|
Foto Tips / Photo Tips
| SUGGESTED SHUTTER SPEEDS |
| TO FREEZE ACTION* |
TO CAPTURE MOTION** |
| Children – 1/250 – 1/1000 seconds |
Amusement park rides: +/- one second |
| Moving water/waterfalls: 1/1000 seconds or more |
Moving water/waterfalls: 4 or more seconds |
| Sporting event: 1/500 – 1/2000 seconds |
Fireworks: 1/2 – 4 seconds |
| Birds in flight: 1/1000th a second and above |
Moving cars at night: 8-10 seconds |
|
Night photography – one or more seconds |
* The closer action is to your digital camera, the faster the shutter speed is needed.
Here's a quick table to help you determine the approximate shutter speed required for different subjects:
| Subject |
Shutter Speed* |
| Landscape |
60 |
| Portrait |
125 |
| Children |
250 |
| Animals |
500 |
| Sports |
1000 |
| Race Cars |
4000 |
* Shutter speeds are measured in fractions of seconds, so 60 is really 1/60th of a second.
When to Change ISO
The relationship between certain lighting conditions and the ISO setting:
| Lighting |
ISO |
| Bright sunshine |
100 |
| Mild shade or overcast |
200 |
| Deep shade |
400 |
| Indoors on a sunny day |
800 |
| Indoors at night |
1600 |
The important thing to note: as the light gets dimmer, the ISO must increase accordingly.
The Focal Length Factor
Camera shake is magnified by longer focal lengths.
The way to negate camera shake it to always use a shutter speed that is faster than your focal length:
| Focal Length |
Shutter Speed (for no blur) |
| 28mm |
30 |
| 50mm |
60 |
| 100mm |
125 |
| 200mm |
250 |
| 300mm |
350 |
The only time that this rule doesn't apply is with cameras that have built-in anti-shake or if you're using an anti-shake lens.
Anti-shake works against the movement of the camera when you hold it in your hands, and allows you to shoot at speeds that are slower than the focal length of the lens and still get clear shots.
Scott Kelby’s Unsharp Mask Settings
Photoshop Guru Scott Kelby’s unsharp mask settings for digital photographers
Sharpening Soft Subjects
Softer nature subjects, e.g. flowers, puppies, people, rainbows.
Amount: 150%
Radius: 1
Threshold: 10
Sharpening Portraits
Close-up portraits
Amount: 75%
Radius: 2
Threshold: 3
Moderate Sharpening
Product shots, home interiors and exteriors, landscapes
Amount: 225%
Radius: 0.5
Threshold: 0
Maximum Sharpening
Visibly out-of-focus photos, photos with many well-defined edges, e.g. buildings, coins, cars, machinery
Amount: 65%
Radius: 4
Threshold: 3
All-Purpose Sharpening
Kelby’s favourite. Subtle, so it can be applied twice if necessary.
Amount: 85%
Radius: 1
Threshold: 4
Web Sharpening
When resolution is dropped from 300dpi to 72dpi, and out-of-focus photos. Adds some noise.
Amount: 400% (try 200% if that’s too much)
Radius: 0.3
Threshold: 0
Other suggestion
| Subject |
Amount |
Radius |
Threshold |
| Soft subjects |
150 |
1 |
10 |
| Portraits |
75 |
2 |
3 |
| Moderate sharpening |
225 |
0.5 |
0 |
| Maximum sharpening |
65 |
4 |
3 |
| All-purpose sharpening |
85 |
1 |
4 |
| preparing for Web |
400 |
0.3 |
0 |
| 
