How To Pkace Your Camera Into Freeze Mode

In this tutorial, yous'll learn how to utilize shutter speed creatively to mistiness photos or freeze motility intentionally. Y'all will learn about shutter speed, camera settings, motion, and how to use it for more artistic photos.

What is the Shutter Speed?

Shutter speed is the length of fourth dimension that the shutter inside your camera stays open during the exposure. It may too exist called exposure time.

If you use a DSLR camera, the shutter is located behind the mirror you run into when you take off your lens.

When you press the button to take a moving-picture show, the mirror flips out of the way and the shutter opens. If you lot shoot with a mirrorless camera you may non see the shutter when you remove the lens, merely it's in that location!

a human eyelid is like the shutter on your camera, when you blink, that's like the shutter closing — The shutter in your photographic camera is like your eyelid. When yous blink that'south the shutter closing. Your eyelid lifts to let light into your centre, that'due south like the shutter opening to let light into the lens. The aperture (which is inside your lens) is like the pupil in your eye. It changes in size (opens and closes) to let in more or less lite depending on the effulgence of the scene you're viewing. (Photo by Hashemite kingdom of jordan Whitfield on Unsplash)

Every bit I mentioned before, in Shutter Priority fashion you can choose the shutter speed you want for a shot.

The shutter speed normally ranges from well-nigh 1/8000th of a second on the fast end to 30 seconds on the long/slow end (will probable exist displayed as thirty″ on your photographic camera), and finally, to Bulb (infinite).

Annotation: This range may vary from 1 camera model to some other. If you're non sure, check your camera'southward user manual.

In Bulb mode, the shutter stays open every bit long as the shutter push is held down (or locked with a remote) and then you lot tin do exposures of several minutes or longer. The examples beneath were exposed for well by the longest shutter speed the photographic camera was able to fourth dimension, so Bulb Mode was used.

ISO 100, f/viii, lxx seconds. This image was done at a workshop I lead in Alberta. This shutter speed gave u.s.a. plenty fourth dimension to go into the scene and exercise some lite painting and it also captured the movement of the clouds.

ISO 100, f/5.half-dozen, 85 seconds. This prototype is a combination of about xv shots that I took where I did lite painting on a dissimilar function of the truck in each image and combined information technology all afterward in Photoshop.

The shots higher up are fairly advanced techniques.

Do NOT worry if you aren't in that location yet, this is just to show yous what'south possible using a long exposure or wearisome shutter speed.

How to Set up Your Shutter Speed

Which end of the shutter speed range you shoot at will determine if yous tin freeze a moving subject or if it will blur. Click To Tweet

Which end of the shutter speed range you shoot at volition make up one's mind if you tin freeze a moving subject field or if it will blur.

Towards the fastest end (1/8000th) you lot tin can freeze movement on but about anything including a speeding automobile, or even a bullet (flash is needed for that)!

Normally, the shutter speed is hands adjusted by turning a dial or wheel on the camera. Again, consult your photographic camera'southward user transmission. But ideally, yous want to know how to adapt it without taking the camera away from your heart.

HINT: To become ane with your camera – use it every day!

Photographic camera Mode Setting

Using a Digital SLR or mirrorless photographic camera gives you the ability to command how your scene is captured based on your interpretation, but you also demand to know how to use the settings on the camera to your advantage. Most cameras have several different shooting modes, including:

Aperture Priority Mode – Av on Canon, A on Nikon, may vary for other brands.
Shutter Priority Fashion – Tv on Canon cameras (which stands for "time value") and S on Nikons.
Manual Mode – M on most cameras.
Program – P on most cameras.

Read more: To learn more than about each of these modes read Real Photographers Just Shoot in Transmission Style – NOT! (there's also a handy cheat sheet that will help yous sympathize them all and pick the best one for each scene you're shooting)

camera shooting modes cheat sheet — A printable camera modes cheat sheet for beginner photographers who want to know which camera mode to shoot in.

In Shutter Priority Mode you select shutter speed you lot want to use and the photographic camera will select an appropriate aperture to make the correct exposure. You also select the ISO (the photographic camera'due south sensitivity level to light), including choosing Auto ISO, when using this shooting fashion.

If y'all utilise a Canon you volition see something similar to one of these dials on the top of your camera.

If you employ a Nikon you will meet something similar to i of these:

Notice in the image of the dials in a higher place at that place are 4 settings separated from the rest within a box or outline.

The ones mentioned above, P, S/Tv, A/Av, and M are the most creative modes and give you the virtually control over your camera and your final prototype.

The other modes that are represented by the trivial icons are pre-programmed automatic modes where the photographic camera picks all the settings for you. It's hit and miss whether yous get a practiced photograph or take it come out every bit you intended. As you motion from using more often than not Auto you will want more than control, so gradually piece of work on using the settings outlined to a higher place more often.

