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Evening all.

I have just purchased a bridge camera ( fujifilm finepix s4400) as I wanted something more than a basic camera but not as good as a DSLR. I am rather new to photography and know very little but I have been looking on the internet to try and get my head around shutter speeds and I am nothing but more confused now that I was in the first place.

Is there anyone on here that can put this into basics for me so I can try to understand how to set up the shutter speed and what settings do what.

My camera has settings where you can control the shutter speed and have an automatic apature or a manual apature and automatic shutter speeds or a full auto mode or a full custom mode, that I have found so far, there may be more modes but I have not really tested these yet.

So can anyone help me with this?

Many thanks
Ckennedy

A faster shutter speed (ISO) can capture faster, a short exposure. So things in motion and a Slower shutter speed is used for still life, a long exposure. Now that's as simple as I can put it.

But it's a lot more complicated than that because it's a case of getting an even balance between shutter speed and aperture (light) and how you want the image to look. Also what you are photographing, where your photographing, lighting conditions and stuff.

The best thing you can do is to read your manual and experiment. Get to know your camera first. Start with Auto and get a feel for the camera and get used to the lens, controls and menus etc. Then when your feeling more confident (if you camera has these) move onto shutter priority or aperture priority which are in between full manual control. I wouldn't go jumping straight in to full manual.

It's not something you are going to learn or understand overnight and will take you some time, but your are doing a good thing by reading up on things on the internet. If one site is confusing you, then find another one. There is a wealth of knowledge out there. Youtube videos as well. Sometimes it's easier to watch a video tutorial than read one.

(:-})

Speed is the time the shutter is open,
Aperture how open the lens hole is, - Measured in F Stops
ISO is the sensitivity of the image sensor, in a light place you will want a lower number, the higher to put it makes it more sensitive to light but also more grainy

i have loads of great work sheets from college some where i will post them up for you to learn from slowly

seb421 wrote:Speed is the time the shutter is open,
Aperture how open the lens hole is, - Measured in F Stops
ISO is the sensitivity of the image sensor, in a light place you will want a lower number, the higher to put it makes it more sensitive to light but also more grainy

i have loads of great work sheets from college some where i will post them up for you to learn from slowly

Only 3 variables.

Not as easy as it sounds though. Luckily most modern cameras give Av (aperture priority) and Tv (shutter priority) modes so you can set one yourself and the camera will automatically set the other 2. If you have these read as much as you can about Aperture, shutter and ISO and then play with your camera to see what affects they have.

Fully auto will set all 3 - nice photo's but you will never learn anything about photography and will never get any nice affects. Forget manual - pro's only.

I usually use Av unless the lighting is bad. I can control Depth of Field (how much of the photo is in focus) and get some nice effects (look up Bokeh )

Play around and have fun and don't forget that being a photographer is a professional job so don't expect to be an expert overnight - be patient.

p.s. And don't forget that all those 'amazing' photo's you see on the internet have all been through photoshop.

Thanks fellas. Photography is something I have always been interested in. Going to give research a break for the night as I may have over loaded myself

Shall have another look tomorrow and go out to have a play. Any info/tips any of you have are always welcome.

Ckennedy wrote:Thanks fellas. Photography is something I have always been interested in. Going to give research a break for the night as I may have over loaded myself

Shall have another look tomorrow and go out to have a play. Any info/tips any of you have are always welcome.

I think the best thing is to go have a play

When you get confused come back and ask - and we will confuse you even more

I'm sure you will work out some yourself and hopefully someone here can help with the rest. Photography is a great hobby

I agree, get out and take some photo's. The important thing is what are you photographing and getting a nice composition. Think about all areas of the image and control the viewers (printed image) eye towards a particular part of the image. Other parts of the image are not necessarily the main part but can be used to help direct the viewers eye towards the main subject depending on the composition.

Sometimes less is more and it can be good to leave some white space, what I mean by this is don't over clutter things where it can become confusing, unless your going abstract. See how I have separated my paragraphs by leaving some white space making it easier to read. Well the same principle comes into photography as well. I hope that makes some kind of sense.

Watch the borders as you could be photographing something just off centre of the camera viewer and there may be something on the border that is distracting your eye away from your main subject, so just zoom in or out a bit or re-position yourself so it's not in the image. Or there's other times you may want to use that as part of the main subject, like a tree trunk for example. Or maybe do a close up macro shot of the bark. There's other times when things need to be re-arranged to get the shot, I moved a bin out of the way the other day as it was right in view and spoiling the shot.

