f/11, 4 exposures each of 30 sec., ISO-64, FL-34 mm eqv., Nikon d810,
Tamron 24-70mm f/2.8, Jaipur, Rajasthan, India 2015.
Shutter-speed wrt Motion
Shutter-speed can capture motion, or freeze any motion.
A slow-shutter can capture some motion of a moving object
in the form of motion-blur. A fast shutter-speed can freeze
the motion of a fast moving subject, as if, it was not moving.
When we use a slow-shutter on a moving subject, camera will
capture some motion in the form of blur (called motion-blur).
The amount of motion-blur will depend upon the shutter-speed,
the speed of the subject, and the distance between lens and subject.
Slower the shutter-speed, or higher the speed of subject, more motion-blur will be captured.
Also less lens to subject distance will be helpful to capture more motion-blur.
Generally we do not want blur in our photos; We want them
to be sharp; and for that, a fast-shutter is used.
But, using a slow-shutter on a moving
subject is an artistic way of capturing motion. By looking
at that image, you can tell that motion was there.
In the following image, a shutter-speed of 1⁄13 sec.
was used to capture the motion of the bushes & small trees.
A slow-shutter image
f/9, 1⁄13 sec., ISO-100, FL-15 mm eqv.,
Nikon d7000, Sigma 10-20mm, Haflong, India 2016.
When using a slow-shutter, we have to remember that
we are allowing more light
to the sensor/film. To
compensate that (to block some light), we may need
to use lower ISO or narrower aperture, whichever suits
the situation.
A slow-shutter image
f/18, 1⁄15 sec., ISO-31, FL-16 mm eqv.,
Nikon d810, Nikkor 16-35mm f/4, Pangong Lake, Ladakh, India 2018.
The above image is an examples of slow-shutter
shot with a shutter-speed of 1⁄15 sec.
In the following image , I purposefully used a slow
shutter-speed of 1⁄20 sec.
to capture the rotating motion of the artists .
A slow-shutter image
f/13, 1⁄20 sec., ISO-220, FL-16 mm eqv.,
Nikon d810, Nikkor 16-35mm f/4, Purulia, West Bengal, India 2019.
Slow shutter-speed can be creative, but if used
unknowingly/accidentally, may ruin a shot.
Let us check this photograph of a flute-seller
taken in very low-light environment.
For the above photograph, shutter-speed
was ¼ sec.
with an aperture of f/1.8 and ISO 640. The
shutter-speed was too slow (unintentional),
my camera got a shake, and the shot was ruined.
In the same environment, the above image was shot
with 1⁄200 sec.,
other variables remaining the same.
Though the shutter-speed was sufficiently
fast to freeze the subject, ISO of 640 was not adequate to
brighten the scene. This wrong settings resulted in
an underexposed image.
However, I did shoot it in raw format, so some
brightness could be added in post-processing. The
processed image is on the right side.
Mistakes are inevitable in photography, specially,
when someone buys his first camera and practises
shooting. The more we shoot, the more we learn.
Frequent shooting in the field will gather
experience for you, and number of mistakes will reduce
gradually.
A slow-shutter image
f/5.6, 1⁄40 sec., ISO-160, FL-15 mm eqv.,
Nikon d7000, Sigma 10-20mm, Delhi, India 2016.
In the above image, the motion of the cycle-rickshaw was captured
using a slow shutter of 1⁄40 sec.
A slow-shutter image
f/14, 1⁄15 sec., ISO-31, FL- 16 mm eqv.,
Nikon d810, Nikkor 16-35mm f/4,
Havlock Island, Andaman, India 2017.
Again, a slow-shutter of
1⁄15 sec. was used to capture
the motion of the waves in the above image. You can check
that a low ISO of 31 and narrow aperture of f/14 was used
to block the excess light caused by slow shutter-speed.
Slow-shutter can be creative if used suitably. There
are other slow-shutter tecniques like panning, zoom-burst,
long-exposure, astro-photography etc. which will be discussed later.
Fast shutter-speed freezes motion
In comparison to slow-shutter, fast shutter-speeds
have straight-forward effects : darkening an image,
and freezing motion.
As fast shutter-speeds can freeze or stop motion, they are
frequently used in sports and wildlife photography. In
BIF (bird-in-flight) photography, you must use fast shutter-speed
to stop fast-moving birds. In the above image, a speed of
1⁄1250th. sec. was used.
Even except those situations,
when there is too much of light in a scenario, you may have to
resort to a fast-shutter to block some light.