What way to cull?

Many people prefer shooting in fully transmission mode (M) merely I ordinarily choose one of the other two options, Aperture Priority (Av or A) or Shutter Priority (T or Tv).

That is because information technology allows me to shoot faster and non have to worry equally much about whether or not the exposure will be correct.

Yet, I still review my images periodically and check the histogram to ensure I'k getting a skillful exposure.

histogram diagram — This is a representation of the histogram. Larn how to use it to get the proper exposure here.

If you are comfortable shooting in Manual Mode and then go for information technology! All that ways is that y'all are choosing all three aspects of the Exposure Triangle: ISO, aperture, and shutter speed.

In the other two modes you choose the ISO, pick either your shutter speed or your aperture and the camera picks the other i. So for the topic of this article, decision-making movement, yous will want to choose Shutter Priority.

What is Camera Shake?

As you move toward slower shutter speeds moving objects volition start to blur. Past a sure point, you lot will besides need to use a tripod because yous tin't handhold the camera steady for longer exposures. That is called camera milkshake , and it but ways you can't proceed your hands steady enough during the exposure to maintain sharpness.

How to eliminate camera milkshake

There is something called the Reciprocal Dominion that volition help you decide the minimum shutter speed you lot can shoot at without a tripod. It goes similar this.

The general rule of pollex is to employ a shutter speed faster than Ane over the focal length of your lens to avoid blurriness from photographic camera shake.

So if you are using a 35mm lens get ahead and shoot at ane/30th, yous'll probably be fine. But as you zoom in or put on a longer lens, everything is magnified including the slightest shake of your hands or whatever move. And so 1/200th or faster is best for a 200mm lens.

NOTE: If you are using a ingather sensor camera, you lot also have to factor in the amount of the crop factor. So if you lot accept a camera with a 1.5x factor, multiply the focal length by that number to get your minimum shutter speed. Now with that 200mm lens, you need to shoot at ane/300th or faster (200 x 1.5).

Moving Water and Shutter Speed

Moving water is a great discipline considering you have the choice of freezing information technology or allowing it to blur intentionally.

Allow's look at how different the resulting images are when yous change the shutter speed and zippo else. Below are some samples I took of a flowing river.

ISO 3200, f/iv.0, one/100th of a second.

The image above was taken at 1/100th of a second which makes the h2o appear mostly frozen. You tin can run into individual splashes and h2o drops close up.

The next one below was shot at 2.v seconds. See how the water now appears flowier and creamier? Two totally different looks and images from the same scene.

ISO 100, f/11, 2.five seconds (using a tripod for this is essential!).

Neither image is right or incorrect, they are merely different. Information technology depends on how y'all want the terminal epitome to appear and the feeling you desire it to have.

For sports photography, you commonly desire to freeze the action so you take hold of the tiptop moments sharply. But sometimes you lot want to allow the subject field to blur. That helps make the bailiwick expect like information technology's going fast and then the viewer gets a sense of speed.

Water takes on an virtually mystical quality when using longer shutter speeds. Try using a tripod and an even longer exposure like 2-10 seconds and see what happens.

ISO 200, f/22, five.three seconds. Meet how shine the water is at present?

In some other example, the ISO remained the aforementioned for all four images below. Only look at the exposure information carefully. As I adjusted the shutter speed, what else do y'all detect that also changed?

As I adjusted the shutter speed from one/640th to one/20th I was letting more lite into the photographic camera considering the shutter was opened for longer. And so to recoup and maintain the correct exposure, the camera has closed downwardly the aperture each time (f/4 > f/8 > f/22).

The aperture has changed from f/iv to f/22 to compensate. The larger aperture (f/four) allows more low-cal in through the lens. So equally the exposure got longer (more light inbound the camera) the photographic camera balanced this change by endmost down the discontinuity (to f/22) to let in less light.

In club to get the final image, I had to attach a Neutral Density filter to the front of the lens. The ISO was already equally low as it can go, and the aperture didn't take any smaller settings. And then if I had just inverse the shutter speed without the filter the image would have been overexposed.

A Neutral Density Filter is used to cut down the corporeality of light entering the lens. It's simply a dark grey filter that is like putting sunglasses on your camera, it cuts the amount of calorie-free coming through the lens.

NOTE: If you find that you desire to shoot with a faster shutter speed and you are getting the opposite, a night exposure, it may be that you're already on the largest aperture for your lens. And so in the example, you will need to increase the ISO to get enough light or try using Motorcar ISO and let the camera do information technology for y'all if you aren't confident with it yet.

Hither's some other example with a different kind of water.

This was a big fountain in a public park and I was playing around with different settings. The divergence here is really obvious.

