Tag Archives: shutter speed

DIY Photography Course

December 2, 2014 Passy Leave a comment

Welcome to our Free Online Digital Photography Course!

Music and Photography are my passions.

Teaching Mathematics, Photography, MultiMedia, and ICT is my “Day Job”, but I manage to get out and about most weekends working as a Photographer.

Modern Digital Photography actually involves quite a bit of behind the scenes Mathematics.

An understanding of this Mathematics can definitely make you a better Photographer, even if it just means you know the best Viewpoints, Angles, and Geometric Composition to use when taking pictures with a Mobile Phone.

I have found that understanding the Mathematics of a DSLR Camera really helps me do fast effective problem solving on Photoshoots.

But don’t let a bit of simple mathematics put you off doing Digital Photography. There are lots of proactical examples and explanations to get you through.

Digital Cameras have preset Auto Modes which work well in about 80% of situations, but there are other times when a Camera needs to be put into full Manual Mode and some Mathematical Problem Solving invoked.

Here at Photos By Passy we have produced a comprehensive series of articles on Digital Photography, including plenty of real life examples as well as selected Videos which can be viewed.

We recommend working through these articles in the order in which they appear in the Overview Below.

The eight Digital Photography articles are as follows:

– Photo Composition Rules

– Digital Camera Settings

– ISO Light Sensitivity

– Aperture Settings

– Shutter Speed Settings

– White Balance Settings

– Combining Settings for Correct Exposure

– Flash Photograpy and Diffusers

Contained below is an outline of each article followed by a clickable link to the full article.

It is important to work through the articles in the order they are given here.

Like great Works of Art, the elements in a Photograph need to be arranged in a manner which is interesting and pleasing to the eye.

In addition, Photography is a two dimensional medium. Therefore we need to make use of the elements which are present in the photo to create a sense of depth and three dimensions.

Photos also need a main focal point, as well as leading our eyes on a journey through the picture.

Having these things makes for great photos, which are pleasing to the eye, and we call this “Composition”.

There are a Number of Composition Rules involving Percentage, Geometry, Symmetry, a Grid of Thirds, and even the “Golden Ratio” and its spiral.

To find out about these rules and their Mathematics, click the link below:

Photo Composition Rules

Most people use their camera on “Auto” mode, and get plenty of good pictures.

However, there are many items on a camera which can be adjusted manually to get even better pictures!

In this “How To” article we introduce several of these camera settings, and show how they can be used to create quality photos.

An overview of the three main Variables: “ISO Light Sensitivity”, “Aperture”, and “Shutter Speed” is provided.

This provides the preliminary background to more detailed articles on each of these three key items.

It is therefore vitally important to read this article before proceeding forward to the specific detailed articles.

To read the Introductory Article about Camera Settings, click the link below.

Digital Camera Settings

ISO sets a Camera’s sensitivity to light

Effectively it works like a Brightness Control on your camera, and you can turn it up higher if you are in a dark room, or in a shady forest.

If you are in Bright Sunlight, then you need to turn the ISO down to a low value or else your photo will come out all white and washed out with too much brightness.

Camera ISO is one of the three key Variables of Photography, the other two being Aperture and Shutter Speed.

Every photographer needs to understand ISO in order to get bright and clear pictures from their equipment.

The ISO sequence is: 100, 200, 400, 800, 1600, 3200, 6400 and etc. For every step up in this scale, the brightness of your picture doubles.

To get the full story on ISO and how to set it correctly on Digital Cameras for a variety of lighting conditions, click the link below.

How to Do ISO

Aperture is one of the key variables in Digital Photography. The other two are ISO Light Sensitivity and Shutter Speed.

An understanding of Aperture is critically important to isolate subjects in portraits and get full detail in Landscape pictures.

The Aperture Scale consists of a seemingly odd set of decimal and whole numbers, and getting your head around these values is not at all easy for Beginner Photographers.

In this article we examine Aperture in detail, and mathematically explain where the Aperture “f-numbers” come from.

Click the following link to read the full article.

How To Do Aperture

Shutter Speed is mainly used for creating dramatic effects by either freezing action or blurring motion.

The Speed is expressed in a fraction of a second, and is how long we let light in through the camera lens to the sensor.

Think of the Shutter as like opening and closing a set of venetian blinds quickly to let a burst of light into a darkened room.

Shutter Speed, (also called “Exposure Time”), becomes critically important in situations outside of the norm, such as the following:

1) Fast Moving Sports Action

2) Dimly lit indoor areas such as Bars and Clubs

3) Night Time Photography

4) Theatre and Musical Performances

5) Indoor Photos using Flash

6) Indoors Photos where we do not use Flash

7) Photos where we want motion blur for fast moving objects

8) Bird and Wildlife Photography

9) Photographing Young Children and Animals

In this article we will show you what Shutter Speed is, what the speed numbers mean, and how to set shutter speeds to values which should produce great photos.

Click the following link to read our article on Shutter Speed.

How To Do Shutter Speed

Different light sources produce light with slightly different colour tints, but our eyes do a great job correcting these variations.

