A Brief History of Shutter Speed
In the early days of photography, the emulsions used to capture images on glass plates weren’t very light-sensitive; in today’s terms, their rating would be about ISO 5. That meant that creating a proper exposure required shutter speeds that were several seconds long—so everything was shot from a tripod. To photograph portraits, photographers developed special braces that could be hidden behind the subject to keep the head from moving while the shutter was open. If you’ve ever seen photos from this period, you probably noticed that the subjects are almost never smiling—because no one can hold a smile for 10 seconds without looking like some kind of weirdo!
In the film era, ISOs of 100 and 400 (and higher) enabled much faster shutter speeds, which removed the need for portrait braces and even enabled sharp hand-held images to be captured. The mechanical capability of cameras gradually caught up, too. I still remember a 1970s advertisement, promoting a new camera that featured a 1/1000 second shutter speed, showcasing an arrow leaving an archer’s grip and frozen in the air. Stopping fast motion like that was still a novelty just a few decades ago.
On modern DSLRs, the range of shutter speeds now reaches 1/8000 second. With a lower-end setting of 30 seconds (30, not 1/30), many DSLRs boast a whopping shutter speed range of nineteen stops! This range may seem excessive, since the usable range of aperture and ISO are usually no more than ten stops. Nonetheless, the availability of very high shutter speeds does make the camera much more versatile in some of the exposure scenarios we’ll examine later in this chapter.
Ultra-fast shutter speeds enable photographers to freeze even fast-moving subjects without blurriness. Technically, this is a reassurance; the rate of successful shots is drastically improved. Aesthetically, it is an opportunity to enhance the interest viewers take in our images; clearly seeing a subject frozen in the middle of a movement can be visually stunning. It’s a way we cannot observe the world with our eyes alone.
Image 3-1 is a testament to a fun encounter I had at the Denver Art Museum with a young daredevil who was performing skateboard stunts. At my request, he did a hop over the water spout. I give this a perfect 10—for both his performance and the ability of my 1/500 second shutter speed to freeze him. I would have tried a few more shots at slower shutter speeds if he’d stuck around—but at least I captured the easier shots. Here is my tip: When an emerging photo opportunity seems like it’s to be too good to be true, grab the more certain shots first—right away. If the opportunity persists, you can then experiment freely with more challenging variations.
TRY IT 
Stop Action in Its Tracks
Identify something fast moving to use as your subject—splashing water, a bouncing ball, your cat jumping off a table, your tennis partner hitting her proud forehand, etc. Hand-holding your camera (no tripod—you need to be highly mobile to capture these subjects), set the mode to shutter priority (S on Nikon, Tv on Canon) and adjust the shutter speed setting to something above 1/500 second. Different subjects might require different shutter speeds to freeze their motion, so experiment with some various settings until you get it.
Having plenty of light is the secret to success here. In order to maintain a high shutter speed setting, you have to use large apertures and/or high ISO settings; the former makes focusing picky and the latter reduces image quality. With plenty of light, these measures can be applied sparingly.
Image 3-1. A fast shutter speed froze the action.
Image 3-2. Shutter speed at ½ second.
Image 3-3. Shutter speed at ¼ second.
It’s All a Blur . . . and Then It’s Not
The shutter speed, how long the shutter stays open, is a decisive factor in how moving subjects are captured. When a subject’s movement is recorded with a streaking or blurred appearance in a photo, we call that “motion blur.” The slower the shutter speed is, the more motion blur it captures.
Images 3-2 to 3-5 present joggers in Central Park. They were all running at a similar pace; no one was dashing and no one was walking (the latter being the reason I did not join them).
“The shutter speed, how long the shutter stays open, is a decisive factor in how moving subjects are captured.”
Image 3-4. Shutter speed at 1/50 second.
Image 3-5. Shutter speed at 1/250 second.
Image 3-2 was shot at ½ second, which allowed the jogger to make just about one stride across the image. While you can make out the two feet where they hit the ground, the rest of the body is all a blur. Image 3-3 was shot at ¼ second, so the joggers have more discernible strides. Image 3-4 was taken at 1/30 second. Evidently, the four-legged dog only had to do a fast walk to keep up with its owner’s running pace. Image 3-5 was shot at 1/250 second. You would almost think the runner was frozen—but check out the inset, which shows a very slight motion blur; the runner has moved about ½ inch.
