12 Weeks to Better Photos Week 8: On the Go

looking through my older posts, I realized I am a bit behind in blogging my 12 Weeks tutorial challenges.

Al 12 lessons can be viewed here . This tutorial was originally offered through the 2 Peas in a Bucket scrapbooking/photography website. Show them some love here.

Week 8 is On the Go
Everything to do with manipulating your shutter speed!


Challenge: Capturing Action
1. Use a fast shutter speed outdoors to photograph your moving subject
2. Experiment with panning
3. Embrace a little blur indoors
3. Take action - practice your skills at a sporting event
4. Take a portrait of your pet-in-motion

This was my photo from that week. I used a slow shutter speed to capture the blur of this moving model train:

SS: 1/5, Ap: f/14, ISO: 400

I love this affect! There is so much you can do when you understand how to freeze or blur motion. I have had some more fun since playing with motion blur/panning:

This was K's first train ride at a local fair. That is her in the middle of the photo with a pink shirt on.
SS: 1/10, Ap: f/22, ISO: N/A (I never understand why sometimes it does this. maybe its when I stop below 200?)

giving panning a try. You stop down your SS and then attempt to "move" with your moving target so the background shows motion and your subject is still in focus. This is SOOC.
SS: 1/20, Ap: f/10 ISO: N/A

Scavenger Hunt Sunday 1

My photo board hosts a weekly scavenger hunt on Sundays. 5 themes are submitted each week. 4 of the 5 photos must be new that week. This is the not the first time it has been held, but it is my first entry, hence the "1". So these may be a little lame (since 4 of the 5 photos were taken in a 20 minute period) and/or a stretch, but I wanted to participate this week.

1. Shutter Speed

Exposure Time:	1/5
Aperture:	f/14
ISO:	400
Focal Length:	50mm (75mm in 35mm)

Cropped and adjusted brightness and colours in curves
This was the POTW challenge for this week as well. It was interesting playing with different shutter speeds to get the effect I wanted. I found that 1/10 was too fast (could see too much of the cars) and anything under 1/5 I couldn't hold the camera still enough (I didn't have my tripod with me). So 1/5 was what I went with! I don't love the composition of this one (the background is distracting to me) but I loved the effect of the blur the best, so I chose it.

2. Patriotism

Exposure Time:	1/1000
Aperture:	f/2.2
ISO:	200
Focal Length:	50mm (75mm in 35mm)

This is SOOC. I probably should have opened up the aperture a bit more, but I am so addicted to bokeh, I forget to most of the time.

Since Canada is so spread out and large swatches of land are practically untouched, the railway system is often the only thing that connects this country together. An early government mandate was to connect sea to sea via one long unbroken railway line: CPR or Canadian Pacific Railway was born. It has a checkered past, often built on the backs of immigrant labourers from China who were treated little better then serfs, or worse, slaves and blasting fodder. Regardless, its an important monument to the vast expanse of land Canada covers and its attempts to unify such diverse and sparse scatterings of inhabitants.

3. Creative Crop
(from the archives)

Exposure Time:	1/15
Aperture:	f/5.0
ISO:	400
Focal Length:	50mm (75mm in 35mm)

cropped and contrast bumped in GIMP.
The slow SS was a result of the fact that at the time I didn't have a lightscoop for shooting indoors, and I was shooting a backlit subject. However, I like the effect it has, showing the speed of his fingers as he plays. I chose this crop as the background was distracting and I had a bad chop of his head in the original. I wanted the emphasis on his hands and the length of his guitar.

4. Time

Exposure Time:	1/4000
Aperture:	f/2.2
ISO:	400
Focal Length:	50mm (75mm in 35mm)

converted to B&W and played with contrast in curves
.
I went with this because our modern conception/reliance of time is largely based on the smooth running of trains and their role in revolutionizing modern industry/capitalism.

5. Flower

Exposure Time:	1/800
Aperture:	f/2.2
ISO:	800
Focal Length:	50mm (75mm in 35mm)

Yes, I am aware I should have dropped the ISO. I had just come outside from in and forgot to change my settings :). Slight adjustment to deepen contrast and adjust WB in curves.

And there you go! Our assignment for the coming week includes:

1. National Pride (also the POTW challenge for this week)
2. Sunset
3. Fire
4. Favorite 
5. Sepia or B/W with Selective Colour

12 Weeks to Better Photos: Week 2 - Shutter Speed

I am a bit behind in blogging about this. my apologies!
All 12 lessons can be viewed here 


Week Two is shutter speed. The challenge is take the same photo on 3 different shutter speeds. The goal here is to demonstrate how to either freeze motion (high shutter speed) or blur motion (low shutter speed). Hence action shots (sports, animals, traffic) require a high shutter speed so you don't get that pesky "motion blur" where an arm, or tail or such is all blurry. but sometimes you want that really nifty motion blur, like in a river, or waterfall. That is when you would use a slow shutter speed.

In terms of everyday photos, a neat trick I was taught was to double your focal length, and that is generally what you should aim to keep your shutter speed at. Also, with kids, try to avoid dropping below 1/160, or 1/100 at a minimum.

So here is my photo challenge for shutter speed. A neighbour's fountain:
1/1000. See how the droplets are all nicely frozen in time? High shutter speed

1/100 average shutter speed, but for this, it just makes the water look spitty

1/15. I would need a tripod to really show this one as there is probably hand blur going on, but see how the water near the fish's mouth is almost translucent in a continuous flow?

Day 020

Just playing around with shutterspeed at night. It was (pun intended) like a light went off after I followed 12 Peas 2nd week lesson on shutterspeed and ISO. Now hopefully I can avoid underexposed SOOC shots!
Brightness and contrast bumped up slightly in GIMP

Photo Stats:
Taken in S- shutter priority
Shutter Speed: 1/10
Aperture: f4.2
ISO: 800
Focal Length: 24mm

Day 019

12 Weeks to Better Photos, Week 2: Shutter Speed.
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this week's lesson was shutter speed. It demonstrates how different SS helps to freeze or blur motion. The lower the SS, the brighter the image, but the less action is frozen. This is why low SS often results in blurry photos with moving targets. Converserley, the faster the SS, the darker the image, but the action can be frozen.
They suggest practicing this using the "kitchen sink" test.
I tried all week to get a better example of this because I have no natural light near any of my taps. But I couldn't find a running fountain outside near my work during the day. So these craptastic shots will have to do. Apologies for all the noise. I had to take them at 1600 ISO, the max my camera will go to:

shutter speed 1/10:

notice how the splash of the water is barely visible, its so blurred

shutter speed 1/80

the motion of the water is just starting to be "frozen" in the picture

shutter speed 1/1000
now you can almost distinguish the individual droplets of water
(if my lighting wasn't so crappy! but you get the idea)