Most people know of Bryan Peterson's 2004 bestselling book Understanding Exposure in which he explores in detail the relationship of aperture, shutter speed, and how to achieve successful exposures in difficult situations. In his new companion volume, Understanding Shutter Speed, he takes on one of those aspects in depth: shutter speed.
Unless working with still life, every moment offers up the movement of a subject. How that subject is captured brings the moment back to us. In every situation there will be a number of ways to capture that image. The goal of Understanding Shutter Speed is to give you the knowledge to make the best choice. The book 160 pages and is contained in five chapters.
"Shutter Speed Facts & Myths" begins by explaining that within most picture-taking situations you have six possible combinations of f-stops and shutter speeds that will result in correct exposures. This does not mean that each will take the same image, but rather will result in six quality images, each with a different look and feel to it. Also discussed is the affect of ISO on images and how it applies to action photos.
"Fast and Moderate Speeds" examines how to freeze action and how shutter speed affects what you see in an image. Here the author takes you through a number of shutter speeds from 1/100 to 1/1000 and shows you what they really mean in relation to your picture. While moving to faster stops action, slower speeds can create more artistic looks and you will see what can be done when slowing things down a bit.
"Slow Speeds" notches things down even further by exploring speeds of 1/30 to ¼ of a second and how — when used with the panning of the camera and the movement of the camera to follow the central object in the image — you can slow it down while everything else is blurred.
You will also explore the use of a tripod and how it can be used to imply motion. You will see how to paint with shutter speeds, how motion zooming can be used to bring motion to a still object, how by attaching a camera to what is moving you can get a different perspective, how to photograph ghosts and angels, as well as how to work with dusk and low light situations requiring a second or more of exposure.
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