Part I covered aperture which I decided to cover first. If you did not read it, you can click here to read the post. I would recommend covering aperture first since this post will build on that knowledge a little.
Shutter speed is the duration it takes to open and close the mechanism that allows the light to hit the film or sensor of the camera. It is the click as you take your photo. Shutter speed allows you to control again how much light you can let it just like aperture does just in a different way.
Slow shutter speeds keep the shutter open a longer amount of time which allows more light to pass through to the sensor/film to create a brighter image. Having a fast shutter speed opens and closes the shutter quickly creating less time for the light to come through the lens to hit the sensor/film. So both aperture and shutter speed control how much light hits the sensor however they both do this in different ways. Just like aperture, shutter speed has other effects on your photos than just controlling the amount of light that is let in. Aperture had an effect on the out of focus areas of the photo or bokeh as well as the Depth of Field (DoF) of the photo. Shutter speed has it's own effects.
However before I go into the effects of shutter speed I will discuss how it effects your photos if you are not using it for creativity purposes. Shutter speed is something that can negatively effect your photos beyond having them too bright or too dark. Using a slow shutter speed allows the camera to capture the movement of the camera which in most cases is from your hands shaking a little. This results in blurry photos and lights streaking around in the photo. Using a fast shutter speed ensures that the photo is captured quick enough that there isn't enough time to have any camera shake effect the photo. Usually in most cases between opening up your aperture and slowing your shutter speed you can get decent photos if you do not have a lot of light. There can be a couple of reasons you need to have a slow shutter speed. If you cannot open your aperture wider due to the lens or you want a certain aperture for a desired DoF then you have to play with the shutter speed to get the right exposure. If your aperture limitations cause your shutter speed to be too slow for a hand held shot then you will get blurred photos. This can sometimes be fixed with a tripod if the subject of the photo is stationary, or now with some newer lenses there is the ability to decrease the effect of camera shake.
Using a tripod as a fix for slower shutter speeds is helpful if you are doing landscapes since usually there is not a lot of movement and therefore having a 2 second shutter speed wont result in a photo that looks like abstract art. You are in a tough spot if you need to have a slower shutter speed and have your subject moving around. For me this is what I run into at concerts. Lighting is terrible and the singers are moving around. Here is where it is very useful to have a large aperture on your lens.
From the example from the concert, you may have noticed that a faster shutter speed "freezes" movement in a photo better than a slower one. So with a fast shutter speed, you can capture something moving in a still photo and not have it blurry. However if you are photographing something moving with a slow shutter speed you get motion blur. The problem here is that sometimes you want motion blur and sometimes you don't. Having your camera setup on a tripod you can get motion blur of cool things like stars or water which both can have very cool effects. However if you are again taking photos of a concert and use a slow shutter speed as someone is strumming a guitar, you just get a semi sharp portrait with a very blurry hand/arm which looks kinda weird most of the time.
Before I go into the cool effects that shutter speed can have I am going to lastly go over how your lens can help. So we went over aperture already, but some newer lenses have the ability to shake opposite to your hand to allow for slower shutter speeds without camera shake effecting the photo. Different camera/lens companies call this technology different things. Nikon calls it VR for Vibration Reduction, Canon calls it IS for Image Stabilization and Sigma calls it OS for Optical Stabilization. Personally I am a Nikon user so I only know how well Nikon's VR works but I am sure they all are basically the same.
VR is very useful and I only have it in one of my lenses. I have it in my 105mm Macro lens. Most people think that it shouldn't be in a macro lens but it is outrageously useful. I rarely use it with a tripod as I should for marco work. However I have managed to capture some very good marco photos (I think but you can make that call so I tossed one of my hand held macros at the end of the post) without a tripod and just taking photos hand held. Shutter speed along with VR help do this as well as sunny days and steady hands. I have heard photographers speak and write about the new 70-200mm VR II Nikkor lens and it's amazing ability to get shots with slow shutter speeds. It is a useful technology that definitely helps photographers get tougher shots in low light that were almost impossible before.
Now for how you can use shutter speed to help you. You can use a fast shutter speed to capture actions or movement. I think my best example of this would be in this photograph:
 |
| Humming Bird - BC - 18-105mm VR |
So with a fast shutter speed I was able to capture a photo of a hummingbird with it's wings not blurry. That is impressive since their wings beat at 60-90 beats per second or so. Slow shutter speeds can get nice night shots with stars as well as motion blur like this photo:
 |
| Queen Charlotte Islands - 18-105mm VR |
To sum this up, shutter speed is the duration of time that the shutter allows light to pass through to the sensor/film which dictates the amount of light that is let in for the photo. So now aperture along with shutter speed control the amount of light that is let to the sensor/film. Together they can be used in combination to allow you to get the look you want in you photo be it a large or small DoF to motion blur or freezing action.
Next I will go over the last thing responsible for the brightness or darkness (exposure) of your photos, ISO. So that will be Part III. Since ISO won't take as long as shutter speed and aperture, I will tie them all together in Part III.
Again, if you have any questions to make anything clearer please do not hesitate. Hope this helps. And always remember to practice!
As I said with the macro shots and the aid of VR, here is a hand held macro shot:
 |
| Frog - 105mm Macro VR |
P.S. I've now made videos on my youtube channel about the exposure triangle so here is the one on shutter speed:
http://youtu.be/z1VNrU6PofI
No comments:
Post a Comment