Humans do not see a shift in colour as we move from a sunny garden into a shaded area, or go into a room and turn a light on.

Generally wherever we are, a piece of plain white paper always looks white.

However Digital Cameras DO detect light source differences, and sometimes create pictures with incorrect looking colours in them.

We need to know how to perform “white balance” adjustments, so that we can obtain pictures with realistic colours in them.

White Balance involves the Primary Colours of the Spectrum forming a Kelvin Temperature Scale from “cool” blue/violet through to warm “red” candle light.

What we have is a Mathematical Scale of color, and White Balance blends various colours together so that a white sheet of paper will look white, no matter what coloured lighting we are in.

You can read the full article on White Balance at the following link:

How To Do White Balance

In this article we look at Combining Variables for Correct “Exposure”.

We tie together the three key Digital Camera Variables: ISO, Shutter Speed, and Aperture, and discuss how to set these up to get good exposures in Camera Manual Mode.

When these three variables are optimised and unified together, we get a nice clear picture with great contrast and highlights. We say that the photo is correctly “Exposed”.

You can read the full article on Getting Correct Exposure Using Key Variables at the following link:

Combining Variables for Correct Exposure

In this article we discuss Flash Photography and how to use Light Diffusers to make Flash Photos look so much better.

Diffusers come in all types of Geometric Shapes and Sizes and create softened light which is more like Daylight.

The Intensity of Light from a point source like an on camera Flash follows an Inverse Square Law with the Distance the Flash is from the subject.

This is very important to have an intuitive idea about Inverse Square Law when changing the Power on a Flash, or when we move further away from the subject being photographed.

The full article about Flash and Diffusers can be read at the following link:

Flash Photograpy and Diffusers

Working through this series of articles will definitely make you a better photographer.

Keep in mind that I spent a couple of years working with Digital Photography to reach this level of understanding to a point where I could write about it to share my knowledge with others.

So if you are a complete beginner and feel a bit overwhelmed, then that is okay, these things just take practice and time.

It is best to work through all of our eight articles a bit at a time, try things out, and then come back to the articles to pick up a bit more of the finer detail.

The Maths is helpful, but the main thing about being a Photographer is to get out there taking lots of pictures!

Life is short and there can never be too many photos of its little magic moments!

Enjoy,
Passy

How To

How To Do Exposure

November 23, 2014 Passy Leave a comment

In this article we look at “Exposure”. We also tie together the three key Digital Camera Variables: ISO, Shutter Speed, and Aperture, and discuss how to set these up to get good exposures in Camera Manual Mode.

When these three variables are optimised and unified together, we get a nice clear picture with great contrast and highlights. We say that the photo is correctly “Exposed”.

It is essential that you have been through the following previous articles, before reading through this “How To Do Exposure” article.

Here are the links to this essential background reading:

How To Do Camera Settings

How To Do ISO Settings

How To Do Aperture Settings

How To Do Shutter Speed

Let’s start off by quickly going through the definitions of “Exposure”, “Underexposure”, and “Overexposure”.

Underexposure in Photographs

Underexposure results in a dark and dull image because too little light was recorded by the digital sensor.

Underexposure often makes an image too dark for subjects to be seen clearly.

The amount of underexposure will determine how dark a photo is.

Overexposure in Photographs

Overexposure refers to a white-looking or washed-out image.

This is caused by having too much light reaching the digital sensor which makes the photo come out way too bright.

Correct Exposure

When we have correct exposure the tone in the image will range from white all the way though to black.

The picture will also contains all the tones in between black and white, resulting in crisp bright clear image.

Eg. We have a contrast in our image with a little dark and a little light, as well as a lot of inbetween.

The example photos shown here are photos of “Simmeau” from the fabulous Australian Led Zeppelin tribute band: “Shed Zeppelin”.

For more information about Shed Zeppelin, check out their Facebook Page here:

Shed Zeppelin Band Facebook Page

Camera Exposure

The camera uses an exposure meter which looks at shades of grey in the photo to mathematically get the correct exposure or tonal range.

(Basically Cameras see in Black and White, rather than in colour).

The light meter and processor decide what ISO, Shutter, and Aperture to use when the camera is in Auto Mode.

When we have bright rapidly changing indoor lighting, the camera has issues. It might expose for bright light, making the rest of the photo way too dark and underexposed.

We are often better off changing to manual mode and setting the camera variables manually ourselves.

There are some great videos all about Camera Light Metering in the Videos section near the end of this article.

Watching these Metering Videos will help you understand how cameras determine exposures, and what mistakes the camera can make when doing this under certain lighting situations.

Video About Exposure and Variables

The following is an excellent fifteen minute video about the Mathematics of Exposure.

Watch this video all the way though before reading the rest of this article.

Camera Variables and Exposure

Sometimes the camera’s auto mode metering does not give us the exposure we want.

Auto Modes usually work well outdoors in bright sunlight, when the sun is behind the camera.

