Photography For Beginners - Capturing Motion With a Slow Shutter Speed

A digital SLR camera gives you the power to capture some amazing effects, once you know how to use it. You can develop all the skills of a professional once you understand your manual settings.

If you have grown up with a 'point and shoot' camera and have just taken the plunge with a new digital SLR, don't just leave it on auto. That is a waste of good technology; it means you are still using your equipment as a point and shoot camera. The key to improving your photography is to learn to use your manual settings.

One of these settings is Shutter Speed. It is fun to experiment with and easy to see the results in your photos. Although we usually try to freeze our subject with the fastest shutter speed possible, you can get some great effects by using a slower shutter speed to capture movement effects.

To try this out, you can set your camera to Shutter Priority, in which case you can set the shutter speed and the camera will take care of the aperture for you. Or, you can go to fully manual and adjust both settings yourself. Just remember to keep your exposure balanced by compensating each movement in the shutter speed setting with a corresponding movement of the aperture setting.

Remember to always use a tripod for slow shutter speed photos.

Here are five ideas for great capturing great motion effects, simply by slowing down your shutter speed to capture the movement of the subject. If you haven't tried this before, you will have some fun and be thrilled with the results.

Slow Shutter Speed Subject #1. Waterfalls. This is the obvious first choice. You have certainly seen the silky effects of flowing water in photos, but perhaps you have wondered how it is done. Just set your camera to a very slow speed; about one second or a half-second, and see the results. The silky slow-movement effect is not always your best option. For each waterfall you should try a few shutter speeds to see which one works best for that particular subject.

Slow Shutter Speed Subject #2. Cars at night. When doing night photography, you usually need fairly slow shutter speeds anyway. If you try shutter speeds of one second, two seconds, ten seconds, and even longer, you will see some amazing results. The lights of the vehicles will create streams of bright colour, stretching away into the distance. The more traffic you see, the more remarkable the effect can become.

Slow Shutter Speed Subject #3. Lightning. People often ask me how I take my lightning photos. Some people imagine it takes superhuman reflexes to snap the picture at just the right moment. The truth is, my approach is exactly the opposite.

First, I wait for a storm (at night) with lots of lightning; in particular, fork lightning that will appear well defined in a photo. I set the shutter to the 'B' setting, which lets me open the shutter for any length of time I choose. Then I wait for the lightning to flash. I can capture just one flash of lightning, or several flashes, just by leaving the shutter open for longer.

Slow Shutter Speed Subject #4. Waves. The movement effect of water in a waterfall can also be applied at the beach, although you don't see it so often in photography. When you visit the beach, experiment with different shutter speeds. Sometimes you will find that soft movement effects are just as satisfying as freezing everything with a fast shutter speed.

The misty appearance of fast moving water captured with slow shutter speeds can be most effective where waves are crashing over, or swirling around rocks.

Slow Shutter Speed Subject #5. Crowds Of People. A crowd of people moving in different directions can create a fascinating motion effect in a photo. You don't need extremely slow shutter speeds to capture some nice results. Photos taken around 1/4sec will show substantial blurring, but of course you can exaggerate the effect by going even slower.

For a really impressive image, have a friend stand very still, while everyone around them is moving. Your subject will appear frozen in a sea of moving humanity. Very striking!

So there you have some experiments to go out and try yourself. If you haven't done it before, you are bound to have fun and be excited by the results. And of course it will force you to get to know your camera a little better, which is guaranteed to make you a better photographer.

Photography For Beginners - Capturing Motion With a Slow Shutter Speed

Night Photography Techniques

Photography For Beginners - Capturing Motion With a Slow Shutter Speed

Photography For Beginners - Capturing Motion With a Slow Shutter Speed
Photography For Beginners - Capturing Motion With a Slow Shutter Speed

Night Photography Techniques

Perfect Prom Photos - Tips For Capturing Great Formal Images on Prom Night

Follow these tips to capture great photos at Prom time!

1. Choose a clean background. If possible, choose an outdoor setting with some greenery - trees, bushes, anything with green or flowers. Place the subjects several feet in front of the background. If indoors, take a couple minutes to select a posing spot and clear any clutter out of the background. Try to avoid direct sunlight. If you have no choice, place the sun behind them and off to one side and force the flash to fire. That will create a highlight on their hair, but you will have to balance the lighting with some front light from flash or reflectors.

2. Fall back and zoom. Most cameras have a zoom feature. To compose your image, you can either zoom out (wide) and get close, or zoom in (tele) and step back. Try the latter. By stepping back, you shorten the facial features and create a more attractive image of the subjects' faces.

3. Stabilize the camera. If you have a tripod or monopod (stick), use it. If not, try to set the camera on a stable object. The worst possible way to shoot is to hold it out in front of you with two hands. The camera will move and the image will be blurry.

4. Know when to flash your subjects. In general, don't use on-camera flash indoors. If you have an SLR camera with a separate flash, you can consider bouncing if off of the wall or ceiling. But indoors, the little camera flash will create a very cheap look and very hard shadows on the wall behind them. It's better to use available light and shoot with a stable camera. Outdoors, a bit of fill flash may be good to minimize eye circles.

5. Mind the white balance. Most cameras have a white balance selection. Instead of auto, choose the white balance that is appropriate for the predominant light source. Outside in shade: choose Shade. It will have a great impact on your image colors.

6. Compose the groups. If you have multiple couples, take a couple of shots of each lady in full length, then half (waist up). Then get each couple, generally with the man a bit behind the lady and off one shoulder. Have him place his arms around her waist and you can show his and her flowers as well. Then get all of the ladies together and then all of the men, and finally, one shot with all of the couples. Avoid the "Adam and Eve" look with hands together in front. Hands at sides, or partially in pockets, or holding flowers or each other. A bit of physical contact between subjects conveys a much warmer, frendlier image.

7. One camera at at time! To have the photos come out best, make sure the subjects place their attention on just one camera at a time. Otherwise, the eyes of some subjects will not be looking at the camera. If you have one parent with all the gear and experience, let them guide the posing and the first shots, and then the others can step in before the pose is changed.

8. Vary your angle. Sometimes shooting waist level is a good way to capture the whole dress, or far above for a dreamy look.

9. Throw in some creative and fun poses. Everyone is nervous and feels a bit akward about being so dressed up and being with a crowd of kids and parents. Encourage the kids to loosen up and shoot some fun candids. Add the little sister or brother for a shot or two, or the family dog.

10. Multiple shots for multiple people. The more people in an image, the greater the likelihood that someone will be blinking in any shot. For larger groups, take at least 5 images. One trick is to have everyone close their eyes, and on a count of three, open them and smile.

11. Share! Post the images on your Facebook page, or Flikr page or other areas. But before doing so, spend a couple of minutes to rotate the images so they all show up correctly, and consider a few basic edits: Contrast, color saturation, exposure levels, cropping. These fundamental editing steps will take a good shot and make it great.

Enjoy taking great prom photos!

Perfect Prom Photos - Tips For Capturing Great Formal Images on Prom Night

Night Photography Techniques

Perfect Prom Photos - Tips For Capturing Great Formal Images on Prom Night

Perfect Prom Photos - Tips For Capturing Great Formal Images on Prom Night
Perfect Prom Photos - Tips For Capturing Great Formal Images on Prom Night

Night Photography Techniques