Shooting in Shutter Priority (S for Nikon or Tv for Time Value for Canon) allows you to set the shutter speed of your camera. For point-and-shoot cameras, you can use Long Shutter mode to select speeds of a second or longer. This article provides a series of creative ideas to try using shutter speed.
Quick Shutter Speeds
Levitation style shots can be a lot of fun, and you can achieve some amazing looks simply by jumping and using a quick shutter speed. This article,
9 Tips for Better Jumping Photographs, will walk you through the process for capturing creative and mind-bending images.
Long Shutter Speeds
Get out your tripod and head off to the fair! As night falls and the lights come out, you will have endless opportunities to shoot creative long exposure shots. Try angles that combine multiple rides and see how different shutter speeds and different compositions influence your final images. Read more in
Long Exposure Photography at the Fair(e). Or, try a similar technique with
Light Painting: How to Spin an Orb or really go for the extreme and try
Spinning Fire with Steel Wool Photography!
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| A 5-second long shutter speed created this silky waterfall |
Longer shutter speeds are essential to getting those silky waterfall style photographs. A narrow aperture combined with a
circular polarizer and/or
neutral density filter will help you obtain the longer shutter speeds required to really maximize the flow and shape of the falling water. Read more on
Yes, Go Chasing Waterfalls.
Really, Really Long Shutter Speeds
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| 108 images, each 30-seconds long |
The original way to shoot a star trails style shot was to do it as a single frame and shoot for an hour or more for that single photograph. A more common way with digital is to shoot a continuous series of shots and combine them afterwards into the final image. Learn how to use this stacking technique (for star trails and other styles of shots) in the article,
Stacking Photographs: Beyond Star Trails.
You can also use the stacking techniques for other types of shots. This article,
Time Stack for Captivating Sky Photographs, contains several gorgeous examples of using stacking for sunrise or sunset shots. Rather than a continuous series of shots, this method involves taking a spaced-out series of images over a longer period of time and then combining them.
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