Using shutter priority..

[x3ro]

I was out shooting tonight with my Panasonic FZ5, and I switched it to shutter priority to try and get some frozen shots of a fountain... Needless to say, I wasn't very successful :o

I would choose a shutter speed, then the aperture would be too small and not allow enough light in.... what gives?

Anybody have any "this shutter speed & aperture is good for xxxx" kinda stuff?

[cvicisso]

Did you try adjusting the ISO setting?

[x3ro]

Did you try adjusting the ISO setting?

It was outside, and ISO was set to AUTO i think :o

[tim11]

I suggest you get a 'guide to digital photography' book and read it, many are available and don't cost an arm or a leg. 4 months ago I didn't know jack### about shutter/aparture, now I'm happy with my progress with FZ20 as a tool.
There is no "this shutter speed & aperture is good for xxxx" kinda stuff, it depends on what you want to get out of your photo. eg. If you want to freeze a water drop falling in mid air, then it is faster shutter, but if you want to capture the drop falling with its trail behind then it's slow shutter (with the aid of tripod). That will work IF you have IDEAL light for that given instance.
To your querrie "I would choose a shutter speed, then the aperture would be too small and not allow enough light in... "; I assume you use Shutter Priority mode. On any given shot, the camera decides there should be X amount of light to get a good exposure, so when you changed Shutter speed the cam will compensate for this X amount by Aparture. [There is a close relationship between the two]. You can fully overide this by using Manual mode but sometimes the catch is your shot will be too dark or too bright, depending on what sort of light you have any given time.
Hope this answers your question.

[cdifoto]

I was out shooting tonight with my Panasonic FZ5, and I switched it to shutter priority to try and get some frozen shots of a fountain... Needless to say, I wasn't very successful :o

I would choose a shutter speed, then the aperture would be too small and not allow enough light in.... what gives?

Anybody have any "this shutter speed & aperture is good for xxxx" kinda stuff?

You can ignore the aperture and what the camera is telling you and let it take a fairly dark picture...then bring back the light in a photo editing program. Try using a higher ISO setting too, so that the picture can be as natural as possible...but anything lacking can be edited (obviously to a certain extent).

Here's an example under poor light:

http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b100/nftn/img-348.jpg

It's not an extreme example, but the camera told me "whoa whoa now...this is too dark...it'll never work"...I said "aww hush up now! *SNAP*" and then lightened it back up in Photoshop.

[tim11]

You can ignore the aperture and what the camera is telling you and let it take a fairly dark picture...then bring back the light in a photo editing program. Try using a higher ISO setting too, so that the picture can be as natural as possible...but anything lacking can be edited (obviously to a certain extent).
I second that. On a bright sunny day, I tried using Manual Mode to pan my son on a bicycle but even at f8 and 1/15s the picture looked all over-exposed. Tried Panning mode and looked no better. The instruction book said panning can't be done in bright summer days.....
Later I attempted again anyway, f8 1/20s and again the LCD seemed white-out. But the result was satisfying. The background was a little over-exposed but the main subject (my son) on bicycle was perfect, even without a touch of Photoshop. It was one of my favourite shot.

[x3ro]

I suggest you get a 'guide to digital photography' book and read it, many are available and don't cost an arm or a leg. 4 months ago I didn't know jack### about shutter/aparture, now I'm happy with my progress with FZ20 as a tool.
There is no "this shutter speed & aperture is good for xxxx" kinda stuff, it depends on what you want to get out of your photo. eg. If you want to freeze a water drop falling in mid air, then it is faster shutter, but if you want to capture the drop falling with its trail behind then it's slow shutter (with the aid of tripod). That will work IF you have IDEAL light for that given instance.
To your querrie "I would choose a shutter speed, then the aperture would be too small and not allow enough light in... "; I assume you use Shutter Priority mode. On any given shot, the camera decides there should be X amount of light to get a good exposure, so when you changed Shutter speed the cam will compensate for this X amount by Aparture. [There is a close relationship between the two]. You can fully overide this by using Manual mode but sometimes the catch is your shot will be too dark or too bright, depending on what sort of light you have any given time.
Hope this answers your question.


