David Bailey weds Catherine Deneuve

31 January 2010

Shutter speed












Shutter speed allows you to control whether to freeze its motion by selecting a fast shutter speed, or record it as a blur or a streak by selecting a longer shutter speed.
To keep an image sharp whilst holding the camera, a faster shutter speed is needed. The exact shutter speed is not a constant – it is largely dependant on the lens setting used.
Freezing movement; shutter speed plays an important part in capturing a moving object into a still image. The less time a shutter is open, the less the subject will move within the frame and the sharper it will appear. There are also other factors to consider, firstly the actual speed of the subject does not necessarily indicate how fast the image will change in the view finder. If a subject is moving directly away or towards the camera the image will change more slowly than if it were moving across the frame, and a slower shutter speed will be required to freeze it. The size of the image is also important. E.g. a train on the horizon will not seem to move as fast as a flower swaying in the breeze right in front of the lens. The longer the lens setting and the closer you are to the subject the faster the shutter speed you need.
Using a slower shutter speed can create a different type of image. An artistic approach to moving subjects is to use a slower shutter speed which suggests movement and action. Also using a slower shutter speed to capture moving lights such as fireworks will give a very artistic image.

I experimented in the studio with shutter speeds. I used ISO 200 for all images and the aperture ranges from 9-14 and the shutter speeds range from 2-6 secs. To see images click here. The first three images I tried changing the shutter speed but with the set up I had in the studio which was one Bowens 1000 with a spill kill/open disk reflector attached to it, it didn't work. What I wanted to try and capture was the movement of the ball but the flash prohibited this. The flash would fire when the shutter was pressed but the light wasn't constant. The shot of light froze the movement and the constant dim light from the flash unit once fired showed some movement of the ball. It was suggested by Steve that I was to use the bulb setting on the camera (which are the rest of the images) where the flash unit is set off manually and the shutter button depressed for the amount of time wanted. To get two points of movement the flash is to be set off twice and the shutter button released after the second flash, the same for three points of movement but the flash to be set off three times. For these set of images I set the camera to ISO 200 and used an aperture of 9 or 14 with a shutter speed of 2-6 secs. Although it was very difficult to try and catch the ball in the dark and so some of the facial expressions are quite comical I think it shows shutter speed and the use of studio lighting very well.
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1 comment:

  1. Mr Steve11 February 2010 at 17:26

    Hi
    When you produce a piece of writing investigating varied areas of photography, but you also would benefit from producing your own images to show me you both understand it and are able to control it.

    Steve

    ReplyDelete

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Techniques, materials and resources used for portrait photography 1.1

There are many different formats and techniques that can be applied to portrait photography.

Framing is a technique where by you draw attention to one element of an image by framing it with another element of the image. This gives an image depth and draws the eye to a point of interest in the image.
You could do it by placing your subject in a window or doorway, have them look through a small gap or even use their hands around their face.

Shooting with a wide angle lens attached to your camera can help create some memorable shots when you’re doing portrait photography.
At very wide focal lengths you can create some wonderful distortion. Using these focal lengths will enlarge parts of the face or body that are on the edge of the frame more than what is in the centre.
It can also give a wide open and dramatic impact when your subject is in an impressive setting.

The person in your portrait is the main point of interest – however sometimes when you place them into different contexts with different backgrounds you can dramatically alter the mood in a shot.

Having parts of a portrait in focus draws attention on certain parts of the face or body, or a completely unfocused portrait can add a dreamy effect and make a picture quite abstract.

Black and white portraits can be just as dramatic as colour. By adding a shot of colour can draw attention to certain parts of the photo.
"When we shoot in color, we do not depart from what we see everyday, so our eye expects certain details in order to fill out the image. Black and white photography gives us the opportunity to diverge from this norm, and in a way view reality as an abstraction."

Equipment I have at home and what is avaliable to me at college 1.1

I have at home the Canon 450d camera which comes with the standard 18-55mm lens.


At college there is a wide range of lenses avaliable to use along with higher quality cameras. There is a studio which contains a wide range of backdrops, studio lights, reflectors and soft box.

Canon 450D

Canon 450D

Canon 450d

This is the camera which I have started out with, the basic entry level canon 450d.  For specification details click on the image.
I don't really have any experience of digital SLR's, the only cameras I have used previously are point and shoot digital and film SLR's.  
I don't have an opinion on my camera yet as I haven't really used it enough to comment other than I find it fairly easy to use and understand. 

Standard 50mm lens

What makes this lens ideal for portriture is its angle-of-view is the closest to our own eyes and the easiest to use to get the most natural looking shots. You can even visualise shots without putting the camera to your eye. This doesn’t mean this lens is boring compared to the extremes that a telephoto or wide-angle will give. On the contrary, it’s just a lens that works well and keeps your photography simple. It is also ideal, as long as you remember not to get too close to your subject, which will lead to unflattering distortion to your sitters face. It works especially well with full-length portraits, but you can get some very nice head and shoulder shots.

Standard 50mm lens

70-200mm Lens

The telephoto lens allows you to take tightly composed pictures of subjects where it is impractical to get any closer and to use a wider lens, therefore they are useful for candid photography, this lens is small, lightweight and unobtrusive.
Short telephoto focal lengths are widely used in portraiture for their unnatural, non standard view makes objects at different distances appear closer together than they are in reality. Using a wide angle lens for head and shoulder close ups makes people's noses and other facial features more prominent - while a slight telephoto focal length flattens the features a touch, to give a more flattering result.
Telephotos are also useful in portraiture because when used with largish apertures, it is easy to throw a background out of focus thus drawing the viewers attention to certain parts of the scene.

70-200mm lens f/2.8 IS