But if it is overcast, or we move into the shade, or we are facing into the sun, or we go indoors, the exposure can often be Overexposed or Underexposed, and far from ideal.

In cases like this we need to shift our camera into Manual Mode, and Adjust some, or all, of the three key variables.

Manual Mode is basically a mathematical problem solving exercise, and it can be tricky to get all three variables at their optimum values.

When we get ISO, Aperture, and Shutter Speed all at just the right settings, we can get a really well exposed photo in full Manual Mode.

Sometimes we may have to adjust a fourth variable of “White Balance” as well; eg. Change over to incandescent lighting if we are taking a photo indoors at night time.

We need to know the effects of changing each of the variables: ISO, Aperture, and Shutter Speed.

Exposure is all about getting the right amount of light to reach the sensor, and so we often need to adjust the variable settings to get more or less light coming through.

For example, if we shoot a picture and which is too dark and underexposed, then we need more light.

However, if we shoot a picture which is too bright and washed out, we need to change things so that less light comes to the sensor.

The following “Table of Full Stops” needs to be understood, so that we can make the necessary changes in the amount of light in a mathematical manner, and not just be randomly guessing at what might work.

Limiting Factors

The additional complication is that each Variable has some limiting factors:

– ISO cannot be set too high in low light, because we may get ugly “noise” fuzzy dots all over the photo

– Shutter Speed cannot be set too slow in low light, because we will get blurring of moving objects, and/or camera shake blurring

– Aperture cannot be set too open at f2.8, or people slightly in the background may become out of focus.

Aperture determines how much of a photo is clearly in focus.

Often we are forced to use f2.8 when taking band photos, just to get enough light for a good exposure. However this makes people and items in the background out of focus, but this is often not such a bad thing.

When taking a Group Photo, it is important that everyone in the picture is in focus, even though some people are nearby and others are far away. In this situation we need to use an Aperture of f4.0 to f5.6 so that we have enough depth to capture everybody clearly.

It is therefore a delicate operation to find the settings for each of these variables so that they will all work in unison to create a well exposed photo.

Scene Mode Exposure

For certain situations, we do not need to change to full Manual Mode to get good quality pictures.

Modern Digital Cameras have Preset “Scene” Modes which can be used for situations such as : Outdoor Portraits, Landscape, Sunsets, Action Sports, and several other common environments.

These Scene Modes, with their Preset values of ISO, Aperture, and Shutter Speed work extremely well, as long as the lighting conditions are what is typical for that particular Scene Mode.

Some typical Scene Modes, and their limitations are discussed in the next two sections.

Preset Scene Modes on Cameras

Modern Digital Cameras have one or more fully “Automatic” modes, as well as special preset or “Scene” modes.

These generally do a great job of setting up the Aperture, Speed, and ISO variable values for us.

All we have to do is “shoot” or “snap” the picture, and the results look fantastic.

For example, if we set our camera to “Portrait” and take a picture of a person outdoors, it will turn out nicely with “bokei” (Background Blurring).

The Birthday Party pictures shown above were all taken using daylight portrait mode, which set our variables well, and also softened skin tones to make nice looking people photos.

However, if we set our camera to “Landscape”, the camera will make a nice bright picture where things both near and far from us are all in detailed focus.

Here is a great three minute video all about using Preset “Scene” Modes.

Auto and Scene Mode Limitations

Problems arise when we venture outside of normal daylight conditions, and attempt taking indoor shots without Flash, or we take portrait or party pictures with flash.

These “low light” and “Flash” photos often do not turn out as nicely as we would like them to.

We can Photoshop some of these pictures to improve them, but it is very time consuming.

It is better and faster to get good shots straight out of the camera by using Full Manual Mode, which will be discussed shortly.

Special areas of difficulty are photographing Rock Bands, Indoor Sports events, and Night Clubs, where there is not full daylight, and people are moving around.

On some Sony cameras, using “Sports” mode will sometimes produce reasonable shots in these conditions, and Canon cameras have a “Television” mode which sometimes works.

However, the best results for “low light” photography can be obtained by setting your camera to full “Manual” mode, and adjusting the variables yourself – fast enough shutter speeds to freeze action, wide open apertures to let as much light in as possible, and high ISO sensitivity so the camera sensor will work like “night vision” to pick up as much light as possible.

Manual Mode Exposure

Using Full Manual mode “M” is a matter of trial and error, combined with experience, and thoroughly getting to know your camera.

For example, for my Sony A77 camera, I know from experience that I cannot put the ISO higher than 1600 or there ugly noise dots and graininess begin to appear.

Even at ISO 1600 there can sometimes be a small amount of noise on the A77.

So rather than use ISO 1600 as a default for low light, I always check to see if I can slow down shutter speed, and use f2.8 Aperture, which might then allow me to shoot at ISO 1250 or ISO 800 which then gives negligible noise.

For Aperture, I know that if I am doing a Group Photo with some people further back or behind others, I have to use F4.0 to f5.6, or else the further away people will be out of focus.