If I had to pick one shot as the best depiction of the running scene, it would be Image 3-4. However, there is another technique to capture the motion that better showcases the runner (instead of the traffic light!).
Images 3-6 and 3-7. Tracking the joggers.
Images 3-6 and 3-7 were shot with a technique called tracking. Simply put, the technique calls for moving the camera to follow the path of the moving subject while the shutter is open. This camera movement, which is also sometimes called panning, should be as much in sync with the moving subject as possible, so it cancels out the motion and keeps the subject sharp. Sound simple? It is easier said than done—so get ready for some trial and error.
Tracking (or Panning)
Moving the camera to follow the movement of a subject across the frame. Done accurately, this results in a sharp subject captured against a motion-blurred background.
Adjust the ISO so the aperture can be set smaller than F8. This provides a deeper depth of field that will make the focusing more forgiving—which is never a bad idea when photographing moving subjects. A generous depth of field setting will create a broader zone in which the subject will be at the right focal distance while the motion is taking place.
In particular, focusing can be a challenge when panning. Using a smaller aperture for more depth of field will help, but you may also want to check your camera’s focusing more often. (Do not confuse these settings with the exposure mode settings—even though, unfortunately, many of the abbreviations are shared among these two totally different systems.)
C (continuous mode): Theoretically, this mode will allow the camera to lock focus on a moving subject the moment the shutter release is half depressed. Then the focus stays on that subject when the subject/camera moves. Sounds nice! But it remains a beautiful theory. Give it a try if you want to—but I, personally, have lost confidence in the continuous focusing mode’s ability to track a subject.
S (stationary mode): This mode can be considered, if the moving subjects are not too close and their distance from the camera does not vary much.
M (manual mode): This can be the best choice for tracking—if the photographer is experienced, possesses good reflexes, and has good hand/eye coordination. In manual focusing mode, success relies completely on the photographer’s judgment and the twisting of the focusing ring. In cases where the moving subjects are passing through foreground elements, this mode becomes a must.
In a situation (such as the one we’ll be attempting the next exercise) where you can make multiple attempts at photographing a busy flow of passersby, I think the best bet is to choose a generous depth of field, then set the focus to the manual mode and keep it at the distance where the moving subject reaches its nearest point. So you focus once, then keep that setting unchanged while repeating the shots over the course of many rounds. Image 3-8 illustrates this strategy.
Overshooting is something photographers normally try to avoid; it just wastes shooting and postproduction time. However, shotgunning—capturing lots of frames of the same subject so something will turn out right—is critical for high-risk ventures like tracking a moving subject. It’s great to prepare and practice as much as you can, but on some level you will still be relying on a little bit of luck to bring the camera settings, camera movement, subject movement, and composition all together in one perfect frame. Since you can’t control or even predict exactly what will happen, you can’t guarantee the success of any one frame. So shoot a lot and make sure you’ll have plenty of good candidates to pick from when you get back home. This approach would have been cost-prohibitive in the film days, but today’s DSLR memory cards can easily hold a thousand shots, so there’s no financial obstacle to shooting as much as needed to get the image you want.
Image 3-8. Tracking a moving subject.
Image 3-8
Image 3-9
Image 3-10
Image 3-11
Image 3-12
Image 3-13
Image 3-14
Image 3-15
Images 3-8 to 3-21 show a successful tracking sequence. These fourteen shots, some better than others, were taken in a single burst on a Nikon D800E, rated at 4 frames per second. To create the sequence, I tracked the subjects for 3 and 4 seconds while shooting continuously. Examining the bikers, it is evident that the tracking was more in sync with their movement on some shots than others. Clearly, my tracking motion was not consistent. Ultimately, I would pick image 3-19 as my favorite. The biker in that shot is not the sharpest, but the composition is both balanced and dynamic, which makes it an exciting image. You might pick a different one, which is totally fine. The selection of a final image is a subjective part of the creative process.
