Day 88

“Creativity is a natural extension of our enthusiasm.”

Earl Nightingale entrepreneur, motivational author

Show creativity in your space today

Photography prompt 3

"My theory of composition? Simple: do not release the shutter until everything in the viewfinder feels just right." Ernst Haas

Shutter Speed

This month we are going to look at our shutter speed. For those of us using a camera with some manul settings, you can set the shutter speed to "S" for shutter speed priority. this allows you to alter your shutter speed and your camera will set the aperture setting for you.

Our shutter speed is important when photograhing in low light conditions and when photographing motion shots.

A faster shutter speed will freeze action whereas a slower shutter speed can create a blurred effect (or can just be downright blurry.) When you set your shutter speed on your camera, you’ll see numbers like 60, 120, 250, 1000 and so on. These actually represent 1/60th of a second, 1/120th of a second and so on. So the higher the bottom number on the fraction, the faster the shutter speed. The smaller the number, the slower the shutter speed. You will also see shutter speeds for seconds, indicated by inch marks ("). For example, if the display says 1"5, that indicates a shutter speed of 1½ seconds. If the display says 30", the shutter will be open for 30 seconds.

A general rule of thumb is not to set your shutter speed less than 1/60 when taking a photo without a tripod. A shutter speed less than this, will cause camera shake and you should use your tripod, or a firm static surface, ie a wall, or table.

Shutter Challenge (taken from 2 peas)

1. Find your kitchen sink (that shouldn’t be too hard.)

2. Now locate an object that is going to obstruct the water flowing from the faucet. Basically, you want something that will interrupt the flow of water, causing the water to "splash" around it (similar to what a child’s boots do when tromping through a rain puddle.)

3. Set your shutter speed to 1/80th of a second (indicated by the number 80.) Turn on the water and take the picture.

4. Now set your shutter really high (around 1/1000 of a second or higher) and take the photo again.See the detail in the second photo of the water drops?

Have fun playing :)