Some basics of exposure / shutter speeds and creating movement in your pics.

Plus some new pics from Scarborough fair.

After Visiting Scarborough fair a couple of days ago, I decided to share some long exposure pics I took there, along with a couple of my older pics to illustrate the settings and effects that I used to take the pics.

How to vary shutter speed to create movement / blur / trail effects in photographs.

Going to longer speeds will gradually introduce more and more movement until the camera at some point should be placed on a tripod or a steady place.
Conversely, the shorter the camera sensor is exposed to light, the sharper the image will be.
Most speeds above 1/200th of a second will be sharp as long as the subject or camera are not being moved too fast.

Why not try playing with the shutter speeds in your camera?

Going manual on your camera doesn't mean that you have to use the manual mode, I would recommend shutter priority, so that you can play with the shutter speed.
Anything below around 1/160th of a second will help to create movement, with more and more movement showing up as the shutter speed gets longer. Check out the settings in the pics below to give you an idea of the effect that varying the shutter speed can give.

Lowering the ISO and increasing the F-Stop number (narrowing the aperture) will help to make your shutter speeds longer for those great effects of movement in a pic.

Tip

If you turn the camera to aperture priority, set the F-Stop high (narrow aperture) and the ISO as low as possible manually, so you may get a slow enough shutter speed to capture some movement, unless it's too sunny or bright.
Then just keep playing with the settings until you get the desired effect.

There are 2 things I like to do with long shutter speeds.

1 Keep the camera still and let some of the subjects move. Good for capturing a crowd where some people are moving and other still. You'll probably need a tripod for this unless your subjects are moving quickly.
Also can create nice trails.

8 second exposure with a bike with lights going past. (Tripod needed!!)

Recent pic (Sept 2016) Using tripod. 1.3 seconds.

1. Subject tracking. Set the speed to somewhere between 1/10th and 1/100th of a second and stand near a road and try following a subject. I like to get the camera moving in sync with the subject before I take the picture. Just be careful not to hit anyone with your lens!!

1/50th second.

Scarborough Fair pics. (Longer exposure)

Not the traditional Scarborough fair from the Folk song immortalised by Simon and Garfunkel unfortunately.
But, still a great place to catch some interesting pics..

Fairground ride in black and white -( No tripod)
Long Exposure Shutter Speed - 1/10th of a second
Medium Aperture F/5
As low ISO as possible 200

Long exposure ride (No tripod)
Long Exposure Shutter Speed - 1/5th of a second
Medium Aperture F6.3
As low ISO as possible 100

I panned the camera with this to create the movement.

Long Exposure Shutter Speed - 1/2th of a second (No tripod)
Medium Aperture F6.3
As low ISO as possible - 100

Long Exposure Shutter Speed - 1.3 seconds
Medium Aperture F6.3
As low ISO as possible - 100

So what are you waiting for, go out and give it a go.