For Shutter Speed, I know from experience that when photographing people or rock bands, that the minimum shutter speed for no blurring is 1/100. I have also discovered that the minimum shutter speed for action sports photos is 1/250 but it is much better to use 1/1000 if possible,

The point is that an experienced photographer is not blindly setting some variable and hoping for the best.

What they usually do is set one of the variables at a particular value, and then manipulate the other two to get the best exposure.

This is done by taking test shots, seeing what they look like, and then progressively making smaller and smaller adjustments until the resulting image looks good.

From my experience of taking lots of photos, I usually have an idea of what the approximate settings are for a given lighting situation, and then work on fine tuning these values to get the best possible exposure for the particular camera I am using – Sony A77, Sony A55, or Panasonic Lumix LX-7.

I know when I first started using Manual I had no idea of what to set things at, and I was totally frustrated.

So if this is your first experience when using Manual Mode do not be concerned. The path to mastery of exposure is usually not an easy one.

It is important not to give up, because being able to shoot in manual gets great photos in low light situations that people in Auto Mode will never be able to match.

Think of all those whited out Flash shots people take at parties, or those blurry noisey dark photos without the Flash.

Manual Mode is well worth learning so that you can be the person who gets the “Wow” factor photos, while others are floundering.

As I said, when I first tried Manual Mode I was totally lost as to how to begin to change the variable settings.

What I found though was that if I set the camera on auto and looked at the live view to see what settings the camera was choosing, I could then flick to manual and use these variable settings as my starting point.

There is only one way to master variables, and that is by going out and shooting a lot of photos and trying out different settings until you know the ones which give good results for your camera.

It is time consuming and frustrating at times, but it is well worth the effort in the end, when you have the great photos that nobody else can get!

What follows are some Exposure Settings examples. Read through these, and then watch all of the videos in the video section.

This will help you start getting your head around Manual Mode, and show you what effect changing each of the three variables has on the final photo.

After that it is all down to getting out and shooting lots of photos in Manual Mode and seeing the results. Then one day it should suddenly all start to “click”, and you will be able to problem solve exposure settings for difficult shooting conditions such as low light indoors without the use of flash.

Good Luck! It is a difficult path, but one well worth travelling.

Exposure Settings Examples

“A picture is worth a thousand words” so let’s take a look at some examples of variable adjustments made in Manual Mode.

Our first example below involves ISO light sensitivity.

In this second ISO example, the original settings produced an overexposed picture.

We did not want to change the Aperture, and could have increased shutter speed or lowered the ISO.

The shutter speed was already fast enough to freeze the action, and so it was better to lower the ISO to get a clearer more detailed image.

Generally, if the shutter speed is freezing the action well on an Overexposure, leave it as it is, and Reduce the ISO.

Our third example involves Shutter Speed for Indoor Sports.

As discussed in our “Shutter Speed” article, using the Auto “Sports Scene” mode on digital cameras works great outdoors in bright sunlight, but often has severe limitations for Indoor Sports.

Note that we cannot shoot Sports Action without motion blurring at speeds less than 1/250, and we should aim to use speeds of 1/500, 1/1000, or even 1/2000 if possible.

Another example of Shutter Speed involves Motion Blurring.

In the first photo below, we had a low shutter speed of 1/80 which gave plenty of light, but resulted in blurring of the singer’s moving hands. This blurring is a bit difficult to see in the small sized photo below, but it is there and it did make the photo unusable.

Moving to a higher speed of 1/125 stopped the blurring, but did create a darker picture. Sometimes we are faced with these types of compromises, and it is impossible for the camera we are using to get the penultimate perfect exposure. That’s Life – we can only strive to achieve perfection as much as humanly possible, and there are always some ultimate limitations.

Our final example is another one involving Aperture.

The original image was underexposed, and we could have increased the ISO up one stop from 800 to 1600, (and get twice as much light), but this might have also introduced a small amount of graininess.

We therefore made an Aperture adjustment instead, and were able to get 2 times more light by going down to the wider f2.8 value, which made some background blurring, but gave us sufficent light correct exposure.

By moving from f4 to f2.8 we changed the Aperture by “one full stop”.

Videos About Exposure

The following video is useful for Canon and Nikon Camera users and shows how to change the ISO, Aperture, and Shutter Speed settings.

The presenter goes through where all the dials and buttons are on the camera are to do this.

Watching this video made me realise how much easier my Sony A77 is to use, where I have a wheel on the front grip, and a wheel on the back to do this.

Here are some excellent videos about Aperture and Shutter Speed on Sony Alpha Cameras.

Sony Aperture Video

Sony Shutter Speed Video

This next fifteen minute video is about the effects the variable settings have on photos and gives plenty of practical examples.

It is essential viewing for learning about how to use your camera in Manual Mode, and get great exposure.

Here is Part 2 of the above video:

Here is a 10 minute Video about the three key variables: ISO, Shutter Speed, and Aperture.

The effects and side effects of altering these variables is also discussed.

The following is a fifteen minute video with practical examples which shows how to adjust camera variables for various lighting conditions.

