Project: Photographing Movement

Exercise: Shutter Speeds.                                                                                     24/12/2010

Objective: This exercise will show the effect of a range of shutter speeds on the image; i.e 1/800 down to 1/6 second,  while recording movement past a fixed viewpoint.
Location: I chose a busy dual carriageway and photographed moving vehicles at speeds of between 50 -70 mph from a layby.
Camera settings: My camera was set on manual mode and fixed onto a tripod. I adjusted the shutter speed for each exposure starting at 1/800s down to 1/6s and adjusted  the aperture manually using the in built exposure meter. I did this to experience using the meter as I have only previously used manual mode in the studio with an off camera flash meter. The exposure information  is shown below each frame.

3727: 1/800s f3.8. Even at this relatively fast shutter speed, the vehicle very slightly blurred.

3730: 1/640s f3.8. There is more blur on this image. Even on the original image at 100% the smaller writing on the side panel is unreadable.

3733: 1/400s f5. Again, the blur is more apparent and the patterns of the wheel hubs are starting to distort with the speed of the wheels.

3735: 1/250s f7.1 The front and rear edges of the vehicle are less distinct and the wheel hubs are now starting to distort into oval shapes.

3738: 1/125s f9.  The details of the vehicles are becoming less distinct although you can tell the vehicle type.

3743: 1/80 f11. Vehicles are starting to leave a distinct trail as the shutter speed decreases.

3746: 1/50s f14. Definite elongation of the blur at this speed.

3747: 1/25s f20. Notice how the wheel hub details have produced a repeated pattern below the vehicle.

 3751: 1/15 f25 (minimum aperture at this ISO). Very few details are discernable, apart from the colour.

3756: 1/8s f22. (to use a slower shutter speed I had to change the ISO from 400 to 100 for this shot) At this speed it was also difficult to catch the car in the frame.

3762: 1/6s f32. To achieve minimum aperture for this lens (18-200mm zoom) and a shutter duration of  1/6s,  I had to increase the focal length from 26mm to 55mm. At 1/6s, the vehicle is virtually transparent and elongated beyond the field of view.

What did I learn? A short shutter duration will render a moving object sharp and a progressively longer one will  blur the moving object in direct relation to it's duration. I also learned more about my camera's manual  exposure controls, the way I could vary the ISO setting to make use of  the smaller apertures and about the relationship of the maximum and minimum aperture to the focal length settings of a zoom lens.