Image 3-16
Image 3-17
Image 3-18
Image 3-19
Image 3-20
Image 3-21
This tracking exercise can be done with or without a tripod, so take it with you when you head out. Note that not all tripods are made equal. Your tripod should be heavy and sturdy for any photo function (other than just holding up a cell phone camera), but it’s especially important for panning and tracking. It’s also critical that the tripod head provides smooth action; models with Teflon-coated joints and hydraulic locks are the best.
Go to a location where you can observe subjects zooming past you. This could be runners on a jogging trail, cars on a bridge, bats exiting a bat cave, etc. Set the camera to shutter priority mode, then set the shutter speed between ½ to 1/60 second, according to the following guidelines. Here are things to consider:
Challenge Level: |
The slower the shutter speed, the more challenging the shot will be. |
Background: |
The slower the shutter speed, the blurrier the background will be. |
Suitability for Subject Speed: |
For joggers, use the slower shutter speed; for flying bats, use the higher setting. |
Camera to Subject Distance: |
Use a slower shutter speed for a longer distance (and vice versa). |
With or Without Tripod: |
Tripods permit slower shutter speeds; hand-holding requires faster shutter speeds. |
Adjust the ISO so the aperture can be set smaller than F8; again, we want a deeper depth of field that will make the focusing more forgiving. Adjust the focusing to manual and lock in the focus at the nearest point in the subject’s movement. (Obviously, this means you need to have a rough idea of the shooting zone—the area that you consider to be compositionally ideal as the subject passes by. You should be at the middle of this zone.) Set the camera to rapid fire (or continuous shooting) mode so you can press and hold the shutter release to capture images one after another.
Now that these complicated preparations are complete, you’re ready to start shooting! To do this, you need to start early—observe the approaching subject and start tracking them. When the subject reaches your desired shooting zone, press and hold the shutter release—but do not stop the tracking motion! As you look through the viewfinder, try to keep the moving subject at the same spot as the shutter goes “Click! Click! Click!” Let go of the shutter release when the subject exits the shooting zone.
Check the preview after every few attempts, so you know if you are “getting it.” (To verify the sharpness of these images on a mere 3-inch screen, zooming in is a must.)
Capturing motion in still photos does not always depend on the use of motion blur. A burst of high shutter speed shots, reassembled in postproduction, can be dramatic, too. This approach blurs the line between still photography and video.
Image 3-22, titled Super Heroine, is an example of such an image. It was created using five original shots that were captured in a burst of continuous exposures on my Nikon D3, which is rated at 9 frames per second. This recorded Tatyana’s ½ second descent. Producing this composite required some rather complicated postproduction work because the shots were made hand-held. In the following exercise, I will guide you through an approach that will bring the postproduction difficulty level down from expert to intermediate.
Some circumstances call for very slow shutter speeds—speeds that exceed the longest normal setting on the camera’s slowest standard speed (usually 30 seconds) and require using the bulb (B) shutter speed setting to control the shutter opening/closing manually with the use of a timer. For such shots, a tripod and a shutter release cable are also called for—unless the image you have in mind is an abstract of unrecognizable, blurred subjects.
Not all DSLRs are equally versatile for the purpose of long exposure. In my opinion, camera makers are cutting too many corners in their entry-level models to maintain basic functions—and the lack of a receptor for a wired remote control (or shutter release cable) is my major complaint. Shooting with the bulb (B) setting requires a perfectly still camera, which calls for firing the shutter without touching it.
Image 3-22. Time-lapse capture is another way to suggest motion in a still image.
So check out your camera. If it has a B setting and accepts a wired remote control, great! Buy the accessory and use it. If not, see if there is a third-party accessory that enables bulb-mode shutter firing. If there is one, use that. If all else fails (or if paying the rent takes precedence over buying camera accessories), you can use the camera’s self-timer to fire the shutter. This lets you press the shutter release and let go. By the time the shutter fires a few seconds later, any camera shake should have ebbed. However, this will limit you to using the camera’s slowest standard shutter speed setting—normally 30 seconds on current DSLRs. (Note: If you have been good this year and think Santa might be bringing you a new camera, make sure the elves know to install a wired remote jack on the camera he’s loading into the sleigh . . . or your photo frustration might turn you bad next year!)
