The post In the Dark: 10 Tips for Street Night Photography appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by James Maher.
Much is spoken about photographing during the twilight hour, but what about after that?
Night is my favorite time for street photography. Cityscapes are lit with a myriad of interesting and colorful light sources, such as lampposts, neon signs, store windows, car lights, and bare bulbs. People dress in their favorite outfits to go out. Bland scenes by day can suddenly turn ominous and fascinating at night.
1/80s | f/2.8 | ISO 1600
Here are 10 tips for street night photography – so you’ll think about starting your next street photography session at twilight!
1. Use the ideal camera settings for sharpness at night
To freeze motion during the day, I prefer to use a shutter speed of 1/320s, with 1/160s as my lower threshold.
At night, this changes. In the brightest areas, you will be able to photograph at 1/250s, but most of the time it will be best to use a shutter speed somewhere between 1/160s and 1/60s.
You need to have steady hands and a wide-angle focal length. In fact, to photograph handheld at 1/60s, you need to stop your own motion completely. Fortunately, with some practice, it can be done.
1/125s | f/2.5 | ISO 6400
A wide-angle lens is necessary for this type of photography because the longer the focal length, the faster the shutter speed you need to keep an image sharp. With a 28mm or 35mm lens, it becomes much easier to handhold the camera at slower shutter speeds.
It will also help to use a fast prime lens, such as a 35mm f/2. It is possible to shoot at f/4 in brighter areas, but being able to shoot at f/2.8, f/2, or even f/1.8 will greatly expand your opportunities.
Finally, you will need to raise your ISO significantly. With modern digital cameras, you can photograph anywhere from ISO 1600 to ISO 6400 and get decent or good image quality. It’s just not possible to photograph handheld at night otherwise. I prefer to shoot at ISO 3200, and I sometimes go to ISO 6400 if needed.
To learn more about photographing with a high ISO, you can read this article, called “Reasons to Shoot High ISO Images.”
2. Seek out the light sources first
1/60s | f/2.8 | ISO 3200
You should always pay attention to the main light sources in a scene. This is true no matter where or when you are photographing, but it becomes even more important at night. Start by finding a beautiful light source or an area with good lighting, then wait around for something to happen.
Focus on how these light sources hit your subjects. If you are leaning against a shop with a lit sign behind you, like the man in the photograph above, then as subjects pass you they will be lit with a strong light that has a gorgeous color to it. If your lens’s aperture doesn’t go wider than f/4, this is a fantastic way to boost your shutter speed.
On the other hand, if you stand in the street and aim the camera at the light source, as I did for the photo above, then the light will be less pronounced on the subjects, but you will get the beautiful sign in the scene. Notice the difference between the light on the left and right side of the man’s face in the photo.
3. Photograph nightlife
1/125s | f/2 | ISO 6400
Some of the most interesting night street photography occurs where the most people are, and that is often where the nightlife is.
So seek out the night life and shoot it!
A fantastic project to look at for inspiration is Maciej Dakowicz’s “Cardiff After Dark” series.
4. Alternate between getting close and stepping back
I’m a proponent of Robert Capa’s advice: “If your photos aren’t good enough, you’re not close enough.” However, I often alter this strategy at night.
I try to get close to many of my subjects, but I will also try to create compositions where the subjects are small aspects of the overall scene. At night, backgrounds can be much more beautiful than during the day, so it often works to have people become the secondary element in the scene, rather than the primary focus.
The technical advantage here is that you do not need to use a fast shutter speed to capture the motion of subjects when you are farther away. You can freeze a moving subject at 1/60s from farther away, whereas you will need to use at least 1/125s when close.
5. Tripod and crowd blur
1/8s | f/4 | ISO 800 | Tripod
For night street photography, it’s usually best to go handheld, since you never know what interesting thing is going to happen and where it’s going to happen. However, one of the times to use a tripod is when you want to capture a busy scene with lots of people and motion.
