1/2000 sec or higher shutter speed

[Tehfreak]

Helluu!

I've only just bought a camera a few weeks ago and just fiddling around with it. I notice when I take a photo with a 1/2000 shutter speed or higher in light conditions, the image is well, very dark. I was wondering, why would a camera have such a quick shutter speed if it's useless (to the untrained person).

So my question/request today is:
What examples are there of photographs where you can use such quick shutter speeds?

Thanks,
Jessy/Tehfreak

[kiwi]

were you using manual exposure ?

shutter speed is only one aspect, you can correctly expose with 1/2000s as long as you balance this with aperture and ISO

I'll shoot at 1/2000s or more all the time becuase i want to use a large aperture also and there's lots of light so the shutter speed is high to balance the exposure

[Scotty72]

In some cases 1/2000 is fairly slow. Try taking a pic of a helicopter taking off at less than 1/2000 (and freezing the blades) :)

[KeeFy]

Also with fast glass. EG: f1.2 @ 100 ISO, you need possibly almost 1/8000 to capture the shot during a bright sunny day.

[William]

Yep all the above comments are correct , You sometimes need A fast shutterspeed, "But" As Darren said you have to balance it out with Shutter speed , ISO and Aperture , Here's an example I took a couple of weeks ago at the Roxy Pro on the Gold Coast , Not my best shot BTW, :) This shot was taken in the worst possible conditions for Photography , Midday 12.37 pm , No filters to cut the light, You have bright sun in Qld , a lot of whitewater and very fast Board Surfing speed , This was Taken with a 30D , Sigma 150-400 @ 400mm , Not quite 2000sec but @1600th sec , f11 cause I needed Depth of field, ISO 320, To bring the Surfer out of the Shadow a bit because of the overhead sun , Hope this helps

[ricktas]

have a read of the LIBRARY articles on how shutter Speed, ISO and Aperture all combine to give you a good exposure (http://www.ausphotography.net.au/forum/showlibrary.php?title=New_To_Photography:The_Exposure_Triangle_-_Shutter_Speed_Aperture_ISO_Sensitivity). Understanding the relationship between those will help you understand now only how your camera works, but how you can make the camera do what you want it to.

[reaction]

"if it's useless (to the untrained person)."

There you go.
You could go as far as saying what use is a DSLR (to the untrained person)
But one day you'll be out there complaining your camera only does 1/4000 and not 1/8000!

[arthurking83]

Also with fast glass. EG: f1.2 @ 100 ISO, you need possibly almost 1/8000 to capture the shot during a bright sunny day.

LOL! I tried that once and got 2 stops of overexposure .. needed more like a 1/32000s shutter speed! :p
(note: to get the shot I had to stop 'er down to f/2.8! :p)

[Kym]

"if it's useless (to the untrained person)."
There you go.
You could go as far as saying what use is a DSLR (to the untrained person)
But one day you'll be out there complaining your camera only does 1/4000 and not 1/8000!

This is not all that useful, even if factually correct.
A newbie asks a question that we all had at some point in time, and is obviously grappling with the ideas of the exposure triangle, so how about a more helpful approach?

To answer the OP question... Shutter speed is only 1/3 of the correct exposure equation (aka exposure triangle), the other two are aperture and light sensitivity (ISO).
Shutter speed controls how movement can look in a photo. Williams fast shutter example above freezes the action.

This post of mine @ 0.4 second keeps the water shape, but has a slight milky effect.
http://www.ausphotography.net.au/forum/showthread.php?75156-Kym-s-52-2011-(try-something-new)&p=774725&viewfull=1#post774725

These fireworks are about 2.5 - 4 seconds
http://www.ausphotography.net.au/forum/showthread.php?79890-Kym-s-March-52-2011&p=809957&viewfull=1#post809957

When doing wildlife with a long lens I try for 1/500 or faster to control both camera shake and subject movement.

[arthurking83]

Helluu!

I've only just bought a camera a few weeks ago and just fiddling around with it. I notice when I take a photo with a 1/2000 shutter speed or higher in light conditions, the image is well, very dark. I was wondering, why would a camera have such a quick shutter speed if it's useless (to the untrained person).

So my question/request today is:
What examples are there of photographs where you can use such quick shutter speeds?

Thanks,
Jessy/Tehfreak

OK, here's my REAL answer! :p

You said three things here that are really important. "I've only just purchased a camera" and "to the untrained person", and also "in light conditions".

So, as an untrained person, which is a normal circumstance to be in, as we were all there once too(none of us were born with the talent to understand photography!!.. well except Kiwi :p) so you need to define "in light conditions' more clearly.

To me this is such a broad term, that when I refer to it, it has a completely different meaning to your version of the term!

eg, in light conditions, to me means sunny 16, whereas you may be referring to a brighly lit room. So the first thing for any photogpraher to understand is a reference point for light condition.. ie. Exposure Value.

Look up(search for) Exposure Values in the Wikipedia, or here in our Library .. here, I'll do it for 'ya .. HERE!! (http://www.ausphotography.net.au/forum/showlibrary.php?title=New_To_Photography:What_is_Exposure_Value)

Sunny 16 is a good 'guide' to go by, in that it really defines the term light conditions.
There are a few caveats for you to be aware of tho.

