1. Using
Shutter Speed to Affect Motion
Photographing
Waterfalls, Traffic Trails (Car Lights)
and Carnival Rides, Fireworks or Any Other Object in
Motion
Now that we’ve read and experimented with the
concepts discussed in the “Understanding Exposure” article, we can begin
to apply them in all sorts of real-world situations. One of the important
lessons learned from the article was the effect that shutter speed has on
the light in our pictures.
We discovered that all light emitted or reflected
from a scene is recorded on the digital sensor for the period in which the
shutter is open. A short shutter speed, for example, 1/1000 of a second,
captures only the light reflected or emitted from the
target object during that 1/600th of a second. For
example, if a baseball player is swinging his bat, the slice of life
represented by 1/1000th of a second is so brief that the player,
bat, and even the ball will seem frozen in time completely. Inversely, we may set a longer shutter speed, let’s say 1/10th of a
second. Much more motion transpires in a 10th of a second than
1/1000th of a second. In fact,
if timed perfectly, almost the entire swing may occur within that 10th
of a second, and the photo sensor will record it all! Rendering a dynamic
picture in which the bat and ball are a blur of motion.
However, we should also recall that “Understanding Exposure” also offers a word
of caution about long shutter speeds. They not only capture motion in
the scene, but they also capture any motion of the camera resulting from camera shake. Therefore, it is suggested that a tripod
or monopod be used for longer exposures
(longer shutter speeds). It is also noted that extremely
long exposures may result in the introduction of digital noise (digital
anomalies on the final picture).
ISO 100, 125mm,
F/36, 0.6 sec
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