Here are is a video lesson in two parts from NightClub Photography TV about setting camera variables.

And here is Part 2 of the above video.

In this next video the guy talks for 23 minutes about all of the variables and how they work.

It is worth watching after the other videos, but does not contain any practical examples.

Videos About Metering and Exposure

Cameras have Metering Modes for fine tuning the light reading. Here is a good five minute video about these Metering Modes.

This next twenty minute video is an excellent explanation of camera light metering with practical examples.

How To Do Shutter Speed

October 25, 2014 Passy Leave a comment

Shutter Speed is one of the three key variables in Digital Photography. The other two are ISO Light Sensitivity and Aperture Light Levels.

We suggest that before going through this article on Shutter Speed, you go through our previous articles on Camera Settings, ISO and Aperture.

These lessons can be found at the following links:

How To Do Camera Settings

How To Do ISO Settings

How To Do Aperture Settings

Shutter Speed is mainly used for creating dramatic effects by either freezing action or blurring motion.

It is a good idea to read our previous articles listed above about Camera Settings before working through this Shutter Speed Article.

Understanding Shutter Speed is critically important to isolate items and have them crisply in focus without any motion blur occurring.

In normal conditions, such as outdoors in bright daylight, shutter speed is usually not a problem. We can simply set our camera to Auto Mode and its processor will calculate and use a shutter speed which gives good results.

However, in various other situations, we need to be critically aware of what needs to happen with Shutter Speed and how it affects our photos.

Shutter Speed, (also called “Exposure Time”), becomes critically important in situations outside of the norm, such as the following:

1) Fast Moving Sports Action

2) Dimly lit indoor areas such as Bars and Clubs

3) Night Time Photography

4) Theatre and Musical Performances

5) Indoor Photos using Flash

6) Indoors Photos where we do not use Flash

7) Photos where we want motion blur for fast moving objects

8) Bird and Wildlife Photography

9) Photographing Young Children

In this article we will show you what Shutter Speed is, what the speed numbers mean, and how to set shutter speeds to values which should produce great photos.

The article is a very long one, and so we recommend going through it several times, as well as watching the videos at the end of the article.

Definition of Shutter Speed

Every digital camera has a shutter which opens and closes quickly to let light through the lens to the image sensor. Think of the shutter as like being in a dark room during the daytime, and opening and closing a set of venetian blinds quickly to let a burst of light into the room.

Basically a camera shutter is like a curtain in front of the camera sensor that stays closed until the camera fires and goes “click click”.

When the camera fires, the shutter opens and fully exposes the camera sensor to the light that passes in through the lens.

After the sensor is done collecting the light, the shutter closes immediately, stopping any more light from hitting the sensor.

The button that fires the camera is called the “shutter” or “shutter button”, because it triggers the shutter to Open and Close.

The speed at which the shutter opens and closes is usually a fraction of a second, such as 1/8, 1/15, 1/30, 1/60, 1/125, 1/250, 1/500, 1/1000, 1/2000.

The bigger the number in the bottom of the Fraction, the faster the shutter opens and closes.

A “Fast Shutter Speed” is needed for Sports to freeze the action. But a fast speed lets in less light, and so we need good lighting conditions.

A “Slow Shutter Speed” lets in more light (for indoor lighting conditions).

However this can result in blurring if people are moving.

Usually we cannot shoot at speeds lower than 1/60, because we will get camera shake as well as blurring of our photos.

Shutter Speed is not usually a problem if we are in bright sunlight, but for other situations speed is critically important.

Standard Shutter Speeds

“Shutter Speed” is measured in seconds or fractions of seconds:

1, 1/2, 1/4, 1/8, 1/15, 1/30, 1/60, 1/125, 1/250, 1/500, 1/1000, 1/2000, 1/5000

Note that the bottoms of the fractions always double, except for the jumps between 1/8 and 1/15, and 1/60 and 1/125.

The jumping of 1/60 to 1/125, instead of 1/60 to 1/120, is deliberately designed that way so that the doubling pattern is simpler for the 1/125, 1/250, 1/500 end of the Range.

There is also the out of sequence jump between 1/8 and 1/15 for the same reason.

Note that the Speed is usually displayed as whole numbers on cameras, due to LCD and Viewfinder sizes.

Eg. 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 30, 60, 125, 250, 500, 1000, 2000, 5000.

Shutter Speed Geometric Progression

Typically, Shutter Speeds start from 1 to 1/60 (slow), and go up in in value following a “Geometric Progression” (with a Multiplying Factor of One Half).

Eg. Speed Sequence is: 1, 1/2, 1/4, 1/8, then 1/15, 1/30, 1/60, then 1/125, 1/250, 1/500 etc.

As discussed previously, there are deliberate jumps in the sequence, (which do not follow a multiplying factor of 1/2).

These jumps are at 1/8 to 1/15, and 1/60 to 1/125, which keeps the shutter speed fractions at simple whole numbers.

So this means that the entire Sequence actually consists of three separate Geometric Progressions, with a Multiplying Factor of 1/2 in each of them.

