Shutter Speeds:Summary

As regards my favourite prints from the two exercises I have chosen number 8 from the Shutter Speeds exercise  I like the feel of the blurred movement combines with the sharper elements. I like the combination as it gives a feeling of speed and the disturbance of the water. Not totally a smooth extended exposure of water , as is often done with the sea and waterfalls, but a way of implying the force as well as the speed of the water.



However I prefer the sharper elements of image number 6 of the Panning series,the car being sharper and the blurred background and wheels give a better feeling of the motion. Not really speed, but the fact it is a moving car and not a static object. The kind of combination that would be ideals for photographing motor sport, particularly on a bend so the vehicle can be followed through and captured on the apex and the follow throgh allows the photographer to follow a natural curved movement. Which is a lot easier then trying to capture the image going directly across the field of view

Shutter Speeds Panning

This exercise is to see the effect of following movement as it moves across the focal plane of the sensor/film.

Following the motion with the subject as near to the centre of the fame as possible, before firing the shutter (panning) I tried to stay as close as possible the same combinations of speed and aperture I did in the previous exercise.

I tried to choose moving subjects at roughly the same speed for the following images:

Shutter Speeds Panning - 1


Exposure 1/3200 sec
Aperture f/4.0
All movement has been frozen which almost make the car look static, no real feeling of speed or any movement.

Shutter Speeds Panning - 2


Exposure 0.001 sec (1/1600)
Aperture f/4.0

A combination of frozen movement and the narrow depth of field required to give the fast speed to take this shot still don't combine to give any indication of speed or movement.

Shutter Speeds

The object of this exercise is to take a series of photographs of a scene or a person involving movement.

Movement needs to move across the field of view, while the camera is in a fixed position.

It requires a series of exposures that starts with the fastest shutter speed to the slowest possible exposure.

The notes do say to go as low as one or two seconds, but unfortunately I couldn't go as slow as that with my chosen subject. Also there was a need to keep the aperture similar to the range used for the exercise using different apertures in this case with the lens I was using it ranged from f4.0 to f22.

I noted that Image 6: at a speed of 1/160 and f4.0  is the last point at which clearly defined movement can be seen and the following images all start to develop blurring with an equivalent loss of detail until Image 12, where the lack of details starts to become a distinct feature.

Image 1:1/2000 sec at f/4.0
All speeds of the water in movement have been captured here , even down to the distinct droplets of water flying up as the water breaks over the weir. The feeling of the speed of the flow is accurately recorded with a lot of clarity. I personally find this to be a quite clinical and sterile image which "records" a frozen point in time.

Image 2:1/1600 sec at f/4.0
As in Image 1: movement has been captured but there is also a lot more detail in the shadow areas as more exposure has taken place.


 
Image 3:1/800 sec at f/4.0
As above there is still distinct details but now the highlight areas do not appear retain as much and what were distinct small individual droplets appear to be merging into larger ones.



Image 4:1/640 sec at f/4.0
Detail in highlights and shadows is not as distinct, but there is still clear distinction between moving and none moving water.



Image 5:1/320 sec at f/4.0
 Less distinct than the previous 4 images but the faster movement can still be clearly seen, but some shadow detail is tarting to merge.




Image 6:1/160sec at f/4.0
This appears to be just retaining the last of the detail in highlight and shadow areas. Overall exposure and details is good and clear with out being as "sterile" as Image 1:. Less of a feeling of simply recording the event.



Image 7:1/80 sec at f/5.6
Slightly more detail in general with the improvement in depth of field, but the start of distinct blurring in the highlight/faster moving areas.



Image 8:1/40 sec at f/8.0
Yet again another increase in depth of filed, but the blurring is now very clear in highlight and shadow areas. there is still some detail in the slower moving water but in general there is not a great deal of detail in any moving area.


Image 9:1/20 sec at f/11
There is very distinct blurring of the highlight/faster areas with some of the shadow/slower areas starting to take on a more "sculptural" quality.



Image 10:1/13 sec at f/14
We are starting to lose all detail in slower/shadow area now and the effect is starting to become very pleasing in a the movement becomes blurred and carries more of a suggestion of speed rather than a true representation of it.



Image 11:1/8 sec at f/18
Even with the increased depth of field detail is now almost lost as the sensor overlays all the information from the higlight/faster and shadow/slower moving water. The blurring creates even more of a suggestion of movement and creates an interesting effect.