Experiment with slower shutter speeds, such as 1/8s, and shoot a lot of photos. It took me a long time to capture the image above, because I wanted the people spread out evenly throughout the entire scene, and I also wanted something interesting in the foreground (ultimately, this was the pose of the woman in the street and the man looking at her).
It took some waiting and a lot of captures for this to happen.
6. Use a flash
Whether you want to try flash on the street is up to you, but keep in mind that it can easily lead to a confrontation. I prefer to work with the constraints of the natural light on the street, and I also get uncomfortable flashing strangers in the face in dark settings, but many prefer to photograph this way. It creates a fantastic look when done well.
Using a flash frees you from a lot of the constraints of photographing at night. You can use a faster shutter speed, include more depth of field in the photo, and reduce graininess (noise).
You can have the flash do all of the work lighting the scene, where the foreground area is lit and everything else is dark.
Alternatively, you can set the camera to expose for the scene, similar to what you would do without the flash, and then use the flash to add some fill light to your main subjects in the foreground.
7. Noise and the dreaded underexposed image
1/250s | f/2 | ISO 3200
You should always expose correctly when photographing with a high ISO.
That being said, even with the best settings, some of your images will be taken in areas that are too dark to be exposed correctly. It’s impossible to photograph this way and expose every image perfectly in-camera. For the occasional shots with excellent content that you want to save, you will have no choice but to raise the exposure when editing.
For that type of photo, I first ignore the noise and get the exposure and look correct in Lightroom. After I do this, if I’ve had to raise the exposure a significant amount, the grain will look terrible. Luckily, there are some ways to save an image like that as long as you’re photographing in RAW.
What I do is first remove the grain – then I add it back. I want the image to look grainy, but I want the grain to look pleasing. There are many noise reduction programs, such as Photo Ninja, Topaz’s DeNoise, and DxO. Personally, I like Lightroom’s built-in noise reduction. If the noise is still bad after noise reduction, I will sometimes bring the image into Photoshop and add a very slight Gaussian blur.
Then I will use Lightroom’s grain settings to add grain back into the photo. This grain looks much more pleasing to the eye than brightened, extreme digital noise, and it can further hide some of the technical deficiencies of underexposed images. The result will not be a perfectly sharp image, but it will still be pleasing and beautiful.
8. Blur and imperfection
Aim to get your photos as sharp as possible when you want sharpness, but know that a photo can still look fantastic even if it’s not tack sharp.
You don’t need to freeze motion perfectly when photographing at night for the image to still look great. I hold my day images to a higher standard than my night images when it comes to sharpness. They need to be interesting and look good, and that’s what counts.
Also, at shutter speeds around 1/60s to 1/30s, you can experiment shooting handheld with a slight blur, where your subjects are somewhat sharp but have a little motion to them. It’s a great way to add an energetic feeling of movement to an image.
9. Night images should be dark
1/250s | f/2 | ISO 3200
This is an overly general statement, so feel free to disagree, but I want to make a point here.
I believe that night shots should look like they were taken at night. They should be dark, with deep shadows and areas that are hard to see and make out. When you look at the histogram of a night image, it should be further toward the dark side (the far left) than a day image.
When you expose a night shot, especially with automatic settings, the camera will often misread the scene and overexpose the image. The photo will be bright and you will be able to see everything as you would during the day, but it will not feel like a realistic night scene. In such cases, you’ll want to lower the exposure compensation on your camera slightly.
There are many situations where bright night images are a good thing, but don’t be afraid to make your night images dark and realistic.
10. Be careful
Depending on where you live, going out at night with a camera is not always the safest idea. Travel light, keep your equipment to a minimum, and be careful about where you go.
Use your best judgment regarding who to photograph and think about bringing a friend along. You don’t want to suddenly find yourself in a bad situation.
Tips for street night photography: conclusion
Getting beautiful street photos at night isn’t always easy.
But if you remember these tips and you practice frequently, you’re bound to get some great shots!
