Shutter Speed: Showing the Blur or Stopping the Motion

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In my previous post I mentioned that the Aperture Setting is what we use to control and define the subject's DOF (depth-of-field), which is used mainly to make the background blur, or blur the surroundings, and keep only the main subject tack sharp.

That is most applicable when the background is distracting, and is taking away, instead of adding, to the subject being photographed.

Or, as in many wildlife photography cases, having the background surrounding just at the right degree of blurring boosts the subject matter being photographed, and brings the viewer's attention to the subject matter - and fixes it there!

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Shutter speed

Speeding cars, a cheetah's leap and bounds, a baby's quick moves shot continuously, and rendering the silky look of the water on a waterfall, or capturing a drop, and many others -- these are all done using the shutter speed setting.

As has been mentioned, the shutter speed setting is on an inverse relation with the aperture value: a fast shutter speed mandates an open wide aperture, and a slow shutter speed allows a small aperture opening.

A silky-smooth water on a waterfall requires about 2 seconds and above for the shutter kept open.

A drop of water, to be frozen in mid-air, requires a 'fast shutter speed', which is about 1/200 of a second, and above.

These are not empirical values, but are guides.

What can affect the settings?

The speed of the subject being photographed, or course. An F1 race definitely requires, as I've heard, something like 1/30,000 of a second shutter speed to 'catch' the speeding car still - and usually, only the car is sharp, and all others in the frame blur.

And this is a skill that you learn with each camera unit that you use. I would say this:
All cameras are made equal, but some cameras are more equal than others.

So which one is your camera-mate?

 

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