Shutter speeds

Exercise: Shutter speeds (10-12 photographs)

This exercise was to show how differing shutter speeds can affect the way a moving object looks when photographed, from a relatively fast shutter speed to a slow one. To demonstrate this I went to a weir on the river Exe in Exeter, to photograph the water running over the weir. I mounted the camera onto a tripod, I did this for two reasons, firstly I wanted the framing to be consistent for all the images, and secondly as I would be using slower shutter speeds the tripod would prevent any camera shake. I set the camera to a manual setting and adjusted the shutter speed and aperture to maintain the correct exposure for all the images.

Image 1

Aperture f2.8 Shutter Speed 1/400 sec

Image 2

Aperture f5.6 Shutter Speed 1/125 sec

Image 3 

Aperture f11 Shutter Speed 1/30 sec

Image 4 

Aperture f22 Shutter Speed 1/8 sec

Image 5 

Aperture f22 Shutter Speed 1/4 sec

Image 6

Aperture f22 Shutter Speed 1 sec

As you can see by this series of photographs, the shutter speed has a massive effect on the way movement is depicted in the images. In image 1, with a shutter speed of 1/400 the water has the effect of being frozen, even at this speed the rough white water at the bottom of the weir looks to have individual droplets, indicating the shutter speed was fast enough to stop the water in mid flow, as it were and the feeling of a fast flowing river has partly been lost.

In the images that follow you will see the water takes on a softer look, indicating that the shutter was not fast enough to freeze that water as it was moving across the weir. In images 4 & 5 the water has smoothed out considerable and by image 6 the water has taken an almost milky look to it. 

A number of landscape photographers use the method os slow shutter speed to give water the soft look when photographing rivers and the like. In this series of photographs Image 1 gives little or no sense of how fast the river is flowing over the weir, whereby Image 6 gives the impression of a fast flowing river. 

In summary, a fast shutter speed freezes movement, whereby a slow shutter speed blurs it. By varying the shutter speed you can create differing effects, depending on what subject you are photographing at the time.