In the above image, I experimentally used a speed of
1⁄8000th. second to stop the motion
of the water particles. In general, fast shutter-speeds
allow less light, and should be compensated by higher ISO
or/and wider aperture. But in this case, there was excess
light in the scenario, so iso-100 and aperture f/11 worked.
A fast-shutter image
f/6.3, 1⁄8000 sec., ISO-400, FL- 27mm eqv.,
Nikon d7000, Nikkor 18 - 105mm, Puri, Orissa, India 2015.
Crop of the above (1⁄8000th. sec.)
Example of fast shutter-speed of 1⁄2500 sec.
In the above image a fast shutter-speed of
1⁄2500 sec. was applied
and this resulted in the freezing of the fast-rotating blades of the helicopter.
There is another situation when photographers are
bound to apply very fast shutter-speed (if not using
ND filter). When shooting portrait, to acheive a very shallow
depth-of-field (almost everything blurred out except the subject),
they have to set a very wide aperture, like f/1.4, f/1.8, f/2 etc.
Now in a very bright light condition, this large aperture will allow
excessive light to the sensor or film, resulting in over-exposure.
To block some light, a fast shutter-speed and lowest possible native ISO of the camera is recommended here.
And if the fastest shutter-speed and lowest ISO still allows more
light than required, then CPL or ND filters have to be used to avoid over-exposure.
Panning in photography with slow shutter
The panning technique in photography depicts the
sense of motion of a moving subject. The idea is
to follow a moving subject with your camera; while
keeping the subject in focus, shoot the scenario
with a slow shutter-speed. In this way, the subject
will be sharp, and all the stationary elements will
obtain a motion blur.
Put your camera's focus to continuous mode; this is important.
Put drive mode for multiple shots.
Use shutter-priority or manual mode, so that the
shutter-speed may be changed quickly, if needed.
Focus on your moving subject and pan your camera
with the same speed as the subject has.
During panning, keep the shutter pressed to get multiple images.
Doing some practice with different shutter speeds and
subject distance will get good panning photographs.
Long exposure photography
Long exposure photography is a technique in which
the shutter-speed duration is intentionally extended for a long period of time
to capture the motion of falling/running water, moving car-light etc.
f/16, 30 sec. , ISO-100, FL- 17mm eqv.,
Nikon d7000 Sigma 10-20mm f/4-5.6, Goa, India 2014.
A sturdy tripod and remote are necessary for shooting such scenarios;
though modern cameras with IBIS (In Body Image Stabilization)
and lenses with VR (vibration reduction) feature may help to shoot
without tripods, if shutter-speed is less than one or two seconds.
When shutter-speeds is kept for 1 second or more,
any motion in the scenario is captured as blur.
For flowing/moving water, a creamy and aesthetic look
can be recorded as is seen in the above image, where
the shutter-speed was extended to 30 seconds.
But wait, we know that a slower/longer shutter-speed allows more light.
Keeping the shutter open for 30 seconds will invite
huge amount of light and the image will tend to over-exposure.
We might be using lowest ISO and narrower aperture, but that too
may not be sufficient to block the extra light.
Neutral density fiters
Here comes a tool named neutral density fiters
which we mount in front of a lens.
They are designed to block the incoming light.
When an N.D filter is marked as 9 stop filter, it means it will
allow 9 stop less light as compared to the settings without
the filter.
f/22, 15 sec., ISO-100, FL-15 mm eqv., Nikon d7000,
Sigma 10-20mm f/4-5.6, Jayantia Hills, Meghalaya, India 2014.
The above scenario was full of sunlight.
By metering, I found that the scenario could be
properly exposed with the shutter-speed of
1⁄30 sec.
But I planned to extend the shutter speed to a longer period to
capture the motion blur of the water.
Attaching a 9-stop ND filter to the lens
allowed me to reduce the shutter-speed to as low as 15 seconds,
keeping the other variables unchanged.
Note that, even after resorting to a 9-stop N D filter,
I had to dial a narrow aperture of f/22
because of too much light in the scenario. That has caused some amount of
diffraction
in the image, but I accepted it.
If an N D filter or equivalent tool is not with you, to
capture long exposure photographs choose a time of early morning
or evening when light is less hursh.
The following image was shot at around 11 pm, with almost no light.
So, I could achieve a shutter-speed of 4.5 minutes without
any filter. You may probably guess that my main target were the
moving clouds which were wandering in the sky.
f/8, 270 sec., ISO-64, FL-19 mm eqv., Nikon d810,
Nikon 16-35mm f/4, Pangong Lake, Ladakh, India 2014.
Only moving objects gain special effect in long exposure photography;
stationary ones remain as they are. But we have to ensure that the
tripod does not move or shake during the exposure period due to wind
or some other reason.
