Zooming technique

And on we go with the slow shutter speed effects series! We learned how to do panning, how to fake it on the pc, and now we're going to learn how to use the zooming technique.

This is a very simple technique but can achieve some neat results when applied correctly. It consists of zooming your lens in or out while the shutter is open. This creates a kind of tunnel effect towards the center achieving a sense of speed.

Similarily to panning this technique requires the shutter speed to be the correct one. Slow enough to create the zooming blur, but fast enough to allow for a sharp image in the center. As always this speed will depend on your hands stability, focal length and whether you have image stabilisation enabled. I recommend you to use something between 1/10 and 1/60, take into consideration, that the faster you set the shutter speed, the faster you have to zoom in or out to make the image appear blurred in the corners.
If you have the time you can set a tripod and a slower shutter speed, say 1/2 por example and zoom in slowly, which will give you more stability.

Once you have set the correct shutter speed (Use shutter speed priority mode ) set your subject, or whatever part of the scene you want to be sharp, in the center of the image. Now click the shutter and zoom your lens in or out while it's open. This will blur the edges of the image, creating the zoom effect.

Also, you can combine the zooming in with panning to change the part of the image that remains sharp. For example, if you zoom in while pan the camera to the right, the sharp area will be on the right side of the image. Combining both effects however can be too difficult to the point that it becomes frustrating, so I would recommend you to reproduce the effect later on on photoshop if you want the sharp area not to be in the center. In my next post I'll show you how to do that easily, so stay tuned!

Camera modes

Now that we know the effects that every setting has on our image, we're going to learn how to tweak those settings in our camera's menu. It is possible that your camera has a different menu system but usually all DSLRs have the options I'm going to talk about.

Auto: Not much to say about this mode. It is fast and useful for the times where you just haven't got the time to think about the settings. The camera makes all the decisions about the exposure and even the metering modes, but now that we've learned how to use every of those settings, we want to have control over them, right?

P mode: This one is similar to auto mode, you set the ISO and the camera will automatically set the shutter speed and aperture for the shot. Also P mode allows you to control the metering modes, something we will talk about in future articles

Shutter Speed priority: This is were we start to take control of the settings, this mode will allow us to set the shutter speed and ISO we want and the camera will adjust the aperture to match the available light. Very useful for taking action shots or for playing with motion like we saw in the article about Shutter speed.

Aperture priority: This mode allows us to control aperture, and ISO while the camera will take care of adjusting the shutter speed. This mode is very useful for taking control of the depth of field like we saw in the article about aperture.

Manual: This is the mode, where you control everything. ISO, shutter speed, aperture, metering modes, white balance... .This might sound like it's the ultimate mode to use once you understand every setting, but in my opinion this mode makes it too difficult to get a correctly exposed shot, since it will be you that will have to tweak every setting until you get the correct amount of light. There are moments though where this mode will be the only option, like when you want to use the bulb mode of your camera. This mode allows you to have the shutter open for as long as you want and can be helpful for making very long exposures, like in star trail shots.

So, you will be asking yourself, which mode should I use?

The answer to this question depends on your skills and the situation you're in, as i said before you can use auto mode if you want to take a photograph quick without losing time on adjusting the settings, but the rest of the modes will give you more control over the shot.
I personally find myself shooting usually with P mode that allows me to control the ISO so that the camera doesn't accidentally bump it too high ruining the shot because of the noise. When i want to use some of the exposure settings creatively I just go into aperture or shutter speed priority mode, since they're much easier to use and will give you identical results to the manual mode.
Sometimes you'll just need to use the manual because the camera won't be able to get the shot exposed like you want. Don't be afraid of using it now that you know what every setting does, do keep in mind though that it will probably take some time to get the shot properly exposed. But hey you're doing this just for fun right? Just take your time and enjoy experimenting!

Mastering the Basics: Understanding shutter speed

In my last article I mentioned how tweaking every setting to get the correct exposure had it's pros and cons. The first setting we're going to take a look at is Shutter speed.

The Shutter speed is the amount of time that the camera's sensor is exposed to light.

This simple setting has a great impact on the end result of the photograph. Using a fast shutter speed will freeze the moment, while a slow one will capture motion in the shot.
Keeping this in mind is very important because we will need to change this setting often depending on the type of photography we're doing. A classic example for this is sports photography. At sports events we're often photographying fast moving subjects, so we will need to set a fast shutter speed to capture the moment.
Sometimes though we will want the photograph to show the movement in the scene. Using a slow shutter speed moving objects will be blurred giving the viewer a sense of speed.

The problem with slow shutter speeds is that it's difficult to hold the camera completely still, so at certain speeds the whole photography will become blurred.

Sometimes we will need to use a slow shutter speed because there isn't enough light available even when rising the ISO and aperture. When this is the case it is very useful to use a tripod that will allow us to have the camera completely still during the exposure of the shot. Using a tripod will also allow us to use very long shutter speed to create interesting effects like light or star trails, which we will talk about in further articles.