Photo by Holly Webb
ISO and shutter speed
For today’s task, we started to experiment with setting shutter speed and ISO, and balancing them with aperture to create the perfect exposure.
To see the full brief, click here.
Shutter Speed
Shutter speed measures how long the shutter is open when taking the photo, it controls how much light hits the sensor and it affects how much movement is captured. To read my full notes on shutter speed and ISO click here.
We practised taking shots with a higher shutter speed, so that we could capture action shots without any blur.
I took these photos of Shannon jumping:
You can see how the short shutter speed meant that her movements aren’t captured in the image and she looks almost still in mid-air.
I think these photos came out quite well. Although the blurred effect with a lower shutting speed is effective when trying to capture action in photos, I also like the stillness of these action shots.
I think that while lower shutter speeds can be used to clearly show movement and speed in an image, these photos showed me how a higher shutter speed can portray a different kind of effect. It looks like Shannon is almost floating, and that effect can be quite interesting in some projects. I think it looks quite strange suspended in mid-air, and if you were capturing images at the circus or something similar, I think using a fast shutter speed like this would add to the eccentric and peculiar look.
We then took photos with a lower shutter speed to create an image showing movement. I took these photos of Shannon moving her hair which turned out quite good:
You can see how leaving the shutter open for longer captures more of her movements, leaving the blurred effect on her hair.
This made me realise what a difference the shutter speed can make on an image. I think that there are benefits to both, and it depends on what story you’re portraying with your image.
I’ll definitely consider the use of shutter speed when putting together my project, because I think that it adds explanation to the story a lot of the time.
ISO
We then started to experiment with ISO, which affects how light the image is. It changes the sensitivity of the light sensor meaning that it has a large impact on the overall exposure of the image.
We first took photos inside, showing the difference ISO makes:
You can see how the higher ISO created a lighter image as the light sensor was set to be more sensitive.
In a poorly-lit room like the one we were in, you should have the ISO as high as possible as you can see the images are lighter. However, this causes a lot of noise in the image and they turned very grainy.
I feel as though this workshop helped me understand ISO, shutter speed and aperture a lot more. Seeing the clear difference that they all make on an image makes it seem a lot simpler.
I think before I properly do my project, I want to experiment more with the manual setting to ensure that my images turn out in a high quality. Although I understand the concept more, I think I want to practice shooting in lots of different environments with different subjects and light levels so that I get into the practice of altering these settings.
I feel as though I am getting more and more comfortable with photography theory which is making me more excited to go out and start taking the photos for my project.
Aims for this week:
- experiment with ISO, shutter speed and aperture to gain further experience of manual photography
- finalise idea for project
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