Shutter Speed Science (pt.1)

Whenever I saw moving water, I’ll try to capture it. Rain, river, flood, tap water, ocean waves… even your drinks.

Today in Shutter Speed Science class, I’ll share a few tips on slow shutter speed’s effect on moving water.

Basically, if the lighting is good (not too bright, e.g in the morning/afternoon), just switch the dial to S and experimenting with the speed. The longer the time (1 second or more), the blurry the water will be. The blurry water(or macam kapas - kampung2 bilang) is our main focus today. (But never forget, foreground, background, subject and composition is what makes the pictures worth looking – in my case, my photos failed –_-‘).

Lens: DT 55-200mm F4-5.6, Shutter Speed Priority (S), 4 sec at f/32, 55mm. ISO 200, 19/7/09 1:54pm

Lens: DT 55-200mm F4-5.6, Manual exposure (M), 1.3 sec at f/32, 60mm. ISO 200, 23/8/09 5:44pm

Lens: DT 18-70mm F3.5-5.6, Shutter Speed Priority (S), 1 sec at f/29, 30mm. ISO 200, 24/5/09 6:38am

Here some tip for the photo above. During the 1 second shutter opened to take picture, I fired my external flash to the water in front of me, thus giving the ‘colourful’ look of the rocks underneath rather than just bleak grey water.

Lens: DT 18-70mm F3.5-5.6, Shutter Speed Priority (S), 2 sec at f/10, 35mm. ISO 200, 3/11/09 8:08am

Slow shutter will give the effect of softness, moving and.. just plain fun. But in next class (tahun daaaapan laa…), fast speed will also be fun. We’ll be stop time on it’s track, stillness and frozen. But I haven’t finish with slow speed yet. Until next time. Here some gambar hiasan:

Three photos stitched together. Lens: DT 18-70mm F3.5-5.6, Apature Priority (A), f/22, 18mm. ISO 100, -1.7 EV. 15/9/09 1:++pm (Click for BIG image)

p/s (above): I can’t do slow shutter because the light is too strong. Filter is a must. (also, I walked about 3km barefooted to this waterfall, my sandal betrays me).

[pt.2]

Go to [Aperture Science] class.