Waterfalls ~ Capturing the Silk.

Capturing water in  motion gives a wonderful silky effect :



To get the above effect use a slow shutter speed. There are other tricks you will have to use as well :

1. Use a tripod to prevent camera shake during the slow shutter speed.
2. Use a dark ND8 Filter to increase shutter time.





3. Set the Drive Mode to "2 sec self timer" to prevent camera shake due to pressing the  shutter button .
4. Lock up the mirror to prevent camera vibration. Change Custom Function III - 5 to 'Enable'.
5. Change Mode Dial to Tv or Shutter Priority.
6. Set shutter speed to around 1/4 sec. Experiment with slow speed settings.
7. Press shutter button halfway and check exposure.
8. Press shutter button completely to swing up the mirror.
9. Press shutter button completely again to take the picture and then the mirror will go down.

Capturing Motion...

A photograph is a static  two dimensional image. To give the impression of the speed of a moving object the background can be made into a streaky blur by panning the camera.

Another method of showing speed is by decreasing the shutter speed. The shutter remains open for longer and any body in motion streaks itself across the image :

The above picture shows a train moving at speed round a slight curve. It was taken in Manual mode with Aperture F/16 and Shutter Speed of 0.6.  You can also create such an image by following these steps :

1.  Use a tripod as slow shutter speed may result in the whole image being blurred due to camera shake.

2.  Change Mode Dial to Tv or Shutter Priority.

3.  Depending on the speed of the moving object experiment by selecting a slow speed and click the shutter.

4.  Try shooting in Manual Mode. First set the aperture to a large F number if the scene is brightly lit.  Then press the shutter button halfway and look at the exposure meter scale at the bottom of the viewfinder.  Rotate the top dial just behind the shutter button till the exposure mark below the scale is at zero. Then take the picture.

5.  Selecting a large F number makes the aperture smaller and then shutter speed has to be slower to correctly expose the picture.  The slow shutter speed results in the motion blur.

Panning for Background Blur.

Panning a camera is to move it in the direction of a moving object so that the background is a streaky blur while the moving object is in sharp focus :



To get a good streaky background use these tricks :

1. Set the Mode Dial to Shutter Priority. Choose a shutter speed depending on the speed of the moving object or start from a slow shutter speed and experiment.

2. Put the lens on manual focus and focus on the moving object by turning the focusing ring.

3. In Quick Settings choose the Continuous Shooting Drive Mode.

4. Click the shutter and follow the moving object with the camera so that it is always in the screen. Stand with feet slightly apart and swivel from the waist.

Shutter Priority or Aperture Priority?

Should you shoot in Aperture Priority (Av) or Shutter Priority (Tv) mode? If you want to show any object in motion choose Shutter Priority (Tv) mode :



In the above picture I wanted to show light trails of cars in motion. So I chose Shutter Priority with a shutter speed of 8 seconds. As the shutter remains open for a bigger amount of time the camera has to be on a tripod to prevent it from shaking which will blur the image.

To freeze motion choose a faster shutter speed :



To freeze the motion of the butterfly I used a shutter speed of 1/100 second (0.01).

PHOTOMANTRA : Slow shutter speeds to blur motion.