Do you have any street night photography tips you’d like to add? Please share them in the comments below!
The post In the Dark: 10 Tips for Street Night Photography appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by James Maher.
The post Focus, Compose, and Expose with Intent in Photography appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Kevin Landwer-Johan.
Why do you take photographs? What’s your intention each time you press the shutter button? Do you visualize how you want your photo to look before you take it? When you photograph with intent, the pictures you make resonate more with the people who view them.
All of us have a unique worldview. No two people perceive what they see precisely the same way. Learning to express what you see through the lens of your camera requires paying attention to more than what you are looking at. You must also have intent as to how you want your photos to turn out.
Just as a musician’s instrument or a painter’s brush creates nothing on its own, your camera does not take photographs.
Instead, the interaction you have with your camera is what creates photos. The quality and creativity of your photographs depends on the level of synergy between photographer and camera. The connection between you and your chosen subject is also significant.
Modern digital cameras are all designed to be as simple as possible to use – especially consumer-level cameras. Scene modes, auto-exposure, autofocus, auto-everything allows unskilled photographers to take snapshots that turn out pretty well.
When I was a kid, our neighbors had a pianola. This was a piano that had a handy mechanism: we could push pedals with our feet and the pianola would play tunes. There were special rolls of paper with holes punched in them that could be loaded into the front of the pianola. As we pedaled, the paper roll would turn. The configuration of the holes determined what tune was played. We were playing music without being musicians.
This is similar to using a camera with its auto-functions turned on. It can be fun, and there will be a certain, but limited, satisfaction as pictures are created. Just as we loved “playing” the pianola, you can take photos with minimal creative input or skill.
To take truly wonderful photos, however, you must interact with your camera and your subject with intent. Relying on camera technology to make it easy to take photos will not make you a great photographer.
Being familiar with your camera and its controls means you can concentrate more on the art of photography. You’ll no longer be distracted by the technical aspects of the camera.
Learn to control your exposure, focus, white balance, and all the other settings. As you do this, you will grow in confidence and begin to “see” what you are photographing in different ways.
Cameras used in auto-exposure mode tend to make very generically-exposed images. Your camera is programmed to do things in certain ways to produce photos with an even exposure. But the more you take charge of what your camera is doing, the more creative your photography becomes.
Understand the exposure meter. Use your spot meter to measure the light from different zones in your composition. Experiment with manual exposure settings. Don’t always adhere to what the meter tells you is “correct.” Control where you are focusing and the amount of the image that is sharp.
This may all seem a bit overwhelming if you’re new to photography, or if you’ve been using your camera for years without adjusting the controls. But remember: We could not add any creative expression to the tunes we played with the pianola. Unless you intentionally set your camera’s controls, your photos will lack creativity.
Think about how you want your photos to look before you take them. Do you want to record a scene exactly as you see it? Or will your frame it in such a way as to exclude some ugly elements?
Make constant choices about what focal length lens you’ll use. How much of what you see will you include in the final shot? The same scene photographed with a 24mm lens will look very different than if you back up and photograph it with a 200mm lens.
How do you want your exposure to look? Will exposing for the highlights or shadows create a more interesting atmosphere? Are there things in the shadow areas you want to hide or reveal? When you have control over your exposure, you have the capability to express yourself in more creative ways.
Your choice of when you press the shutter release to take the photo can have an important creative influence on the outcome. This is sometimes a matter of a split second, or it can be a matter of waiting for the season to change. Picking the decisive moment when photographing a child playing versus photographing a landscape is very different. But timing is equally relevant to making good pictures.
Are you seeing in color or in black and white? Will your subject look more interesting as a monotone image? Will this alter the feeling of the photo? If you are intentional about color as you’re taking photos, you’ll create more compelling images.
As you’re taking photos, think about why you want to photograph your chosen subject. What has drawn you to want to make a picture of this person, thing, or scene?
When you think about the why, you can start to see your subject in new ways. Being aware of what motivates you can have an influence on how you photograph something.