I could have closed the aperture to a smaller one but I wanted merely the front end water droplets to be precipitous. Notice the bokeh (out of focus blobs) that announced in the background now!

All the same, if I did want more of the image in focus and had inverse the discontinuity to say f/8 what else would I accept had to change? Hint: what's the other function of the exposure triangle beside the shutter speed and the aperture? If you aren't sure, see the diagram below.

The Exposure Triangle

Do you see the human relationship between the three things: ISO, shutter speed, and aperture? Information technology'due south similar a three-style teeter-totter. If you increase i, the other must go down to go on balance and maintain the proper exposure.

More on how to shoot moving water and waterfalls here.

Moving Subjects and Shutter Speed

Let'southward await at some shots I did of other kinds of moving subjects.

Option #1 – the photographic camera stays steady

The first choice you have when photographing moving subjects is to go on the photographic camera steady, ideally using a tripod. This volition cause any moving subjects to blur, and any stationary objects to be sharp, as in the examples beneath.

I was not using a tripod here (information technology'south non immune) and I stayed at this subway station for several minutes trying to get a good shot.

So what I did was I braced myself against one of the posts, tucked my elbows into my ribs, and shot several frames in a row in burst (continuous) way. Some of them are blurry, but I managed to get a few sharp.

TIP: That's a little trick you can utilize if you don't take a tripod! Take several in a row and usually at least one will be sharp.

This is the aforementioned exposure as the epitome above.

Observe in the shot to a higher place that a homo in a yellow shirt has moved into the frame. I like how his shirt and the yellowish line on the ground sort of match and add balance to the image. This 1 is a winner!

Go on in mind, I shot 42 images over a span of ten minutes and several trains coming and going to go ONE shot!

So practise not shell yourself up if you don't get what you want on the commencement try! Photography is a process, yous don't go at that place overnight and you rarely go it on the beginning shot.

Here are another examples where using a long exposure has captured some kind of moving subject.

Fireworks! Another example where a long exposure is needed to capture the motion. ISO 200, f/xvi, 2.five seconds.

Machine trails in Hanoi. When you do long exposures at night, the camera only captures the low-cal trails left by the car headlights and taillights and you lot get something similar this. Observe yous cannot run into the bodily cars! ISO 200, f/sixteen, 25 seconds.

Lite painting, which I mentioned earlier, is another technique the requires a long exposure (you need fourth dimension to go in there and paint. ISO 100, f/v.6, xv seconds.

That is me beingness lit past some of my workshop attendees that outlined me with a sparkler, lit me using a flash, and lit the ground with a flashlight. That was a group effort!

Detect: like the cars in the prototype above yous do non come across any other people, even though at that place were in and out of the scene. Because they were in motion the entire fourth dimension AND did not light themselves, they did NOT appear in the shot. Which leads me to this…

You tin can too use a long exposure to eliminate unwanted people in your shots.

I set up this shot of my friends in Kyoto. They had rented kimonos and we did a photo shoot. By using a long exposure most of the people walking downwardly the street either disappeared or were extremely blurred. ISO 800, f/four, 1/two second.

In this one, I didn't desire to get rid of all the other people just I did want them blurred. So I waited for a group to walk by and used a slow shutter speed and a tripod to accomplish this image. ISO 160, f/20, one second.

Finally, this temple was full of tourists and I had to apply a really long exposure to avert having them show up in my image. ISO 400, f/eight, 120 seconds (2 minutes). At to the lowest degree a dozen people walked right through here during the exposure. If any of them stopped for more than 20 seconds or so then they showed up in the frame, and so I took several shots to get this one.

Option #two – Move the Camera

Look, what?!

Aye, I said move the photographic camera. This is called intentional camera movement and has a few applications. You can practise any of the following:

Zoom the lens during the exposure.
Panning the camera.
Tilt, rotate or motility the camera in one management.

An instance of zooming during the exposure. ISO 100, f/22, 3.2 seconds.

You tin can read more most these techniques by clicking on the links above. Panning is the 1 I employ most often. It works really well with moving cars or traffic of any kind.

Panning in Hanoi just seemed to fit every bit information technology allowed me to capture a sense of the cluttered nature of the traffic in that location. ISO 400, f/5.6, i/30th of a second.

Awarding and Practice

The biggest affair most learning something new in photography is getting out and really applying your cognition and trying information technology out for yourself in the field.

You volition learn far more by doing than past reading. So print this article out if you need to but become out and find a moving target and try this out for yourself.

Share three images, showing your subject frozen, blurred and panned in the comment surface area below. Tell me about what worked and what didn't. What challenges or issues did you have?

If you have any questions about applying this information please postal service a comment beneath and I'll be happy to answer information technology for you.

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Cheers,