Shutter Sisters

sunday school : dragging the shutter

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I don’t hide the fact that I absolutely love and cherish my self-timer. In fact, I’ve come to realize that when I am in self-timer mode (pun definitely intended) my antics are a pretty good source of entertainment too. Even my photographer friends get a good laugh watching my moves—limbs flailing every which way as I balance the camera on the nearest makeshift tripod, er, tree stump, pile of rocks, parked car, get ready, get set and then run as fast as I can to get into the frame before the final beeeeeep and click. Hey, whatever it takes to get the shot and have a little fun while I’m at it.

I use the timer often, to ensure I make it into a family picture or a group shot of friends. And then there are the ever elusive self-portraits. In the case of the above image, it was surreal motion I was after. I’ve only got the Manzanita magic to thank for the golden glow of this otherworldly landscape.

The ghostly gesture comes from and intentional technique called dragging the shutter where your shutter stays open long enough to capture the movement of the subject in the shot. But when you only want some of the shot in motion (while other elements in the image stay sharp) you have to either use a flash or a tripod otherwise the movement of your own hands will cause the shot to be blurry and in this case, it won’t give you the desired results. I used a massive hunk of driftwood to prop my camera (aka my tripod) and had the ISO at 100 (even in this low light) to be sure I could really slow down the shutter enough to get an effective stream of motion. My settings were set manually- f8, .8/sec –that’s so slow you can hear the shutter open and close with a delay in between. I ran into the frame and when i heard the shutter open i moved my arms ever so slightly to get the flapping effect. Wheeeee. I’m flying!

It’s a fun thing to experiment with for sure. Just try different increments of shutter speeds until you get what you’re looking for. Do any of you drag your shutters now and again? Got any tried and true draggin’ tips? Be sure to show us what moves you.

Comments

  3. I have tried what you mentioned, but my photos turned out blah. Maybe I need to move "slightly" as you said. Thanks – I’ll keep trying.

    This past July 4th, we went over to a neighbor’s house who has three little girls. They dote on my son. I was trying to get some indoor shots without using a flash, and most of them were too blurry…the girls move too fast. But I got this one that I like. My son is in the middle, in focus, while the girls flutter around him. That’s my husband in the background.

    http://www.mamaofletters.com/Mama_of_Letters/Camera_Happy/Pages/Nikon_D60.html#20

  4. just wanted to say I think your website/blog is one one the best designs I have seen… really nicely done – and some great pics too. 🙂

  5. Hah! I remember you taking this shot, it’s one of my fondest memories of that week! I got so excited reading your post, I read it out loud to my husband — and then acted out how you got the shot, running back and forth from the driftwood to your spot, and back to the driftwood to make adjustments.

    It was in that conversation, we came up with a new name for your tripod technique:

    "McGyvering a tripod."

    You may use that. 😉

    K.

  6. What a neat image.

    My husband just told me about this technique 2 days ago, and he’s been experimenting. Leave it to a shutter sister to explain it in a way I can finally grasp! 😉 Thank you.

  7. This is embarrassing… I finally figured out how to use my timer… I found the directions in a little book called THE MANUAL! Our family was being featured in the community paper and since my photo biz was also being featured, I wanted to make sure we got the kind of shot I like to take of others. Except for my daughter squishing herself down rather than sitting up to fill the gap, I think it turned out okay. It was pretty funny, though, running to get in the shot before the beeping stopped!

    http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_kLwn_jgkHkA/SK25nfB4OsI/AAAAAAAAAQQ/TNB5iYjA9lA/s1600-h/IMG_7032.jpg

  8. I just found your site this past week and I’m LOVING it! I can’t wait to try out some of these tips, and see if I can step up my photography a bit. Thanks so much for the super ideas!

  17. The above Photograph is not SHUTTER DRAG. The above photograph is a LONG EXPOSURE. SHUTTER DRAG is when you use a flash along with the long exposure. In SHUTTER DRAG you have to use a flash.

  18. I have to say I agree with Mr. Cooper. Dragging the shutter is a technique you use with a flash so that the room light gets exposed first before the flash fires. What you’re describing here is just a long exposure. It’s an honest mistake, and an easy one to make especially when you’re thinking about what you’re doing (capturing "dragging" motions).

    Here’s an explanation of how dragging the shutter works: http://www.quickphotographytips.com/index.php/2009/04/23/drag-the-shutter-for-better-low-light-flash-photography/