The metering of long exposures is tricky business. When the exposure time gets into minutes, TTL metering is useless. In the case of night photography, the extremely high contrast between the light and dark areas is bound to exceed the dynamic range—so the question is not how to expose correctly but how to expose in the way that makes the scene look its best. This, of course, will be based on your judgment.
Noise is the major negative factor when it comes to long exposures. This is exacerbated by heat, so it helps to keep your camera cool by doing your long exposure shots on cold days or nights—or you can even use a cooling device. (Yes, there is such a thing as a DSLR cooler. Such devices are commonly used by astrophotographers, who are experts at making very long exposures.) The size of the pixels also plays a role, with larger pixels producing less noise. So, if two cameras both provide a 16MP image, but one is a full-frame (FX) sensor and another is a cropped-frame (DX) sensor, the full-frame sensor will accommodate larger pixels and, therefore, produce less noise. Lower-resolution cameras also involve sensors with larger pixels—so there’s one reason not to believe the “huge megapixel count” hype in camera advertisements.
Once again, think about moving subjects. Carefully consider the composition and framing and imagine how the subject will move across the scene. Allow enough space for them to move within or through the composition.
Set up the camera as you did for the previous exercise—but this time a tripod must be used, along with a shutter release cable or remote control. Pressing the on-camera shutter release button jostles the camera, no matter how steady the tripod is or how careful you may be. For this exercise, you want the sequential images to be framed as identically as possible; this will greatly simplify the postproduction compositing.
At an aperture setting that gives you a good depth of field, set the focusing to manual and lock in the focus at whatever point is necessary to cover the movement. Set the shooting mode to continuous. Finally, set the subject in motion while you press and hold that shutter release!
Check out the composition, the lighting, and the sharpness or blurriness (whichever is intended). Repeat the shoot until you are happy with the images. This is one of the big advantages of digital photography. In the film days, you couldn’t evaluate your success until the film was drying on the rack or the clerk at the lab handed over the prints. (I actually miss that excitement—but not the guesswork!) Today, photographers should fully utilize the camera’s preview feature to evaluate these high-risk shots in the field—while there’s still a chance to re-shoot.
Back on your computer, open these images and pick your favorite sequence. In Photoshop, stack the images as layers in one Photoshop file. Keep the bottom one at 100 percent opacity, then reduce the ones above it to less than 100 percent—somewhere in the 30 to 60 percent range. Tweak these settings until you like the look of this image. That’s it! Your time-lapse composite is complete.
TRY IT Long Exposures (and Time for a Coffee Break)
This long-exposure exercise perfectly accommodates a coffee break while you wait for the shutter to close. Imagine going out on a chilly winter night, setting up a tripod, and pulling out a Thermos full of Irish coffee. Exquisite!
So, find a subject you want to photograph at night or in a very dark environment. It doesn’t have to be moving (car headlights and taillights are the champion cliché of night photography), but if moving elements do exist in your shot, be mindful of the relation between the exposure time and the length of the track. The longer the exposure, the longer the track.
Set the camera on your tripod and choose the manual exposure mode. Use an ISO between 200 and 1600. Select a mid-range aperture. Then, set the shutter speed to B and connect the shutter release. Use a timer to control the exposure time; be sure to note the duration. Now, experiment! Take full advantage of the instant preview to tweak the exposure length until you get it just right. If you like, experiment with activating the Long Exposure Noise Reduction (LENR) setting and seeing how it affects the look of the images.
Bulb (B) Setting
A shutter speed setting that allows for very long exposure times that are directly controlled by the photographer.
If your camera offers a long-exposure noise reduction (LENR) feature, it’s not required that you use it—but it’s something you should try. When the setting is activated, LENR will automatically kick in when the exposure time exceeds a certain threshold, which differs between brands and models. When it is activated, you will know it because you’ll hear the camera take another exposure after the regular exposure. This exposure, made with the shutter closed, allows the camera to capture the thermal noise the sensor produces in the same period of time, regardless of the image. Using this data, it can remove that noise from your image capture. However, there are two catches. First, it doesn’t eliminate all the noise. Second, it doubles the time required for a shot. If you are making a 1-hour exposure, it will now takes 2 hours to complete the shot. That’s not good news for productivity—or for the family members who are waiting up for you in the tent.
