PHOTO TIPS by Russ Burden:
SHUTTER SPEED IMPORTANCE
Many a potential great shot has found its way into the trash due to the use of an incorrect shutter speed. Shutter speeds are measured in fractions of a second. The difference in real time between 1/250 of a second and 1/30 of a second may not seem long, but when measured in photographic time, it‘s huge. It means the difference between freezing the motion of someone walking or getting a blur. It means the difference between getting a sharp or blurry image that‘s hand held with a 200mm lens. It means the difference between capturing individual water drops of a wave or winding up with little blurs that streak across the photo.
If you‘ve been plagued by soft images, there‘s a way to diagnose the cause. If the subject is blurry but the rest of the image is sharp, the shutter speed was too slow to halt its action. This is evidenced by the fact that where movement occurred, there is softness. On the other hand, if the entire image is soft, it dictates the shutter speed was too slow to stop the motion of the camera and lens when the image was made. It could also be caused by focusing the lens incorrectly, but I will assume this is not the case. Camera shake can be remedied using a tripod or other stable platform onto which the camera can be placed. Subject motion is halted using faster speeds at the time of capture. This means bumping up the ISO, shooting when there is more light, or using a lens that opens to 2.8 which in turn allows a faster shutter speed than a f5.6 lens. The longer the lens or the faster the action, the more you‘ll need to use fast shutter speeds to freeze the motion.
a) Check out the Outdoor Photographer website. On the home page, scroll down to the first listing of 8 highlighted articles. Click on the button that says OP Tip Of The Week - the articles are mine - thanks for reading them and leaving some positive comments.
Parade photo tips by Bob Green:
What I used as exposure settings, in shooting events like the
-The Dance Parade [21st bway-thompkins park manhattan]
-The Japanese Festival [in central park near great fountain-bandshell]
...............
what I general use:
in sunshine:
100-400 ASA. f5.6. auto focus, aperature priority
in shade, dull overcast:
400-800 ASA. f5.6. auto focus, aperature priority
types of photos: [take all of them]
full size, candid portraits, folk doing something and/or interacting with each other [story telling]...sometimes if you missed the 1st shot...sometimes they shall return to the desired instant for a brief moment when they think you're gotten bored and let the guard down![story telling]!
if time:
look for reflections-puddles, use 20 mm lems, fisheye lens, look for unusual photos and possibly framing-treets-a-flower-shoot through others etc..
.get photos of the crowd, maybe even from their viewpoint of the performers and even from the performer's viewpoint
take different angles....
if time, show the performer your image of them...I did that saturday with the male dancers and they were very surprised by what I got of them!
...
Why?
I want reasonable low grain with reasonable high [quick] shutter speeds.
using f5.6 gives reasonable sharp images but does somewhat blurs the background a little
and allows camera to quickly <1-2 seconds to auto-focus, set shutter speed and take the photo.
if I want swirling dresses, then drop asa down to 100 asa, up the fstop to f11,
thus the camera shall give a slower shutter speed, thus capturing the swirling motion of the swirling dress.
take/photograph what you want but don't over stay your welcome...when bored, move-on
BobG