Does your subject mean something personal to you? How can you show this in the photos you take? There are many ways you can choose to control your camera, or where you take your photos from, that will influence the final shot. Being aware of how you compose and expose your subjects will help build a story into your images.
Your photos will move from being snapshots to works of art that have depth and convey meaning.
Sony has announced a small but significant update to the Sony Software Development Kit (SDK). This update allows users to craft custom imaging solutions using Sony cameras.
The new camera automation software SDK has been created with product photographers in mind and is designed to streamline a product photography imaging workflow using Sony cameras. Sony writes, ‘It’s especially useful for large e-commerce businesses, allowing them to simplify, speed up and standardize product photography.’
This streamlining is achieved by the SDK enabling ‘virtually every facet’ of the camera and lens to be automated and controlled. This includes automation and control over white balance, image resolution, compression options, zoom, focus and video triggering. Multi-camera support is included, meaning that it will be easier than ever to capture 360° interactive product shots, for example.
The SDK is the first to support full-frame multi-camera control, allowing for multi-angle image capture. It has also gained macOS compatibility, which Sony states is the most-used operating system in the product photography industry. The SDK is also compatible with Windows and Linux. The SDK also launches alongside a Sony team and website prepared to offer support. Further, Sony states that bespoke apps are possible.
Yasuo Baba, Director of Digital Imaging for Sony Europe BV, said of the SDK, ‘This is a key part of Sony’s long-term vision. Sony’s Alpha range are the world’s most trusted mirrorless cameras, and this new move helps to back this up with the best software and the best support.’ Baba continues, ‘By doing this, we aim to make it easier and quicker for companies in e-commerce, and other B2B sectors, to automate every part of the image creation process.’
Many high-end Sony mirrorless cameras are supported by the SDK, including the A9 II, A7R IV, A7 III, A7C and the RX0 series. While a niche SDK, it should prove very useful for some photographers and allow for a streamlined, more efficient workflow. It will also be interesting to see what sort of creative uses enterprising photographers come up with for the new SDK.
This is not Sony’s first major SDK release of 2020. In February, the company released a remote control SDK kit. This SDK allows key camera controls and still image data to be captured via remote access, which Sony stated at the time is of interest to industries including security, entertainment and ‘many others’.
A lot of great things can be created when a platform is opened to development, so it’s nice to see Sony developing new software development kits for its cameras. If you’d like to learn more about the latest SDK, click here.
The post 6 Tips for Capturing Dramatic Skies in your Landscape Photography appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Hillary Grigonis.
Don’t let the “land” in landscape photography fool you; a great landscape photo relies just as much on the sky as the land. Boring gray skies make for boring landscape photos, after all!
That said, capturing a dramatic sky in-camera is trickier than it seems. When the sky is lighter than the land, your camera will typically overexpose it, turning a brilliant blue into a vague and unexciting gray or white.
But with a little fine-tuning, it is possible to capture a sky that is the cherry on top of a great scene! Here are six tips for capturing more dramatic skies in your landscape photography.
1. Time it right
Landscape photography may not require the split-second timing that’s necessary for capturing a toddler’s smile or a wide receiver’s catch, but timing is still a big part of the picture. The sky that’s gray one day could be bright blue the next. So when planning out a landscape photo, consider how the timing will impact the sky.
Watch for weather patterns that add interest to a shot, like a storm brewing just above the horizon. Weather plays a big role in the overall mood of the image – so if you’re hoping to capture a dark and gloomy shot, head out when the sky is stormy.
On the other hand, if you’re hoping to capture a more relaxed or happy photo, look for blue skies dotted with clouds.
The time of day matters, too. While the middle of the day will produce the most shadows on the land, it’s when the sky tends to be the clearest blue. And just after sunset and just before sunrise is often a good time to capture wispy clouds and a warmer tint of light.
Of course, sunrise and sunset is great for dramatic skies, as well.
