that you're panning, and will turn
of the horizontal image stabilization automatically.
Zooming During the Exposure
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Slow shutter speed
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Steady or moving
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Steady or moving
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Going warp-speed-style streaks
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Zoom in or out on a neon deli sign, a blinking don't walk sign,
or something else.
Use 1/4th of a second, or thereabouts.
Start zooming and then press the shutter release.
