Guidelines for minimum shutter speeds

[booboos]

from either experience or industry knowledge, what would people say (as a general rule in averrage conditions) the minimum necessary shutter speeds (assume hand held 40D with tamron 18-50 or canon 70-200 IS L f4) for the following -

1) motorsports (bikes)
2) freezing water (water fountain or watherfall)
3) airshows
4) people running

any tips on these subjects always greatly received,

thanks

[hommedars]

1/1000 or faster should work for all of the above.

[PhotoJourno]

Hi. I can see what you're asking.

There should be set speeds at which flowing water -for example- can be captured without blur. Same for faster subjects, vehicles, etc.

The only problem with these, is that the actual minimum speeds depend on two things:

- The setup you are shooting with (ISO 100 or 1600? f2.8 or 11?)
- The effect you are envisioning on the finished product (Is the car a panning photo? Is the waterfall a frozen photo? Often for both a bit of blurring does cause the effect of motion).

So with that being said, I usually do try to shoot at the highest speed I can, and then try to slow things down (by means of ISO or aperture) in order to achieve the desired result.

As a rule of thumb though, what hommedars said is 100% true. To take it a step even further, 1/8000 should be good enough to freeze all of the above ;) .

[tdodd]

There are two factors to consider....

1. Keeping the shutter speed fast enough to avoid camera shake

The standard rule of thumb when shooting with a full frame camera is to use at least 1/(focal length) as your shutter speed. So, if you have your 70-200 lens at 200mm then your shutter speed should be 1/200 or faster.

However, if you have a crop camera, like the 40D, then the rule is modified to be 1/(focal length x crop factor). So for your 200mm lens you would want 1/(200 x 1.6) - 1/320 or faster. At the other extreme, for the 18-55 lens at 18mm yo should be able to hand hold at 1/(18 x 1.6) = approx 1/30.

On top of all that, there is then IS to consider, which will buy you some breathing space with your shutter speed. I'm not sure how many stops the IS on the 70-200 f/4 is supposed to be good for but I think it's 3 or 4 stops. So, if 1/320 is your starting point, 1 stop would be 1/160, 2 stops would be 1/80, 3 stops would be 1/40 and 4 stops would be 1/20. If you're going to push things to that 4 stop extreme then you must play your part too, and hold the camera very steadily and squeeze the shutter very gently. IS is good but it can not work miracles.

2. Creative control of motion and subject blur

You can easily use a high shutter speed to completely freeze motion, but that will often lead to a rather boring photo. It is normally more interesting to use a slightly slower shutter speed and pan the camera with the movement of the subject. If you get the technique right then you can get a lovely blur to the background, emphasising motion, while keeping your subject sharp. With that in mind....

- Motorsport - anything from around 1/100 and faster should give you good results, with practice. If you're really good (and a bit lucky) you may be able to go even slower and emphasise motion even more.

- Water - to freeze it, maybe around 1/500 will get the job done, but by slowing the shutter and deliberately blurring the water you may get a much more appealing effect. People will often use a shutter speed around the 1/2 second mark or maybe even a couple of seconds with waterfalls and streams to create a lovely creamy appearance.

- Airshows - good panning technique is what you want here, but there probably won't be much of an interesting background to blur by panning. For jets you may as well use something around the 1/500 - 1/1000 mark or faster. For prop planes the plane will normally look far more interesting with some blur to the prop, and fast shutter speeds is not what you want there. Something probably around the 1/160 or 1/200 mark should get you about where you want to be.

- Runners - I don't have experience of shooting runners, but I guess that once again, good panning is what you want if they are coming across you. I imagine something like 1/250 will give you reasonable sharpness on the face and body but you may get a little blur on the hands and feet. Maybe that is a good thing, maybe not. If you don't like it then just go a little faster. I imagine that something around the 1/500 mark and faster would pretty much freeze things.



As an example, here is a shot of a car taken at 190mm and 1/100 second. This was with my 40D and 100-400 with Mode 2 IS engaged. Note how the background and foreground is streaking past the car (or vice versa) and see the blur in the wheel spokes. It's a shame the fencing spoiled the shot. I was hoping the pan would blur that out of the way, but obviously not enough :(

[PhotosGuy]

Motorsport Shooting Tips, Tutorials and Advice (http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=151056)

Sports Shooting Tutorials and Advice (http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=135417)

[booboos]

you guys are da bomb! partic thanks to tdodd for goign to so much effort. air display this sat here i come...

[fxk]

:p Shouldn't you have shot a car with a different sponsor? Maybe - Canon? :p

p.s., Nice shot!