What are those really high shutter speeds used for?

[Sky Hye]

Hey guys, total Newbie here.

I was playing with my 500D today and was wondering, what are those really high shutter speeds used for? Secondly, I assume you need heavy lighting for them and a high ISO?

I tried to take some milk droplet shots with them and they came out either really dark or really noisy with the high ISO.

[tzalman]

what are those really high shutter speeds used for?
Wide apertures in bright light. ISO 200 and f/2.8 in sunlight need 1/6400.
Stopping very fast motion or shooting after drinking four cups of coffee.

[powerslave]

tzalman pretty much summed it up, also, Hummingbird shots.

[The Moose]

I was outside in the sun the other week with my 1D + nifty fifty. At ISO 200 (the lowest native on the classic) and f/2, I was shooting at 1/16000". Obviously I was just mucking around but there are times when that actually might be useful, but that's what I said about the 1/500 flash sync that I've yet to really use on the 1D :lol:

[Alexei TND]

safety precaution, incase someone shoots at you, you take a picture, then (quickly) chimp to see if it is flying in your direction (some trigonometry might be useful) and calculate wich direction you need to dodge in
:]

[unmanedpilot]

safety precaution, incase someone shoots at you, you take a picture, then (quickly) chimp to see if it is flying in your direction (some trigonometry might be useful) and calculate wich direction you need to dodge in
:]


Ken Rockwell used to do that all the time didn't he? :D;)

[Karl Johnston]

tzalman pretty much summed it up, also, Hummingbird shots.
You can stop a hummingbird with 1/1000th of a second.

I wonder what 1/8000 is for myself

[powerslave]

I haven't shot hummingbirds so I'm talking out of my ass, but I always thought no-wing blur shots of those birds will need at least 1/1600+ depending on light.

[Alexei TND]

Ken Rockwell used to do that all the time didn't he? :D;)


used?, why the past tense? :D

[unmanedpilot]

Umm I don't know? I started to say that I used to, but then I decided not to be so arrogant ;) and never changed the tense

[JeffreyG]

Hey guys, total Newbie here.

I was playing with my 500D today and was wondering, what are those really high shutter speeds used for? Secondly, I assume you need heavy lighting for them and a high ISO?

I tried to take some milk droplet shots with them and they came out either really dark or really noisy with the high ISO.

A tip on the droplets - don't try to freeze them with high shutter speeds, you won't have enough light or shutter speed to do it.

Freeze droplets with the very duration pulse of light from a flash. Shutter speed then does not really matter.

[egordon99]

I wonder what 1/8000 is for myself

Shooting wide apertures on bright days. f/1.4+bright light=LOTS of light hitting the sensor, so you don't want the shutter open for very long :)

[EdBray]

Buy an 85L, shoot in daylight and there's your answer!

[Sky Hye]

What about the 1/2000-1/4000. speeds? Freezing bullets? Seems ridiculously high.

[egordon99]

Same thing as 1/8000s, shooting wide apertures in bright light (just not quite as bright or wide aperture as 1/8000)

Bryan Peterson's "Understanding Exposure" is a good book that explains some of the basics.

What about the 1/2000-1/4000. speeds? Freezing bullets? Seems ridiculously high.

[egordon99]

If you are getting 1/8000s at f/1.4, ISO100, and you switch to f/2, you will need 1/4000s. Switching to f/2.8 allows you to "slow down" to 1/2000s.

[nphsbuckeye]

I have baseball shots of at least 1/5000 and there's still motion blur.

[powerslave]

Ok I'll bite, is the motion blur on the bat and ball only?

[bacchanal]

What about the 1/2000-1/4000. speeds? Freezing bullets? Seems ridiculously high.

Freezing a bullet requires way faster speed than 1/4000. In fact, you need a pretty specialized flash set up to freeze a bullet...or a really slow bullet.

[nphsbuckeye]

Ok I'll bite, is the motion blur on the bat and ball only?
Yup.

Same thing with tennis, racket on ball will make a blur; albeit small, it'll make a blur.

By the way, I'm talking about D-1 college.

[JeffreyG]

This idea that 1/1000 or so is plenty adequate to freeze motion has not met my experience in shooting sports. 1/1000 will get the athelete's torso almost perfectly sharp, but fingers, toes and even the head can often range from a little soft to actually blurry with shutter speeds approaching 1/2000. And to freeze bats, rackets and balls usually needs even more than 1/2000.

As for really fast things like bullets, focal plane shutters are useless. When you see shots of such things that are sharp you are seeing a camera bulb exposure in a dark room and a burst from a strobe, usually triggered by a microphone.

The other use of higher shutter speeds >1/4000 is of course to allow the use of fast apertures in bright light of course.

[Roy G. Biv]

You can catch joggers in mid bounce at 60mph! :lol:

[Sky Hye]

You can catch joggers in mid bounce at 60mph! :lol:

Haha. I'll have to try. I might get beat up taking pix of joggers here in Los Angeles though. People are so tense and wound up.

This is my first SLR (3 weeks into it), so anything above the blistering 1/400 of a Point & Shoot, is just amazing to me. I fooled around with the water droplets @ about 1/2000 and 1/4000 and Like Jeff said may be overkill. I figured the 1/200 that the cam capped when I opened the flash was too slow. I'll give it another go tonight (And make sure I have lots of towels this time!)
I'll post some of the better ones. I just dropped milk into a little cup under a bright light.
I'll get more creative tonight.

Droplet 1
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2427/3655534431_f366c5b4ea_o.jpg

Droplet 1
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3578/3655534317_88783a6bac_o.jpg

[EdBray]

I figured the 1/200 that the cam capped when I opened the flash was too slow.

When you have some more experience you will understand that in fact the shutter speed of 1/200 is only the sync speed of the flash and that the flash duration (which makes the actual exposure) will be very much faster and can be anything upto 1/20,000 sec.

Some good results though, well done!

[nphsbuckeye]

This idea that 1/1000 or so is plenty adequate to freeze motion has not met my experience in shooting sports. 1/1000 will get the athelete's torso almost perfectly sharp, but fingers, toes and even the head can often range from a little soft to actually blurry with shutter speeds approaching 1/2000. And to freeze bats, rackets and balls usually needs even more than 1/2000.

As for really fast things like bullets, focal plane shutters are useless. When you see shots of such things that are sharp you are seeing a camera bulb exposure in a dark room and a burst from a strobe, usually triggered by a microphone.

The other use of higher shutter speeds >1/4000 is of course to allow the use of fast apertures in bright light of course.
It depends on what sport; there is no one size fits all. Unless the player is right next to you, you can stop basketball at 1/400 and I can stop swimmers at 1/400.