You need to think about what your photographing, what direction is the light coming from, do you want a close up shot, mid shot, long shot. What angle do you want to take the shot from. It's fun to take shots that most people wouldn't even think about, stand directly under a big tree and aim the camera up in the air through the branches and leaves and take a photo of that, or lay down on the ground and take a picture of an ant walking along a grass stem.

Sometimes worrying about the camera and all the buttons and controls can get in the way of taking good pictures. And it's taking good pictures with nice composition and lighting that it's all about. Rule of thirds is another one for you took up http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rule_of_thirds

Then as you get used to the camera you will start playing around with other controls and start experimenting adding depth of field, dropping or upping it a stop or two and stuff.

(:-})

another good one to look up is leading lines

http://www.photoble.com/photography-tip ... hotography

All good advice chaps.

My advice, get a decent book on the subject & read it. Try a local second hand book shop.

As far as learning your camera, set up a shot, say the view from an upstairs window or some such. Using a tripod so your always shooting the same thing/image. Play around with the settings & see what difference they make. Best to keep notes so that you know what alterations do what.

The basic rule of thumb is that it's all about getting enough light into the camera to form the image. This is done with a combination of shutter speed, aperture & sensitivity to light of the medium. (film stock was ASA the higher the number is more sensitive, but you get less detail. With digital you can still alter this as ISO setting.)
So a high shutter speed requires a big aperture a slower speed a smaller aperture, however you then throw in things like how the aperture affects depth of field & shutter speed affects sharpness. Most auto settings will take a medium/average of both & use that.
As an example of how the others work & why, if you were taking shots of bike racing you would want a high shutter speed due to the subject moving at speed. (For blue bikes you'll get away with a slow shutter speed of course.)

Take your time to learn your camera & what it can do. Buy a book as it will go into more detail about photography & composure of images.

Have fun.

Mac.

Two things create photos, exposure - technical stuff of the camera, and composition - you!

Only thing to add here is what is known as depth of field and how that relates to apertures. This is one of the fundamentals in creating great pics - you control the amount of 'clutter' seen in an image. The lower the F number, the wider the aperture, the less foreground and background in focus. And the opposite for the smaller the aperture.

Mac's advice of a book is a must - head to your library, they'all have something, or for £8 this, or something similar, will be the best thing you'll ever get http://www.amazon.co.uk/Collins-Complet ... 0007279922

BigVeeGrin wrote:Two things create photos, exposure - technical stuff of the camera, and composition - you!

Only thing to add here is what is known as depth of field and how that relates to apertures. This is one of the fundamentals in creating great pics - you control the amount of 'clutter' seen in an image. The lower the F number, the wider the aperture, the less foreground and background in focus. And the opposite for the smaller the aperture.

Mac's advice of a book is a must - head to your library, they'all have something, or for £8 this, or something similar, will be the best thing you'll ever get http://www.amazon.co.uk/Collins-Complet ... 0007279922

Good call..

(For blue bikes you'll get away with a slow shutter speed of course.)

I wouldnt go photographing Blue storms it may damage the lens

If you have the camera on a tripod it's the perfect opportunity to try bracketing on the camera. One shot with normal exposure and then one overexposed to improve (over emphasize) the highlights (lights) and one under exposed (over emphasize) the shadows (darks) and then if you have a HDR software or are any good with Photoshop overlay them and create a High Dynamic Range image. Your camera may even have an inbuilt function to do this automatically for you.


This was shot on a Nikon D200 and put together as a HDR image in Photomatix and a few adjustments made in Photoshop.

Strangely enough I'm on the lookout for purchasing a new camera at the moment and toying between either a Nikon D90 D5100 and the D7000 or wait a little while and see what comes out after Christmas. It's proving to be a tricky choice as I want a camera that is good for stills as well as being capable of shooting Video and I have to compromise somewhere between functions and £££.



(:-})

Well today has been play day with the camera. Took some around the house and then set out to Bradgate park and took nearly 100pics or more. Got some good ones, well I think they are and of course some not so good ones. Had a friend with me so between us we managed to get some interesting ones.

photography is one area where digital technology can make a massive difference to normal lives

i found it easier to get a book and learn one thing at a time and understand it then move to the next now i use a nikon d2x and make some spare cash doing horse shows. and just enjoy it