Shutter Speed

Varying the shutter speed on your camera can create very interesting images. To do this, you must set your camera onto shutter priority. A slower shutter speed will capture more movement and sometimes motion blur which also adds movement to an image. Panning can also be done to create movement when your subject is stationary, for this you should use a shower shutter speed. A fast shutter speed will freeze movement and is often used in sports photography to capture a specific moment. The slowest shutter speed you are able to use while hand-holding the camera is 1/60^th of a second. After this a tripod must be used. This is because slow shutter speeds pick up on any movement and the human body is always moving so you are never able to keep the camera completely stable.

SloW SHuTTER sPEED

These photos were taken using a slow shutter speed. I experimented with time ranges of between 1/10thsecond and 4 seconds. However I did not used a tripod as it was not important for my images to be completely in focus and free from camera shake. The longer the shutter speed, the more movement can be captured. To create the ‘LOVE’ image I wrote out each letter then merged the images using Photoshop. It was very difficult to write complete words as the light overlapped over each letter and was difficult to capture on camera. This technique was difficult to perfect so I had to experiment with the speed of the light movement and the shutter speed. It was also important to ensure the light was in the camera frame, this was sometimes difficult due to the dark surroundings. When using slow shutter speeds, images often end up overexposed. Due to the shutter being open for a prolonged amount of time, a large amount of light is let into the camera meaning photos are too bright. Therefore, to create my light shape images I had to ensure the room was completely dark to ensure only light from the torch was featured in the image.To create the spinning photo I used a shutter speed of 2 seconds and asked my model to spin on a chair. It was very simple but created a good effect as it shows a lot of motion blur and therefore movement due to the longer shutter speed.

FAST SHUTTER SPEED

I like these photos as the jumping movement is captured in mid-air. For this I used a fast shutter speed of 1/200^th second. This fast speed freezes the movement while still showing the movement within the image. The only problem faced when using fast shutter speeds is the lighting levels. As the shutter speed is so fast, the amount of light let into the image is dramatically reduced as there is not enough time for the light to enter the camera. Therefore, when using fast shutter speeds you must have good lighting conditions. Also you must press the shutter at the correct time to capture the movement as the fast shutter speed means the photo is taken almost instantly.