Back at you to complete the triad of manual settings.  We have talked about aperture to achieve that blurry background, ISO to find the perfect lighting balance and now we are finishing up with shutter speed.  I insist you read the two previous posts so that you are up to speed with this tutorial.  Remember I am completely self taught.  If I can do this, so can you.  My goals are for you to stop shooting in automatic and really get out there and practice in manual mode.  Seriously, it is so exciting to finally get those pictures that you have been striving for!

Okay first things first to understand working with shutter speed, really think about what those words mean.  How fast or slow the shutter is going to open or close on your lens.  There are so many ways to think about how to play with your shutter speed but I want you to think about light coming in.  If your shutter speed is opening and closing fast (say 1/400), the less light will be able to come in.  If you have your shutter closing more slowly (1/60), you will have “more time” essentially for light to come in.

Working with Shutter Speed: Using Your Camera on Manual Mode.  Pin me!

So let’s put what we have learned together.  If you have a fast shutter speed (1/400), less light in.  If you have a high F-stop (f22), less light coming in (i.e. think sunny days), and if your ISO is low (100), then you aren’t adding in any additional brightness.  Makes sense? Now the flip of that.  Slow shutter speed (1/60), more light coming in, low F-stop (f 2.5), more light coming in, and high ISO (800) you are adding that brightness.

Now, you know about the light capabilities of the differences in your shutter speeds.  The other part of shutter speed is playing around with it in order to “freeze” things.  If you want super sharp pictures, you want your shutter speed to be high (1/400 for example) but remember if you are having your shutter close that fast you will have to adjust your other settings to compensate.  Your shutter speed won’t be allowing in that much light so you will need to lower your F-stop or increase your ISO.

Let’s see this in action.  I will note these were taking on a tripod with a 2-sec timer delay.  I will tell you the minute I got a tripod, my blog photography drastically improved.  It really enables you to have the sharpest pictures without the natural shakiness of your hand holdings.  I got mine on Amazon here.

Notice how you can see the droplets of water frozen here?  If you look closely on the left side, you can even see them bouncing up off the fountain.

Shutter speed 1/2000, F-stop 4.0, ISO 200

Now look what happens when you slow down your shutter speed.  See how the water flows together and is smooth.

Shutter speed 1/32, F-stop 22, ISO 100

How I like to play with shutter speed is to capture those gorgeous nighttime scenes.  If you don’t have a tripod with you, you can always rest your camera on a ledge like I did here in Santorini.

Nighttime shot of downtown Fira.

Shutter Speed 1/4, F-stop 22, ISO 100 with 2 second delay timer.

Versus daytime shot of the exact area

Shutter speed 1/320, F-stop 22, ISO 400

Now here are some blogging pictures and what I had my camera set to.

Shutter speed 1/200, F-stop 3.5, ISO 100 (taken outside on a rainy day, Mark was actually standing under an umbrella!)
Dress Joie on sale here ||| Pumps on sale here

Shutter speed 1/320, F-stop 3.2, ISO 100 (outside and cloudy)
Grey Jacket BB Dakota here ||| layering long t-shirt here ||| Black leggings here ||| Boots Stuart Weitzman 5050 here mid range on major sale here ||| Sunnies Karen Walker here ||| Purse Tory Burch here here and similar here

Shutter Speed 1/100, F-stop 2.5, ISO 800 (My back porch at 6pm trying to get this shot with some natural lighting, I increased the ISO to get that brightness of the marble top)

Shutter speed 1/400, f-stop 2.5, ISO 400 (about to rain outside, so it was cloudy)

Shutter speed 1/100, F-stop 3.5, ISO 800 (Inside of a dark cafe)

Last one.  It took me forever to get the lighting right in these so you can see the fluorescent paint details.

Shutter speed 1/250, F-stop 5.0, ISO 800.
skirt exact here on sale in black here ||| sweater exact here (on sale)||| booties here ||| on sale slightly different here ||| sunglasses  here

[bctt tweet=”Learning how to shoot your camera in Manual mode. Must read for how to improve your blog photography!”]

Okay there is the final installment of the three setting in order for you to shoot in manual mode.  The next tutorial I will have coming at you, is what shooting with different lens looks like!  I hope you really enjoyed and learned something from these.  Now get out there and practice!  If you have been using these tutorials to improve your blog photography I would love if you would share this post, pin it or like on bloglovin!  Thank you guys!  I have received so much positive feedback from these and I can’t wait to continue on with teaching you how to improve your blog or photography in general!

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