A Slow shutter speed setting allows a greater amount of light to enter, and a Fast shutter speed setting reduces the amount of light. Changing your camera’s shutter speed is one way to adjust the overall exposure of an image. But it also has creative uses, allowing you to control the amount of motion blur (or lack of it) in your images.

The slower the shutter speed, the more motion blur your camera will capture when shooting fast-moving subjects. With long shutter speeds from two to 30 seconds, any movement in the image will blur. This can create a cool effect with landscapes and the sky, as water and clouds turn soft and streaky.

When we take a picture, the camera’s shutter opens to allow light to reach the recording medium, where an an image is created. By controlling how long the shutter stays open, we can control what the resulting image looks like.

Also known as ‘exposure time’, shutter speed is measured in seconds or fractions of a second (tenths, hundredths, or thousands). For example, a slow shutter speed of 1/2 means the shutter remains open for half a second, while a faster speed of 1/2000 means it only remains open for one-two-thousandth of a second.

Useful Shutter Speeds for daily interactions

Eadweard Muybridge

Eadweard Muybridge was an English photographer known for his pioneering work in photographic studies of motion, and early work in motion-picture projection.

Muybridge’s work consisted of pioneering chrono photography of animal locomotion (between 1878 and 1886), which used multiple cameras to capture the different positions in a stride; and for his zoopraxiscope, a device for projecting painted motion pictures from glass discs that predated the flexible perforated film strip.

Doc Edgerton

Harold Eugene “Doc” Edgerton, also known as Papa Flash, was an American scientist and researcher, a professor of electrical engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He is largely credited with transforming the stroboscope from an obscure laboratory instrument into a common device.

By 1931, Edgerton had developed a system of stroboscopic light to achieve amazingly sharp high-speed photographs, as well as multi-shot photographs to freeze different stages of a single movement on a single photogram, and the same year he obtained a PhD in Electrical Engineering from MIT.

Edgerton revolutionized photography, science, military surveillance, Hollywood filmmaking, and the media through his invention of the strobe light in the early 1930s.

Hiroshi Sugimoto

Hiroshi Sugimoto is a Japanese photographer and architect. He leads the Tokyo-based architectural firm New Material Research Laboratory.

His use of an 8×10 large-format camera and extremely long exposures has garnered Sugimoto a reputation as a photographer of the highest technical ability. He is equally acclaimed for the conceptual and philosophical aspects of his work.

Sugimoto has spoken of his work as an expression of ‘time exposed’, or photographs serving as a time capsule for a series of events in time. His work also focuses on transience of life, and the conflict between life and death.

Francesca Woodman

Francesca Stern Woodman was an American photographer best known for her black and white pictures featuring either herself or female models. Many of her photographs show women, naked or clothed, blurred, merging with their surroundings, or whose faces are obscured.

Many of her photographs show women, naked or clothed, blurred (due to movement and long exposure times), merging with their surroundings, or whose faces are obscured.

My plan to achieve Shutter Speed images inspired by Francesca Woodman

There are many creative ways to achieve Shutter Speed when taking photographs. Since I am at school and have a limited amount of resources to produce these “Fast and Slow” Shutter speeds, I will be doing the following…

• Wait for Cars to past by
• Get a friend to ride their Mo-ped or Motorcycle down the car park
• People running or dancing
• A bird flying
• Leaves dropping
• Heavy rain

Class Photo shoot

My Finished Images

Exposure time was 0.6 secs

Exposure time was 1.3 secs

Exposure time was 1/30 secs

Camera obscura, an early optical device, was used in the ancient times and during the Renaissance. It operated by allowing light to pass through a small hole into a darkened room or box, projecting an inverted image of the outside scene onto a surface inside. This phenomenon was the basis for the development of modern cameras. The camera obscura was crucial in understanding optics and served as a precursor to the invention of photography. 

Nicephore Niepce, a French inventor, is renowned for creating the world’s first permanent photograph in 1826. He developed a process known as heliography, which involved using a camera obscura and light-sensitive materials to capture images. Niepce’s groundbreaking achievement marked the beginning of photography as we know it today, laying the foundation for future advancements in the field. His work was instrumental in the development of photographic technology and the art of capturing images through a chemical process. 

Henry Fox Talbot, an English scientist and inventor, is well-known for his contributions to the field of photography. He is famous for developing the calotype process, an early photographic technique that allowed multiple positive prints to be made from a single negative. Talbot’s invention revolutionized photography by introducing a more practical and versatile method compared to earlier techniques. His work played a significant role in the advancement of photography as an art form and a means of visual documentation. 

Louis Daguerre was a French artist and physicist known for his pioneering work in photography. He is famous for inventing the daguerreotype process, which produced highly detailed images on silver-plated copper sheets. Daguerre’s process was the first practical and commercially successful photographic method, marking a significant advancement in the field of photography. His contributions played a crucial role in the early development of photography as an art form and a means of visual expression. 

