Shutter speed

Fielden 14.2.13

Experimenting with shutter speed to freeze or reveal movement.

Here is the presentation with some good examples of the effects of varying shutter speeds on the image: Shutter Speed PDF

Richard did some funky moves to illustrate the effect of different speeds:

ISO 1600, 1/125 shutter speed, aperture 5.6.

This shutter speed is fast enough to capture the movement of his arms, but the fingers (which are moving the fastest) are just beginning to blur.

ISO 1600, shutter speed 1/15, aperture 5.6

As well as changing the exposure, the slower shutter speed means that his arms are becoming more blurred.

One element in a photograph that is blurred whilst other are static can create interesting effects.

Shots out on the street were designed to capture movement: ISO 1600, 1/60, f2.8









1600, 1/80, f2.8

Or to reveal it: camera rested on a wall, 35mm, ISO 1600, 0.3, f13

 0.3 secs, f2.8

 Overexposing the image lost the dark and brought up the background. Way too much in this shot, but also below at 2 secs, f22

0.3, f13

Back in the studio we set the cameras on tripods and used very long exposures to capture light drawings with torches.

55mm, ISO 200, 15 second exposure at f5.6

 A shot taken with a brighter torch moved around the subject - me! 15 seconds at f16

Experiments with aperture

West Pennines, 8.2.13

I concentrated on using aperture control the depth of field, to be more selective or inclusive and to see the effect.

 55mm, f2.8, 1/5000

 35mm, f18, 1/100

 17mm, f2.8, 1/3200

 These two shots show the extremes of my usual zoom lens at 17mm: f2.8 at 1/2500 and f22 at 1/60.

 28mm, f2.8, 1/2000

 

17mm, f2.8, 1/800

I was pleased with the way these shots worked out, but selecting details also means having the focus sharp. Next time I want to try some shots with a tripod. I particularly liked the photo of the hawthorn tree above - I love these knarled trees and the way that they shape themselves into the landscape.

I took a lot of this subject from different angles; this is a selection.

Lots of the landscape shots were taken with either very wide or very small apertures. I experimented with the mid range too. In this one I wanted the older photo and the people in the field of vision. This is my sister, with her husband and one of her sons, looking at photos from her childhood.

17mm, f4.0 at 1/15

Aperture and depth of field

Fielden 7.2.13

A few shots from around the college using aperture to alter the depth of field

 

17mm, f2.8, 1/100 and 55mm, f2.8, 1/200

 17mm, f2.8, 1/125 and 17mm, f11, 1/4

17mm, f16, 1 second, and 17mm, f2.8, 1/60

Travellers Joy

Winter means journeys to work in a car, a dark city, movement and electric lights in bad weather. The camera on my mobile phone is not very controllable, and these are rather random snaps when I've been stuck in traffic. But they have an atmosphere that is accurate, and could maybe be used as part of something else.

Manual exposure

I carried on experimenting with exposure, keeping the shutter speed static and simply working through the apertures one by one. This transforms even a simple shot.

The shots are all at 1/50 and show the effect of the different apertures of my usual lens on exposure: f2.8, 3.2, 3.5, 4.0, 4.5, 5.0, 5.6, 6.3, 7.1, 8.0, 9.0, 10, 11, 13, 14, 16, 18, 20 and 22.

I took more shots like this over the weekend of 2/3 Feb and enjoyed watching things dissolve in light and re-emege from darkness.

And the capacity of light and exposure to totally change the mood of a picture was very clear.