Exploring Motion with Shutter Speeds

The setting on the camera which controls how motion is captured is the shutter speed.

The longest the Nikon D3300’s shutter stays open is 30 seconds.

The shortest duration the Nikon D3300’s shutter stays open is one four thousandth of a second.

When we used a slow shutter speed, we had to use a tripod because no one can possibly hold a camera steady for that length of time without moving the camera.

In the situation where we intentionally wanted to use a slow shutter speed, we had to use an ISO of 100 and the smallest aperture of f22 and even higher. This forced the camera to allow a shutter speed of at least 1 second. The longer shutter speed allowed us to convey GHOST images which was an interesting effect especially when combined with a person who is standing very still in the picture.

My favorite picture from that situation is below.

If we want to get in the picture as well, we can set the camera to a delay by using the timer.

Movement of the camera isn’t always a bad thing like the example of panning. In the picture where we photographed someone riding a bicycle to convey motion, we used a shutter speed of 1/30 of a second and an aperture of f22 and the ISO was 100. My favorite picture from this assignment is shown on the right below.

On the other extreme end of shortest duration that the camera shutter stays open, we used high shutter speeds or fractions of a second. In the water balloon bursting picture, we used ISO 200 aperture of f5.6 and shutter speed of 1/4000 of a second.

To capture splashing water, we also used high shutter speeds. Here are my favorite pictures of high shutter speeds below and to the left.