Thanks for the info, tim. Any such book you can recommend?

[reyval2k]

Thanks for the info, tim. Any such book you can recommend?

"Shoot Like a Pro! Digital Photography Techniques" by Julie King

ISBN 0-07-222949-7

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0072229497/qid=1125149660/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/102-0687312-2977769?v=glance&s=books

is a great book.

[jazzboybenny]

This sounds like a wierd question, but can anyone recommend a good shutter speed that allows enough light in to show movement/blurring of the subject DURING DAYLIGHT HOURS but obviously not too much so that the final image is just a white blank...!?! an example might be the old waterfall favourite - surely using a shutter speed that allows the water to become 'misty' will also let in too much light? or am I still a complete novice?!
hope that makes sense...

[akysiev]

What you're suggesting is pretty difficult to accomplish without any accessories. Most photographers solve this problem by using a filter or combination of filters to lower the light levels entering the lens so they can use a slower shutter speed. ND filters are specifically designed for this task and come in varieties of 1-stop, 2-stop, 3-stop, and 4-stop light reduction. However, ND filters are pretty expensive so if you have a polarizer, just snap that on and it should reduce the light by about 1 to 2 stops. For every stop down you go with filters, you should double the shutter speed. Thus if you determined proper exposure to be f/8 1/1000s, then you put on a 2 stop ND filter, you should up the shutter speed to 1/250s to compensate. Need more? Add more filters. But be careful about vignetting.

Or, if your lens size permits, put a pair of sunglasses in front of your lens. I've done it in desperate situations before and it actually works okay as long as the glass is not too curved.

Edit: Unless, of course, your camera allows you to stop down to something like, say f/16 or f/22 or beyond.

[erichlund]

This sounds like a wierd question, but can anyone recommend a good shutter speed that allows enough light in to show movement/blurring of the subject DURING DAYLIGHT HOURS but obviously not too much so that the final image is just a white blank...!?! an example might be the old waterfall favourite - surely using a shutter speed that allows the water to become 'misty' will also let in too much light? or am I still a complete novice?!
hope that makes sense...
Actually, I believe you have it backwards. Remember, for a given exposure, the faster the shutter speed, the more open the aperture. So, if you slow the shutter speed to get a sense of motion in the water, using shutter priority, the camera will automatically close the aperture down to give the same total exposure. Of course, if the camera reaches the smallest aperture for the lens, and the exposure is still too bright, then you have reached a camera limitation, and you will have to use a slower shutter speed to avoid blowing out parts of your photo.

One way to compensate for this would be to use a neutral density filter, which reduces the amount of light coming into the camera. ND Filters are graded by the number of f/stops they reduce the light coming into the camera.

Cheers,
Eric

[tim11]

This sounds like a wierd question, but can anyone recommend a good shutter speed that allows enough light in to show movement/blurring of the subject DURING DAYLIGHT HOURS but obviously not too much so that the final image is just a white blank...!?! an example might be the old waterfall favourite - surely using a shutter speed that allows the water to become 'misty' will also let in too much light? or am I still a complete novice?!
hope that makes sense...
This DOESN'T sound like a weird question at all. If you have a final pic of white blank then it meant your shutter speed is too long. Try shorter exposure time. And you need a tripod, of course. There is no recommended shutter speed for anything because it depends on amount/quality of light for that given instance. Just trial and error until you get it right. When you understand the concept better, you can start making correct lighting with filters; etc, or sunglasses like akysiev did... :cool: (I gotta try that someday).

x3ro, this is the link to the book I used. Don't forget to check out the excerpts from each chapter. I bought a copy for $40 (Australian D) last year. It has all the basics in it. Useful stuff for beginners. http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1759,1647228,00.asp

Cheers.