Shutter speed Sunday...

Sunday January 30, 2011

Okay, so now that I've cracked open the massive manual for my camera, I decided to study up on other things as well...I've messed around with aperture and shutter speed a little bit (basically just twirling the dial and taking a picture to see what happens), but I figured my user guide could probably give me more insight on just how to use those with my camera.

It's really interesting actually. Basically, aperture and shutter speed work together along with ISO to help you change up the exposure of your picture. Shutter speed is how long the shutter is open-the longer it's open, the more light can come in, but it also means that it can cause more blur b/c unless the subject is absolutely still, having the shutter open longer will catch movement. Aperture is the size of the opening in the lens when the pic is taken....the bigger the opening, the more light, the smaller the opening, the less light gets in. So, in low light settings, either a longer shutter speed or a larger aperture would be appropriate (if you're not wanting to use a flash). Aperture also effects depth of field...but that's another can of worms we'll save for later.

Shutter speed and aperture also work together when trying to take pictures of moving objects...depending on if you want to freeze the movement or if you want to try and capture the movement (like the blur of the water in a waterfall so you can get a sense of how fast the water is moving...)

That's a simplified gist of it at least....

So, last night and this afternoon I decided to mess around with shutter speed. With the "shutter speed priority setting", I can manually change the shutter speed and the camera will adjust the aperture for me. Nice! :)

I took this picture with a slower shutter speed of 2 seconds. Kyle and T-Bone were standing in front of me when I snapped the shot, but moved before the shutter closed leaving a ghostly blur of where they had been. Pretty sweet, huh?



In these below, I was pretty much just playing around to see how different speeds effected the amt of movement captured. The first picture was taken with a faster shutter speed (1/3) and my feet were still. In the 2nd shot, I used a slower shutter speed (1 sec) and I was moving both my feet and in the 3rd, I used a shutter speed of 2.5 and was moving just my left foot.





Mya wanted in on the action too...


In the manual, there a picture taken with super slow shutter speed (30 seconds), taken at night of a road with the cars speeding past and it looks so cool b/c it captures the movement of the cars and their headlights looks like long blurs of light on the highway. My next experiment with shutter speed is going to be an attempt to replicate that type of a shot...we'll see how it turns out. I'll post my efforts afterwards.....:) Wish me luck....