2. Try the wrong white balance
Photography rules are sometimes meant to be broken, including rules about always using the correct white balance.
You see, the wrong white balance setting can create a more dramatic sky. This is especially true when shooting toward the beginning or end of the day – using a different white balance preset will adjust the color in the sky.
Auto, Cloudy, and Shade white balance presets will get you an orangish sunset with a light blue sky (with slight variations in warmth depending on the setting you choose). A florescent setting, on the other hand, will typically turn an orange sunset purple with a brilliant blue sky. Tungsten offers a similar effect, but with even deeper colors.
Using Kelvin temperatures to adjust your white balance results in even greater control over the colors in the sky. At around 5500K, you’ll usually capture a sunny sky with an accurate white balance – that is, where things that are white are still white in the picture, and where things that are gray are still gray in the picture.
A higher temperature – 6500K, for example – will give the land an orange glow but also enhance the colors in a sunset. A cooler temperature, on the other hand (e.g., 3000K), will play up the blues and purples. By using the Kelvin scale, you have more options for picking a white balance setting that best captures the colors in your photos.
Here, the white balance was altered in post-processing to warm up the sky.
While it’s always best to get the shot right in-camera, shooting in RAW offers you even more flexibility when it comes to adjusting the colors in the sky (and the rest of the image, for that matter).
If you overdid things by making the shot too warm or too cool, you can easily adjust a RAW photo in post-processing, so that you use the color temperature that best fits the image. If you have a landscape photo that you already shot in RAW, open it and try different white balance presets, or the temperature slider, to see first-hand how shooting with a different white balance would have impacted the shot.
3. Compose for the sky
When the sky is more dramatic than the land, why not use that to determine your composition?
Pay attention to where you place the horizon when you are composing your shot. Use the rule of thirds to imagine the image is divided into threes, then place the horizon on one of those horizontal lines. If you are shooting a photo with an average-looking sky, try placing the horizon on the upper third of the image, so more of the land is included in the photo, like this:
As the sky here isn’t very dramatic, the higher placement of the horizon improves the composition.
But if the sky is really dramatic, take advantage of that and include more of it in the frame – by placing the horizon on the lower third:
The sky here is dramatic, so the image was composed to show less ground and more sky.
4. Use a filter
There are two filters every landscape photographer should have in their camera bag in order to capture more dramatic skies.
The first is a graduated neutral density filter. Now, a regular neutral density filter is like putting sunglasses over your lens – it limits the light coming in for bright scenes or long exposures. But a graduated neutral density filter places that darkening effect only on a portion of the image. And by positioning the dark portion of the filter over a bright sky, you can properly expose the entire scene.
Without a graduated neutral density filter, the sky will often be overexposed and bland, or the land will be underexposed and dark. With the filter, you can achieve an exposure that works for both portions of the scene. The only downside is that graduated neutral density filters don’t work as well with an uneven horizon, like when shooting a cityscape. Graduated neutral density filters come in both circular and square formats, but the square is often preferred because you can place the horizon anywhere in the frame.
The second filter landscape photographers should use to capture more dramatic skies is a polarizing filter. Polarizing filters work by adjusting the reflected light coming through your camera lens. Since the sky is blue because of this reflected light, turning the front of the polarizing filter will adjust the intensity of the blues in the sky. Since polarizing filters only affect reflected light, they can still be used when mountains or buildings make the horizon uneven. Polarizing filters are also great for enhancing or removing reflections on water or other shiny surfaces.
5. Experiment with motion blur and long exposures
Long exposures aren’t just for photographing waterfalls. If you use a long enough shutter speed, the clouds will blur, too, creating a sky of wispy streaks and a slight feeling of motion.
To capture motion blur in the clouds, you’ll need to use a long shutter speed. The best settings will depend a bit on the weather and how much motion blur you’d like, but you can try starting with a two-minute exposure and adjust up or down from there.
