One of the things that keeps getting hammered into my head the more I read and listen to things about photography is that your shutter speed should never drop below the focal length of the lens you’re using. So, for example, if you’re using the 200mm end of a 55mm-200mm zoom, then your shutter speed should be, at the very slowest 1/200th of a second. The faster the better, taking into account other things like aperture and lighting conditions.
This is because most humans can’t hold a camera steady enough to eliminate camera shake and blurriness.
Well, I put that to the test yesterday when I went out to shoot some squirrels that had invaded my backyard. I realized I needed my longer zoom lens (I have an 18mm-50mm and a 55mm-200mm) to get anywhere near the little buggers. I also realized I’d be at the long end of that zoom so I would need a shutter speed of 1/200th of a second or faster. I started out on shutter priority at 1/320th and shot quite a bit like that. Everything looked pretty good on the back of my camera, but on my computer it was quite dark.
Before I even transferred them to my computer, I realized something might not be right and switched over to manual mode and opened up my aperture as wide as it would go and I played around with shutter speeds, but never going below 1/200th, but still for most shots, I was underexposed.
I fixed that pretty easily in Photoshop.
Out of the hundred or so pictures, I’d say 25-50 were in pretty sharp focus, but only about 5-10 had the composition I was looking for. One was even a little out of focus, but I managed to save it using some of my photoshop prowess. I’ll talk about that picture in another post.
I had to manually focus for several shots where the critters were behind tree branches, since my camera kept wanting to focus on the branches. I also kept in mind how important it is to get crystal clear shiny eyes and made sure I focused as best I could on the eyes.
So, I still need some practice playing around with shutter speeds and apertures when using long lenses, but I think I’m starting to get the hang of it. Or rather I’m not yet getting the hang of it, but I’m starting to understand that there’s a hang-of-it out there to get.
UPDATE: I went out today to take some more squirrel pics. My conclusion is that 1/320th is the minimum I should use with my 55-200mm. If it’s too dark, well, I just have to lighten in photoshop. Also, focusing manually on the eyes is a must.