Portfolio and Practical Examples
We’ve looked at several strategies for making more creative exposures by controlling the shutter speed. Here are some examples of how those choices played out in my own photography of a variety of subjects. As always, the shutter speed setting is only one aspect of the decision-making process when it comes to exposure; it must be balanced with the aperture and ISO settings.
Image 3-23—Wormhole of Central Park
Here, you see my science fiction nerd side. New York City’s Central Park has twenty underpasses—and each one is like a wormhole, connecting two unique spaces. People emerge and recede through them. To convey this narrative, I used a 1-stop overexposure to create a high key look at the end of the tunnel. At 1/10 second, my tripod-mounted Nikon D800 captured two ghostly figures entering the wormhole.
Image 3-24—Crater Lake
This is one of my favorite national parks. In Oregon, the summer days are long; even at 10PM there was still a hint of twilight on the lake and the surrounding mountains. Notice the saturated color of the water, boosted by a high mineral content. The fact that our eyes’ color perception isn’t that good when it is dark should not make us assume there is no color; cameras are perfectly capable of recording it. During this 10 minute exposure, the Earth rotated 2.5 degrees, which rendered the stars as lines that tracked across the sky. Because I was shooting from a northern latitude, the tracks appeared as concentric arcs.
Image 3-25—Jane’s Carousel
A lone play facility in the middle of Brooklyn Bridge Park, Jane’s Carousel is housed in a glass structure that protects it from the elements (this saved its historical horses from Hurricane Sandy). To portray the oversized toy, capturing the rotating motion was essential. This called for a slow shutter speed and a tripod-mounted camera to keep the rest of the structure (and the bridge in the background) absolutely sharp. At ½ second, the motion of the carousel was effectively captured and the bystanders’ figures were still recognizable.
Images 3-26 and 3-27—Two Snapshots
On a cloudy day, in the fading twilight, this street performer was blowing huge bubbles while onlookers cheered. A fellow photographer was also engrossed, but I don’t expect her attempt was as successful as mine; I had a tripod and she was hand-holding. With the tripod, I could keep the ISO at 1600, the aperture fully open at F2.8, and shoot with a ½ second shutter speed. This let me capture the movement of slow-floating bubbles—and, once in a while, get sharp images of a face or two. I made over forty shots and picked these two.
Image 3-28—Foucault Pendulum
This composite was created from nine time-lapse shots of a Foucault pendulum, the swinging evidence of Earth’s rotation. There are many Foucault pendulums around the world, but I think the one at the Houston Museum of Natural History is one of the most beautiful. My Nikon D3 was on tripod; its ISO was at 800 and the shutter speed was at 1/10 second. This burst captured just half a cycle of the swing, from one side to the other. The slow shutter speed captured some motion blur, showcasing the acceleration and deceleration of the pendulum’s swing and making the image more informative.
1. When we see a night shot of a city, we naturally expect cars that drag a long track with their headlights and taillights. It is common sense that night shots involve long exposures; conversely, we expect photos made in broad daylight to be sharp with the motion frozen. What if we defied that logic by capturing long exposures under broad daylight? What kind of aesthetic and narrative would these images convey? (Tip: Neutral density filters, colorless filters that reduce the amount of light coming into the lens, are helpful in this project.)
2. We have explored the tracking technique in an exercise. Want to elevate that to the next level? Instead of tracking a lateral movement, consider tracking a perpendicular movement. Can you think of a way to track a runner that is running toward the camera? (Tip: Use a zoom lens with the camera on the tripod.) This is a high-risk shot with low success rate, so keep on trying and have fun.
3. Are you ever amazed by how a tourist spot, a shopping center, or a museum transforms from day to night or as people come and go? The crowds build up and dissipate; the sunlight shines in from different angles, and the artificial lights turn on and off. Feel like being an observer of these? How would you capture these activities from an isolated view, as if you were in a different dimension?