Learning to use shutter speed!

One of my earliest memories regarding photography that I can remember is a picture that was on the cover of the El Paso phonebook. I must have been 10 years old or so. It was interesting to me mostly because I had no idea how a picture like that could have been taken. It looked more like a painting to me. It was just a picture of the city shortly after sunset, and from a highpoint, so a rooftop somewhere overlooking I-10 and the Franklin mountain. I know now that it was a long exposure because I remember the light trails from the car lights along the highway, which is what made the most impact for me. Although apparently, it didn't occur to me to look it up! In my defense, I was a kid, and at the time, not everyone had a PC at home, or an internet connection. I sure didn't. So looking it up on google was not an option for me. I also didn't know any photographers I could ask.

Strangely enough, this image made enough of an impact on me that the first day I got the dSLR(after reading plenty of forums and photo blogs in preparation!) I tried to take a picture with light trails from the cars. So I grabbed the tripod, the camera, and went out the first night we had the camera. I was determined to get some trails in my pics and I knew it had something to do with the shutter speed. So I set the camera to 'Tv', which stands for Time Value, meaning shutter speed priority mode(on a Canon, 'S' would be the equivalent on a Nikon). Shutter Speed priority is a form of AUTO, in which you pick the shutter speed(and ISO if it isn't set to AUTO, but we'll get to that), and the camera picks the rest(really only the aperture is left). I setup at the nearest roundabout(I was living in England at the time), and tried it there. I tried 10"(seconds), then 20", then 30". It was EXACTLY what I had been looking for. By picking one simple setting, in this case the shutter speed, I was able to obtain a picture that had been in the back of my mind for many many years! It was very rewarding for me.

Here is one of the test shots that night:

f/13, 30 seconds, ISO 200, 20mm. One of the firsts pictures I ever took on a dSLR. I know the picture isn't much, but I was thrilled at being able to get light trails!

So it turns out that shutter speed is critical in creating the car light trails effect, but that is not all there is to shutter speed of course. You don't always want trails, and you don't always want a long exposure. I would say that once you can no longer hand hold an exposure, it would be fair to call it a "long" exposure. The easiest way to experiment with shutter speed is to set the camera to 'Tv'(on a canon, 'S' on a nikon) and see what different shutter speeds do. Here are some quick guidelines for what certain shutter speeds are good for:

*A guideline for the slowest shutter speed you can hand hold is:

     Limit for hand holding a shot = 1 / focal length you are shooting at
 
It is just a guideline, but it gives you an idea of what you can expect to be able to hand hold and still get a sharp picture. Some lenses have  IS(Image Stabilization,) VR(Vibration Reduction) on nikon lenses, which counter acts the shake, and allows you to shoot at slower shutter speeds and be able to hand hold the camera. Very useful nice to have.

**There is a guideline for how long that actually is:

      Max exposure before trails = 600 / focal length
 
Again, just a guideline, but it gives you a good starting point or limit if you want to avoid star trails when photographing the night sky. 

So there is a really basic summary of uses for certain shutter speeds. Here are a few examples, with images I have taken:

f/18 @18mm, 30 seconds total exposure(Stacked from 3, 10 second images)

f/2.5, 1/5000, ISO100, 50mm

f/2.0, 50mm, 1/80sec, ISO 400

f/3.5, 45 seconds, ISO 1600, 8mm fisheye

f/3.5, ISO 3200, 8mm fisheye, 3 hours total exposure(stacked from ~200 individual images)

f/11, ISO 100,  25mm, 2 seconds(I should have probably used a faster shutter speed)

This is all just a guide to give you a rough idea of where to start. I can write about it all I want, but it really comes down to you getting out there, setting it to Shutter Speed Priority ('Tv' on a canon, 'S' on a Nikon) or manual, and seeing how it affects your pictures.