If you are shooting during the day, you may not be able to balance out a two-minute exposure with a narrow-enough aperture or a low-enough ISO; instead, you’ll end up with a photo that’s way too bright.
So how do photographers capture motion blur in the clouds when the photo obviously wasn’t taken at dusk or dawn?
They use a neutral density filter – which helps block out some of the light so that you can set a long exposure during the day.
(Note that a neutral density filter is the same thing as a graduated neutral density filter, but the entire filter is dark instead of just half of the filter).
6. Use the Adobe Camera RAW Graduated Filter tool
While it’s always best to get the shot right in-camera, there are a few editing tools that can improve the sky in your landscape photos. One of those tools is the Graduated Filter inside Adobe Camera RAW (this works the same in Photoshop and Lightroom).
With the Graduated Filter, you can drag an effect over the sky in your photo. Like an actual graduated filter, the effect will only cover the top portion of the image and gradually fade away, making it possible to create natural-looking edits.
The Graduated Filter tool can be used to adjust the exposure, creating an effect much like an actual graduated neutral density filter. But the tool can also adjust contrast, saturation, clarity, sharpness, and color. That opens up a lot of possibilities for applying edits just to the sky for more drama – creating effects that sometimes can’t be done in-camera.
This is the original photo.
This is the same photo, but with a Graduated Filter used on the sky to increase the drama.
Capturing dramatic skies in your landscape photos: conclusion
The sky can make or break a landscape photo. From timing and composition to filters and post-processing, when you consider the sky as you shoot, you’ll end up with more dramatic, frame-worthy shots.
Do you have any other tips for creating dramatic skies in your landscape photography? Share them in the comments!
The post 6 Tips for Capturing Dramatic Skies in your Landscape Photography appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Hillary Grigonis.
The post Introduction to Shutter Speed in Digital Photography appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Darren Rowse.
Previously, I introduced the concept of the exposure triangle as a way of thinking about getting off of Auto Mode and exploring the idea of manually adjusting the exposure of your shots.
The three main settings that you can adjust are ISO, aperture, and shutter speed. As we’ve covered aperture and ISO in other articles, today I want to turn your attention to shutter speed.
What is shutter speed?
As I’ve written elsewhere, defined most basically, shutter speed is “the amount of time that the shutter is open.”
In film photography, shutter speed is the length of time that the film is exposed to the scene you’re photographing. Similarly, in digital photography, shutter speed is the length of time that your image sensor “sees” the scene you’re attempting to capture.
Let me attempt to break down the topic of “shutter speed” into some bite-sized pieces that should help digital camera owners trying to get their head around shutter speed:
Shutter speed is measured in seconds – or, in most cases, fractions of seconds. The bigger the denominator, the faster the speed (i.e., 1/1000s is much faster than 1/30s).
In most cases, you’ll probably need shutter speeds of 1/60th of a second or faster. This is because anything slower than this is very difficult to use without getting camera shake. Camera shake is when your camera is moving while the shutter is open; it causes blur in your photos.
If you’re using a slow shutter speed (anything slower than 1/60s), you will need to either use a tripod or some type of image stabilization technology (more and more cameras are coming with this built-in).
Shutter speeds available on your camera will often double (approximately) with each setting. As a result, you’ll generally have the option to use the following shutter speeds: 1/500s, 1/250s, 1/125s, 1/60s, 1/30s, 1/15s, 1/8s, etc. This doubling is handy to keep in mind, as aperture settings also double the amount of light that is let in. As a result, increasing the shutter speed by one stop and decreasing the aperture by one stop should give you similar exposure levels.
Some cameras also give you the option for very slow shutter speeds that are not fractions of seconds but are measured in seconds (for example, 1 second, 10 seconds, 30 seconds, etc.). These are used in very low light situations when you’re after special effects and/or when you’re trying to capture a lot of movement in a shot. 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 the shutter button down.
When considering what shutter speed to use in an image, you should always ask yourself whether anything in your scene is moving and how you’d like to capture that movement. If there is movement in your scene, you have the choice of either freezing the movement (so it looks still) or letting the moving object intentionally blur (giving it a sense of movement).
