Exercise four: Shutter speeds

I'd been struggling for inspiration for this and the next exercise ever since the study materials arrived. I wanted to find a subject that I had a genuine interest in rather than simply wander towards the nearest road and be mistaken for a speed camera.

There was a big challenge completing this exercise that I didn't anticipate (and didn't find an answer for until afterwards) was one of focus. The riders were flying passed along different lines (and therefore distances from the camera) and the initial fast shutter speeds meant a narrower depth of field. In hindsight, increasing the ISO would have enabled me to increase the aperture. The paths that the riders were taking also meant that I could consistently fill the frame - so pulling back for a wider shot solved this.

The other difficulty was that I'd damaged my tripod head on the climb up, effectively rendering it useless, so I wasn't able to take any long exposures.

I've included a small selection of the images and the rest can be found on my Flickr photo photostream.

18mm, 1/2500 secs at f/3.5, ISO 160

At 1/2500 of a second, you'd expect the image to be 'frozen' throughout, which it is. This remained the case through to 1/800.

18mm, 1/640 secs at f/5.6, ISO 100

The subject is rendered static at this shutter speed.

18mm, 1/500 secs at f/6.3, ISO 100

Albeit slightly, once I changed down to 1/500th of a second some subject blur is introduced... just.

I then took a series of further images and finished with an exposure of 1/160th of a second.

18mm, 1/160 secs at f/11, ISO 100

By the time I dropped to 1/160th of a second there was plenty of subject blur. A working tripod would have enabled me to take even longer exposures.

I learned some vital lessons on this shoot, and none more important than the missed opportunity to up the ISO to give me more scope to increase the aperture needed for greater depth of field. It was also great practice in changing settings by touch and keeping my attention on the viewfinder.

I'm not overly struck on the final images either and think that I became too focused on the technicalities of completing the exercise that resulted in a lack of creativity in a great setting. I intend to revisit this technique.