The important consequence that photographers need to understand, is that each step between the numbers effectively halves the amount of light reaching the sensor.

Eg. If we give the shutter an open/close time which is twice as fast, we only let half as much light in.

Many modern Digital SLR cameras also have in between Shutter Speeds which can be dialled up and used.

For example in between 1/60 and 1/125, there might be speeds of 1/80, or 1/100, which are also available.

These in between values allow finer increments of speed increase and consequent light reduction.

Shutter Speed Guide

“Panning Blur” involves tracking the moving subject with the camera using multishot mode.

This creates motion blur in the background to give the viewer a sense of the speed.

Eg. For Panning Blur on a Runner in the Park, use speeds of 1/30, 1/60, or 1/100 so that the subject is captured, but the background is blurred.

The following video shows an example of how to do “Panning Blur”.

Fast Shutter Speeds for Sports

Capturing the action in Sports can be a trade off between freezing the action, and having enough light coming in through the shutter to get a good clear picture.

Outdoors in bright sunlight we are usually okay, and if we set our camera to “Sports” Mode, it will use a very fast speed like 1/2000 and get good clear shots.

However for Indoor Sports, even if the stadium appears to have good lighting, a Shutter Speed of 1/2000 will make our shots come out too dark.

We need to remember that our human eyes adjust extremely well to reduced lighting conditions, but cameras do not!

If in “Sports” or “Auto” mode, we take an indoor shot, and it comes out too dark, then we will not be able to use our camera in automatic mode.

In these situations we can do some basic mathematics and figure out that 1/2000 + 1/2000 = 2/2000 = 1/1000.

This means that if we reduce shutter speed from 1/2000 down to 1/1000 we will get twice as much light onto the camera’s sensor.

If we change 1/2000 to 1/500 we will get four times more light, and reducing 1/2000 down to 1/250 will give us 8 times more light.

We will need to put our camera into either “Manual” mode “M”, or “Shutter Priority” mode “S” to be able to make these changes.

The trade off will be that we might not freeze the action perfectly, but sometimes a slightly blurred ball can help show some fast movement in the photo, and so it is actually a good thing.

Using Multi Shot for Sports

For fast moving ball sports, especially tennis, a lot of shots will be unusable because the ball moves so fast it is often out of frame by the time the camera fires.

The solution to this issue is to make sure “Multi Shot” or “Rapid Fire” is turned on, so that several photos are quickly taken in a row, while the camera makes a machine gun type sound.

We can then pick the best photo from the multi shot sequence and use that one in our photo album.

Most cameras have a rapid shoot preset mode that can be dialled in, and/or they have “Sports” as one of their Scene Modes, and “Sports” mode will automatically turn multi shot on.

Multi Shot mode is also very useful to use at young Children’s Parties.

Kids move around a lot and are very easily distracted. It often takes several shots to get one where they are all sitting still and looking at the camera.

Shutter Speeds for Flash Photography

Photos of People need to be done at a shutter speed of 1/125 to 1/250 to ensure that all movement is frozen.

If we are indoors and we want to capture the indoor lighting background, (like at a Club or a Bar), then using 1/125 combined a High ISO of 800 to 1600 will usually do a good job of this.

The reason that it works, and the photo does not come out too bright, is because when we use Flash the camera basically takes two pictures and merges them.

Eg. The Flash freezes subjects that were initially dark.

The following two part video explains this concept, as well as setting Shutter Speed for Night Club Photos.

Here is the second part of the above video:

Very Slow Shutter Speeds

Some cameras also give you the option for very slow shutter speeds that are not fractions of seconds but are measured in full seconds.

Eg. 1 second, 10 seconds, 30 seconds etc.

These are usually used in very low light situations, and/or night time, to produce special effects, or for capturing a lot of movement in a shot.

In daylight, slow shutter speeds can be used to make seawater, rivers or waterfalls appear “milky” with blurred water, and many people find this effect visually pleasing.

However we also use to use an “ND Filter” over our lens to reduce the bright daylight coming in over such a long exposure time, so that the photos do not turn out way too bright.

Slow Shutter Speeds are also used to create an effect called “motion blur”, where moving objects appear blurred along the direction of the motion.

This effect is used quite a bit in advertisements for cars and motorcycles, where a sense of speed and motion is communicated to the viewer by intentionally blurring the moving wheels.

Slow Speeds also create interesting car light trails in night time city photos.

Some cameras also give you the option to shoot in ‘B’ (or ‘Bulb’) mode. Bulb mode lets you keep the shutter open for as long as you hold it down.

Bulb Mode can be used for getting photos of the Stars Moving Across the Night Sky.

The following video shows how to shoot car light motion at night.

Shutter Speed and Lens Size

Different Lenses are different sizes, and have various “Focal Lengths”, where Focal Length is basically the distance from the end of the lens to the sensor inside the camera body.

Longer focal lengths, (like when you zoom right to 200mm for a shot), have a reduced subject area, and are far more sensitive to camera shake.

