"Basic Photography with Bake along #2 - Shutter speed"

Hi there, I am back to take the journey of photography a step ahead!
Last week we had discussed about the overview of photography and delved into the basics of camera which includes components like Aperture, Shutter Speed and ISO. Aperture was discussed last week and I hope it was useful to you. 

Lets talk about this week's topic which is "Shutter Speed".

I’m sure all of us have used stickers which glow in night. I had whole bunch of them stars, moon, Saturn etc on my ceiling and I gazed them until they fade away.

Source: Google

We all know they glow because of the presence of special substance called ‘phosphorus’ and this type of glowing sometimes is called ‘Phosphorescence’. Phosphorus radiates visible light after being energized. This means you have to expose the items to light for a while before they will glow in dark. 

Ok, we are not studying science here. All I want to tell that this principal works with camera too. How? I’ll tell you in a while. Our next topic is Shutter Speed.

Shutter Speed

Shutter speed is another component of camera, which refers to the length of time your camera sensor is open and exposed to light.

For example, take your eyes, your eyelids act as a shutter for your eyes and the speed at which you close or open can be referred as shutter speed.

Your camera has a mechanical shutter too and in the same way, shutter speed you choose for your camera determines the period of time that the mechanical shutter between the lens and the sensor opens or closes.

Shutter speed is measured in seconds or fractions of seconds (1/80, 1/100, 1-400) just like kgs, ltrs or lbs… But camera will display 1/80 as 80, 1/400 as 400 and one second as 1". The higher the number, the faster the shutter speed which will result in lesser amount of light entering in your camera. The lower the number, the slower the shutter speed, because your shutter will remain open for that much time i.e. 4, means the shutter will remain open for 4 seconds. So due to delay more light enters into your camera. 

I know you must be wondering how this shutter speed thing works with light and your camera?

•  Can u see any difference between the strawberry pictures below

1/1000

1/500

1/100

1/5

Now, can you tell me the difference? The first picture is dark and then the scenario starts changing, the second one becomes a little bright and the last one absolutely perfect. Ok ok ok its not ;). But you can apparently feel the difference in the pictures and the only thing which is changing is the amount of light/brightness. That is the magic of shutter speed. When I clicked the first picture my shutter speed was 1000 (1/1000), it became dark because it was a dull rainy day. Then I reduced my shutter speed say 500 (1/500), it improved the second picture but still gloomy. Afterwards it was 100(1/100) and finally I got my perfect picture at 5 (1/5). But at this speed one has to be very careful as the shutter takes longer to close there are chances that our hand may shake and make the photo a bit blur. So it is always advisable to use a tripod/stand for lower shutter speed.

Now Can u relate the example of glow stickers which I gave to you in the beginning of this article? The more they are exposed to light, the more they glow. Same with these pictures, the 4th picture got the maximum light as there was delay in closing of shutter and more light came in, so picture became bright.

• I've one more example to explain this effect reversely

            

1/50                         

Can you see anything in the above picture? hehehehhe Ok, I found something in our garden. A kind of orchid or what i don't know but was looking pretty. So I thought to click a Picture. It was a bright sunny day and the first picture  I clicked, whooshed!! all white, an over exposed picture. Can you tell me what happened? Yes, because my shutter speed was as low as 1/50 and the day was bight sunny, so more light came in and the picture was over exposed with light and nothing was visible.

1/500

After realizing my mistake, I increased the speed of my shutter to 1/500, the picture improved but not much , so I increased the speed to 1/1250 and this is it :) . ok, not perfect but at least a good photo :P .

1/1250

We will use this feature to maintain adequate brightness in our photographs. A tip for nature lovers here, try to capture moon with a normal shutter speed and then at a very high shutter speed, you will see the magic of this feature :)

I hope the first effect of shutter speed is clear, now I want to tell you that the magic of shutter speed doesn't end here. It has 1 more effects on our photograph.

A fast shutter speed can freeze action and a slow shutter speed can capture the flow of motion.

Source: Google

Fast shutter speed= sharp picture, where as Slow shutter speed= blur picture.
So if you want to show the dripping sauce over your pasta or caramel syrup over your ice cream, you can actually capture it with fast shutter speed, like I did with this rich caramel syrup.

You can access the shutter speed option in "S" mode. the camera will adjust aperture and other settings accordingly. The users of P&S camera can access the shutter speed mode through the icon highlighted with red circle as under.

Once you are comfortable with aperture and shutter speed settings then you can handle both simultaneously in "M" which is the manual mode. 

I think before i bore you guys any further its better for me to sign off for now :). You can click few pictures of any object or your cakes with different shutter speed  or can pour wine, sauce, cold drink or just plain water in a glass with different shutter speeds and upload.  Take care and practice shutter speed :)