A Year With My Camera {DSLR - Shutter Speed}

Last week I made a start on no. 32 on my 40 things to do before 40 list; use my DSLR camera properly, and followed the guidance from Emma on exploring aperture.

This week the focus was on the basics of shutter speed and learning to control the amount of blur occurring in photographs; sometimes we want that blur, other times we don't.

Switching my camera dial to TV, thereby putting me in charge of the shutter speed and letting the camera control the rest, I headed out into the garden on a dull and windy day.

At the end of my garden hangs some bunting which now looks a little tired and weather beaten. Waiting for some gusts of wind to create some movement I played around with the shutter speed.

1/4000sec

 1/5sec

I then captured the children's windmill.

1/4000sec

 1sec

So going back to when blur is wanted and not wanted in the photograph I think I have worked it out; I prefer the faster shutter speed for the bunting capturing the fabric floating in the wind rather than a blurry mass whereas with the windmill the faster shutter speed makes the windmill appear still rather than capturing the movement of a 1 second shutter speed.

I'm not quite sure how I will remember all of this but it is teaching me to get out there more with the DSLR and as the old saying goes; practise makes perfect!

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