If you have ever used Binoculars or a Telescope, you will know how hard it is to keep it steady when you have zoomed right in on a person or object.

To overcome the shake, we need to choose a faster shutter speed (unless we have very good image stabilization built into the lens, or our camera is mounted on a Tripod).

The ‘rule’ of thumb to use with focal length is to choose a shutter speed with a denominator that is larger than the focal length of the lens.

For example if we have a standard 50mmm or 55mm lens then 1/60th is probably ok. But if we have zoomed right in with a 200mm lens, we need to shoot at around 1/250 to be safe from shake blurring.

Shutter Speed and Lens Aperture

A Faster Shutter Speed will let us freeze the action, but will let less light into the camera.

In bright daylight sports this will probably not be a problem as there is plenty of bright light available.

For sunny outdoors, we can capture action sports using a cheap f3.5 to f5.6 Zoom Lens.

However for indoor sports, with less light, using a high / fast shutter speed to freeze the action can result in very dark pictures.

This is because we do not have enough light entering the camera when the shutter speed is higher than 1/250.

Increasing the ISO Light Sensitivity to lighten up the photo, will probably result in ugly dotty grainy effects on our photos.

The only solution is to get more light in using a wider aperture, and for this we need an expensive f2.8 lens.

This is why f2.8 zoom lenses, and f1.4 portrait lenses are called “Fast” Lenses.

It is because these lenses can supply enough light using their wide open apertures to allow us to use a high shutter speed of 1/500 to 1/1000.

f2.8 Fast Zoom lenses are very expensive: eg. $2500 to $15 000 to even $45 000.

These lenses can be used for both Indoor Sports and Outdoor sports and are usually White in Color, and can look like “Bazooka Guns” mounted on cameras.

The other great thing about expensive f2.8 zoom lenses is that they are great for shooting high quality clear videos indoors.

Shutter Speed ISO and Aperture

To get a great Photo, we need to manipulate the three key camera variables of Shutter Speed, ISO, and Aperture to values which are optimal for the given set of lighting conditions, and the speed at which subjects are moving.

Photography in bright sunlight conditions is not a problem, because there is an abundance of natural light to make great photos.

But Photography indoors without flash is always a trade off between these three variables.

The simultaneous manipulation of Speed, ISO, and Aperture is quite involved and is the subject of an entirely separate photography article at the following link:

How to Combine Exposure Settings

Videos About Shutter Speed

Here are some videos that cover everything we have discussed in this article and are well worth watching.

The following three minute video gives a basic explanation about Shutter Speed

This next eleven minute video fully explains shutter speed, and is well worth watching

Sony Video About Shutter Speed

Here is an excellent video all about Setting Shutter Speed on Sony Alpha Cameras.

References

Digital Photograpy School Shutter Speed Article

Photography Life Shutter Speed Article

Using Camera Settings

August 1, 2014 Passy Leave a comment

Most people use their camera on “Auto” mode, and get plenty of good pictures.

However, there are many items on a camera which can be adjusted manually to get even better pictures!

In this “How To” article we introduce several of these camera settings, and show how they can be used to create quality photos.

Camera Variables

A “Variable” is something which we can change the value of to different numerical settings.

Eg. The Temperature Setting on an Air Conditioner, the Volume on a Music Player, or the Brightness on a Mobile Phone.

On Digital Cameras there are several items (or “Variables”) which we can change the value of before clicking the button which takes the photo.

In this “How To” Guide we provide an introduction and overview about these Digital Camera Variables.

Separate detailed “How To” Guides, (which are not part of this particular article), examine each of these variables in detail.

The Guide on “How to Do Exposure” is all about how we combine all the Variables to get the best possible photo for a given set of lighting and subject matter conditions.

See the “Related Items” section at the end of this article for links to these detailed “How To” Guides.

Digital Camera Variables

In Digital Photography, there are three key variables:

“Aperture”, “Shutter Speed”, and “ISO”

Getting the right combination of these three variables is how we can capture a moment in the form of a great photograph.

When we take a shot with a Camera:

– Aperture is how wide the “tunnel” or “hole” leading from the lens to the sensor is set at

– Shutter Speed is how quickly the inside of the camera opens and closes to let light through to the sensor

– ISO is the sensitivity to light that the pixel sensor is set to.

Aperture

Aperture affects how much light enters the camera, and creates blurred backgrounds for Portraits and full details for Landscapes.

For Portraits we set a wide open Aperture to let in plenty of light, and this also blurs the background. This makes attention focussed on the person.

For Landscape shots we want the foreground as well as everything in the background to all be in focus. Using a small narrow Aperture makes this happen.

There is a detailed “How To” article on Aperture at the following link:

How To Do Aperture Settings

Shutter Speed

Shutter Speed needs to be set to a fast value to capture wildlife or sports action, but needs to be set very slow to let enough light in for sunsets or night scenes.

There is a detailed “How To” article on Shutter Speed at the following link:

How To Do Shutter Speed

ISO Light Sensitivity

For ISO Light Sensitivity – In bright daylight, the sensitivity or “ISO” can be at a low value.