To freeze movement in an image (like in the shots of the bird above and the surfer below), you’ll want to choose a faster shutter speed. To let the movement blur, you’ll want to choose a slower shutter speed. The actual speeds you should choose will vary depending upon the speed of the subject in your shot and how much you want it to be blurred.
In the bird image above, the shutter speed was 1/1000th of a second, meaning that despite the bird’s fast-flapping wings, they appear to be frozen in a split second of time. The surfing shot below had a fast shutter speed (around 1/4000th of a second), which captured even the splashing drops of water sharply.
Motion is not always bad. I spoke to one digital camera owner last week who told me that he always used fast shutter speeds and couldn’t understand why anyone would want motion in their images. But there are times when motion is good. For example, when you’re taking a photo of a waterfall or a seascape and want to show how fast the water is flowing, or when you’re taking a shot of a racing car and want to give it a feeling of speed, or when you’re taking a shot of a starscape and want to show how the stars move over a longer period of time. In all of these instances, choosing a longer shutter speed will be the way to go. However, in all of these cases, you will need to use a tripod or you’ll run the risk of ruining the shots by adding camera movement (which results in a different type of blur than motion blur).
For example, in the following waterfall photo, the shutter speed was around 1s, so we see the movement in the water:
In the subway shot below, the shutter speed was around 2s, so the movement of the train is beautifully blurred:
Focal length and shutter speed – Another thing to consider when choosing your shutter speed is the focal length of the lens you’re using. Longer focal lengths will accentuate the amount of camera shake you have, and so you’ll need to choose a faster shutter speed (unless you have image stabilization in your lens or camera). The rule of thumb here (in situations without image stabilization) is to choose a shutter speed with a denominator that is larger than the focal length of the lens. For example, if you have a lens that is 50mm, a shutter speed of 1/60s is probably okay. But if you have a 200mm lens, you’ll probably want to shoot at around 1/250s or higher.
Shutter speed – bringing it together
Remember that thinking about shutter speed in isolation from the other two elements of the exposure triangle (aperture and ISO) is not really a good idea. As you change your shutter speed, you’ll need to change one or both of the other elements to compensate for it.
For example, if you increase your shutter speed by one stop (for example, from 1/125s to 1/250s), you’re effectively letting half as much light into your camera. To compensate for this, you’ll probably need to increase your aperture by one stop (for example, from f/16 to f/11). The other alternative would be to choose a higher ISO (you might want to move from ISO 100 to ISO 200, for example).
I hope you’ve found this introduction to shutter speed useful. I would highly recommend you also put a little time aside today to learn about the other two important elements of the exposure triangle – aperture and ISO.
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The post Introduction to Shutter Speed in Digital Photography appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Darren Rowse.
The post Weekly Photography Challenge – Wheels appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Sime.
They come in many shapes and sizes! ‘Wheels’ on a car, bike, whatever – wheels on their own, detail shots of wheels, there are many ways to approach this challenge – how will you make your photograph, this week, unique? Tag this week is #dPSWheels
Missed a challenge? Go back and do them all! Click Here
The wheels on a motorbike when I was learning to pan. BMX’ers doing their thing (Bonus point if you say where this was taken in the comments!)Or your car, on the side of a hill!
Great! Where do I upload my photos?
Simply upload your shot into the comments field (look for the little camera icon in the Disqus comments section) and they’ll get embedded for us all to see. Or, if you’d prefer, upload them to your favourite photo-sharing site and leave the link to them.
Share in the dPS Facebook Group
You can also share your images in the dPS Facebook group as the challenge is posted there each week as well.
If you tag your photos on Flickr, Instagram, Twitter or other sites – tag them as #DPSWheels to help others find them. Linking back to this page might also help others know what you’re doing so that they can share in the fun.
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The post Weekly Photography Challenge – Wheels appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Sime.
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