1. you(as in you yourself, not the Royal You, as in anyone else) can probably try this yourself:
Almost certainly, as soemone who has just purchased a DSLR(??) and with no prior experience with photography, you almost certainly got yourself a kit lens.
While the kit lens is sufficient, it has a limitation that you need to be aware of.

Use this Sunny 16 rule, so in broad daylight(not overcast or cloudy conditions.. middle of the day in bright sunshine, and take a photo with the camera and lens settings at ISO100, Aperture f/16 and shutter speed set to 1/100s(0r 1/125s).
According to the Sunny 16 rule you should get a decently exposed image.

Now one thing not yet mentioned was focal length. This is not always important, but in your case(as for many other people too mind you) it wil be!!
Your kit lens has a variable aperture design, and what this means is that when you are at the shortest focal length the lens can be set to an appropriate aperture. BUT!! when you start to zoom in(longer focal length) there is a very high probability that your lens doesn't have enough aperture to allow a 1/2000s shutter speed.

Back to Sunny 16, if you take thr accepted logic behind this rule, you can extrapolate the settings to give you a shutter speed close to or exactly at this 1/2000s you may be unsure about.

Set the aperture to f/3.5, but you can only do this at the shortest focal length oif your lens(remember the comment about the kit lens, variable aperture and so on above!!).
There is no use in setting an 18-55 f/3.5-5.6 lens to 55mm and expecting to get an aperture value of f/3.5!! If you're using this lens, it must be set to 18mm, you can easily substitue any of this similar lenses(18-105, 18-135, 18-200, 55-200, 55-250.. etc).. they all basically work the same way.. they can only be set to f/5.6 at the longest focal length!!
This may be why your images are dark in 'light conditions'.

For 1/2000s in bright sunshine, you need an aperture of f/3.5.. easy, easy info to find(now linked too) and difficult to understand with no experience behind you.

Take a photo now at f/3.5 and 1/2000s and is it still 'dark'? If so, then you need a 'faster lens'. That is, an f/1.8 or smaller(number) larger(aperture)!!

Other things to be aware of too. Don't take a photo of a black dog under a verandah in the shade even tho the day is full sunshine. It doesn't work that way. The idea of the rule is that the light must be falling onto the subject!

Now, and hopefully, by asking a question on the need or usefulness for a specific shutter speed, you now realise the limitations of kit lenses. While they are cheap, they are limited in what they can do.
This is not a bad thing, it's just a balance of one need vs another.

If my assumption of your gear is correct, then you need to adress the situation of ISO. If you want to shoot at the longest focal length with a kit lens, then you NEED to increase ISO to suit.

f/5.6 compared to f/3.5, you need to increase ISO by a factor of 1 1/3stops, so if you set the camera to ISO100 at f/3.5, then for f/5.6 you need to up ISO to 250 at least.

This is where forums are so useful. What you can do is trial and experiment, whilst taking in some of the very useful info in the Library!! Post up images if they don't conform to expectations and I reckon within a few minutes some helpful member will explain what went wrong.

:)

[ameerat42]

And a short answer is: post the offending photo with the EXIF data intact.

[Tehfreak]

I'll surely take this new found information in with open arms! Thanks so much for all the help.

I'll supply you with photos when I get another chance to capture something!

[arthurking83]

....

I'll supply you with photos when I get another chance to capture something!

This is the best option to take.
Even if the pic turns out too dark, still post it. But be sure to get a photo in broad daylight in the middle of the day. Subject matter is not important in the slightest, so even your neighbour's tin roof will suffice. Remember the premise of this thread and the feedback everyone has given so far is for you to understand that there are many variables available to get a particular exposure.
Now of course we can't predict what camera you have recently purchased(hence my assumption of a consumer DSLR with at least one kit lens.. most likely a twin kit lens).

If this new camera has an Aperture Priority mode, setting the camera to that mode would be a great way for you to learn how exposure works, and only concentrate on one artistic variable(in this case Aperture) for now.

Also take note of the previous reply that mentioned to upload an image with exif intact. The exif data(embedded) in the jpg file is very important for any would be responses from other members to read what settings were used in the camera.
Some software have a habit of removing the exif data from the image when used to process the image in some way, even a simple resize of a jpg straight out of camera!

Tip: a quick simple and easy way to post/upload images for help purpose is to shoot in jpg mode in camera, and use a free and fast software called FSViewer (http://www.faststone.org/FSViewerDetail.htm) to resize the images to 900pixels and less than 250kb's and upload here.
I know this will keep all the very important camera info in tact in the exif data

[KeeFy]

I meant 1.8. LoL. I had issues with it being wide open during a bright sunny day with a 500D

[arthurking83]

I meant 1.8. LoL. I had issues with it being wide open during a bright sunny day with a 500D

Yep that sounds about right too. The exposure requirement will be dependent on the subject matter.
As I referred to above, even a dark subject will require a fast shutter speed in hard, direct midday sunlight, but not as much as say white flowers (that's what I was trying to shoot).

Aperture was stopped down to f/1.4, and I took the shot anyhow, knowing full well that it was going to be overexposed.
Raw has a lot of headroom for processing, and to get a 'usable image' I think I had to set approx -2Ev of exposure compensation to recover some detail in the blown out highlights.

A few weeks later I made the (very knowledgeable) chap at Vanbar laugh, when I went in asking for a 3 stop ND filter .. couldn't remember the thread size, and he asked for which lens .... actually we both laughed when I mentioned the 50/1.2! :D