Richard Maddox was an English photographer and inventor renowned for his significant contribution to the field of photography. He is famous for developing the gelatin dry plate process in the 1870s. This innovation replaced the cumbersome wet plate collodion process, making photography more convenient and accessible. Maddox’s invention revolutionized photography by allowing photographers to use dry plates coated with a light-sensitive emulsion, leading to improved image quality and ease of use in capturing photographs. 

George Eastman was an American inventor and entrepreneur known for founding the Eastman Kodak Company and popularizing photography through the introduction of the Kodak camera. He revolutionized photography by making it more accessible to the public with the slogan “You press the button, we do the rest.” Eastman’s innovations, including roll film and the Brownie camera, played a significant role in the development and widespread adoption of amateur photography. His contributions transformed photography from a complex process into a simple and enjoyable activity for people around the world. 

The Kodak Brownie was a popular series of cameras introduced by the Eastman Kodak Company, founded by George Eastman. The Brownie cameras were affordable, simple to use, and played a significant role in popularizing photography among the general public. They were designed for amateur photographers and allowed people to capture moments easily. The Brownie cameras used roll film, making photography more accessible and enjoyable for a wide audience. The simplicity and affordability of the Brownie cameras contributed to the democratization of photography as a hobby and art form. 

Digital Photography is a modern method of capturing images using electronic sensors to record light. It became popular in the late 20th century as technology advanced. Instead of film, digital cameras store images as electronic data. When a photo is taken, the sensor converts light into digital information, which is then stored on a memory card. This digital data can be easily transferred to a computer for viewing, editing, and sharing. Digital photography revolutionized the way we take and interact with images, offering instant feedback and the ability to manipulate photos easily. 

 

In autofocus the camera focuses automatically to some point on the photo which either the camera or the user selects. In manual focus the user focuses manually until the image is sharp. The camera may offer aids to manual focus like image magnification or focus peaking witch makes focused part show in different colour.

Focal Length

Focal length is the distance (measured in millimetres) between the point of convergence of your lens and the sensor or film recording the image. The focal length of your film or digital camera lens dictates how much of the scene your camera will be able to capture. Below are a few examples of different Focal Lengths focusing on the same thing/image.

Aperture

Aperture plays a big part in Photography too as it is able to blur the foreground and background around an Object (shallow depth of field) with a low f-stop number; or keep the photo sharp from foreground to background (wide depth of field) with a high f-stop number.

The diagram below shows/gives a clearer understanding of how Aperture works.

For Example; if we changed the Cameras Aperture was 2.8, the Lens would be wider producing an image such as…

This allows the Camera to focus on a distinct Object while it Soft Blurs the background, producing a plain but beautiful image.

Another Example is when we adjust the Cameras Aperture to 8, the lens will get smaller producing an image such as…

This allows the Camera to focus on more than one Object producing a somewhat clearer and decent image.

Lastly, if we increase the Cameras Aperture to 22, the lens will be significantly smaller producing a smoother, better, and clearer image such as…

Depth of Field

Depth of Field is interlinked with Aperture as Aperture is the cause and Depth of field is the effect when taking an Image. Depth of Field is the portion of that distance or ‘depth’ that is ‘in-focus’. A higher depth of field would see the whole image from foreground to background sharp and in focus, a lower depth would result in blurry backgrounds and blurred elements in the foreground too.

Photographers who used Depth of Field

Ralph Eugene Meatyard was a visionary photographer known for his dreamlike black & white photographs of family members in masks, elegant portraits of bohemian friends and radical experiments in abstraction.

Meatyard’s work spanned many genres and experimented with new means of expression, from dreamlike portraits—often set in abandoned places—to multiple exposures, motion-blur, and other methods of photographic abstraction. He also collaborated with his friend Wendell Berry on the 1971 book The Unforeseen Wilderness, for which Meatyard contributed photographs of Kentucky’s Red River Gorge. Meatyard’s final series, The Family Album of Lucybelle Crater, are cryptic double portraits of friends and family members wearing masks and enacting symbolic dramas.

School Camera Photography

Photo Inspiration

Harry Callahan, a prominent American photographer, excelled in street photography and landscapes as part of the modernist movement. His photography focused on capturing the beauty in everyday life, exploring light, shadow, and form while emphasizing the relationship between people and their environment, showcasing a profound connection to the world around him. Callahan’s innovative photography techniques included experimenting with multiple exposure, cropping, and close-ups to craft compelling compositions. He skilfully manipulated light and shadow to infuse depth and emotion into his images, enabling him to convey his distinct vision and perspective through his photographs.

 

Background

Harry Callahan attended Michigan State College (now Michigan State University) and studied engineering before discovering his passion for photography. He became famous in the mid-20th century for his unique approach to photography, capturing everyday life in a remarkable way. Callahan’s work gained recognition for its innovative techniques and profound artistic vision, establishing him as a significant figure in the world of photography.​

My Summer Photography