Using Shutter Speed For Effect

How often do you come across a scene and think about different ways to capture it by controlling your shutter speed?

This can be one of the most effect means of creating "special effects" in-camera instead of by using software after the fact. I've got two very simple examples to show you.

Nikon D750, 1/800s f/6.0 ISO1600 450mm

The first shot is very straight forward. I saw this fellow on the leaf blower and I wanted to freeze the action so that the leaves in the air would be clear and in focus. I set my shutter speed to 1/800 second and you can see the result. There's nothing too special here but I thought the light was nice. That got me thinking.

Nikon D750, 1/40s f/10.0 ISO800 250mm

What if I wanted to allow some motion to come into the shot? I wondered how I could blur the leaves but keep the driver in focus. This would capture more of the essence of the scene which was all about the motion and noise. It took some trial and error and several shots to accomplish. (Yes, I know there's no sound but if I really got this right, you might hear the sound in your mind!)

I like to use slow shutter speeds like 1/20th or 1/30th second for panning shots, but that proved to be too slow for this scene because the driver and tractor were also in motion. Eventually I hit on 1/40th of a second, and with a bit of luck I caught the leaves in motion but the driver remained sharp.

Now I was hardly invisible standing there with my big zoom lens, taking shot after shot. If you look closely you can see the driver is giving me an annoyed look... And that's how I came to have a restraining order, and can no longer come with 500 metres of the park! ;)

Have a great weekend my friends, and happy shooting!