Eg. In daylight conditions there is plenty of light coming through the camera lens to the sensor, and so the sensor does not need to be made to catch any extra light.

However for sunsets, shade, indoor, and night scenes, the light sensitivity ISO needs to be increased; otherwise we get a very dark picture with no detail.

There is also the low light solution of using a Flash to provide the equivalent of Daylight; however sometimes indoor scenes, especially those capturing musical or theater performers, look a lot more natural without Flash.

There is a detailed “How To” article on ISO Light Sensitivity at the following link:

How To Do ISO Settings

White Balance and Colour Temperature

There is a Fourth Variable associated with Digital Photography known as “White Balance Colour Temperature”.

White Balance (or “WB”) involves having the colour white turn out correctly in photographs that are taken outside of normal daylight conditions.

These types of conditions include Shade, where photos turn out blueish in color, indoors where orange/yellow light often dominates, and musicians performing under coloured stage lights.

White Balance is covered in full detail in our “How to Do Camera White Balance” article, which can be found at the following link:

How To Do Camera White Balance

Preset Modes on Cameras

Modern Digital Cameras have one or more fully “Automatic” modes, as well as special preset or “Scene” modes.

These generally do a great job of setting up the Aperture, Speed, and ISO variable values for us.

All we have to do is “shoot” or “snap” the picture, and the results look fantastic.

For example, if we set our camera to “Portrait” and take a picture of a person outdoors, it will turn out nicely with “bokei” (Background Blurring).

The Birthday Party pictures shown above were all taken using daylight portrait mode, which set our variables well, and also softened skin tones to make nice looking people photos.

However, if we set our camera to “Landscape”, the camera will make a nice bright picture where things both near and far from us are all in detailed focus.

Here is a great three minute video all about using Preset “Scene” Modes.

Auto and Scene Mode Limitations

Problems arise when we venture outside of normal daylight conditions, and attempt taking indoor shots without Flash, or we take portrait or party pictures with flash.

These “low light” and “Flash” photos often do not turn out as nicely as we would like them to.

We can Photoshop some of these pictures to improve them, but it is very time consuming.

It is better and faster to get good shots straight out of the camera by using Full Manual Mode, which will be discussed shortly.

Special areas of difficulty are photographing Rock Bands, Indoor Sports events, and Night Clubs, where there is not full daylight, and people are moving around.

On some Sony cameras, using “Sports” mode will sometimes produce reasonable shots in these conditions, and Canon cameras have a “Television” mode which sometimes works.

Full Manual Mode

In full Manual Mode we can adjust each of the three key variables of Speed, Aperture, and ISO individually.

It takes a lot of practice, and continual trial and error, to work out sets of variable values which work well in different lighting conditions.

However, we can generally get better looking pictures in “low light” doing it all ourselves, rather than leaving it to the “best fit” computer program that is in our camera’s processor chip.

Really it is a matter of getting to know the particular Camera we are using – Taking lots of pictures set on different Variable Values and seeing what happens is the only way to do this.

Whenever a picture taken using Preset or Auto Modes is not to our liking, then it is very useful to be able to change to Full Manual Mode and try and figure out the best variable settings for ourselves.

Here are some Manual Mode settings which we regularly use on the Sony A77 camera with a 16mm to 50mm f2.8 Sony Lens mounted on it:

Music Bands in local venue with Colored Lights:

– ISO 1600, Speed 1/60 and 1/125, Aperture F2.8, Incandescent or Manually adjusted White Balance

Music Bands with Professional Stage Lighting:

– ISO 400 to 800, Speed 1/125th, Aperture F2.8, F3.2, F3.5, Auto White Balance

Music Bands Using Sony f1.8 35mm Lens:

– ISO 400 to 800, Speed 1/125th, Aperture F1.8, Auto White Balance

Flash Shots People Pictures:

– ISO 1000, Speed 1/125, Flash Width Manually set on 50mmm width and 1/16 to 1/8 Power (Manual with No TTL) using Sony HVL-43M Flash unit.

Videos About Camera Settings

The following video is fifteen minutes long, but well worth watching, as it does many practical photo examples showing exactly what happens as camera variables are altered:

This next video is also fifteen minutes long and shows directly how changing variables affects the brightness and contrast of a given sample picture.

Here is Part 2 of the above video:

Camera Settings – Summary

All of this might be a bit of information overload at the moment, but by gradually working through all of our “How To” articles, and trying out different settings on your own camera, we are sure that you will become a much better photographer who is able ot problem solve situations quickly when your photos are not turning out exactly how you would like them to.

This article was an introduction to using Manual Camera Settings, there are far more detailed guides all about shooting in Manual Mode in the “Related items” section below.

Good Luck, and keep taking pictures!

Passy

PBP – Photos By Passy

Tag Archives: shutter speed

DIY Photography Course

How To Do Exposure

How To Do Shutter Speed

Using Camera Settings

Music and Special Events Photography and Video