will low shutter speed cancel my high aperture?

Nikon AF-S Nikkor 50mm f/1.4G

06/02/2009 09:32:56 AM · #1

As the title above, will low shutter speed cancel my high aperture? i recently start doing macro photography. i need high aperture to increase the depth of field. I also need a high shutter speed to reduce the vibration. but because i have not even money to upgrade a good lighting system, the pictures usually will end up very dark. so i need a lower my shutter speed to get a clear piture. My question is will low shutter speed cancel my high aperture? thanks your help.

glad2badad

DJI Mavic Air 2

Sears 55mm f/1.4 M42

06/02/2009 09:36:35 AM · #2

The DOF will be there with the high aperture (I'm assuming you mean f16 to f22?). The shutter speed won't affect that at all, especially if you're using a tripod and mirror lockup or remote release.

Nikon D800

06/02/2009 09:44:43 AM · #3

I'm not sure what you mean by 'cancel', but if you mean it will tend to make more the image out of focus or blurry then yes, but only if you don't use a tripod.

Macro photography is really susceptible to blurring. Increasing your aperture for Depth of Field means you have to increase your shutter speed, but the increased chance of motion blur from increased shutter speed doesn't 'cancel' the depth of field increase, it just ruins your photograph outright.

Get a tripod if you can, as you will get the highest DoF possible and can shoot at any shutter speed necessary. If not, shoot in burst mode, and take a string of exposures at once - chances are 1 may turn out sharp when you look at it later on your computer.

Rule of thumb though is you can't really expect to get a sharp picture shooting handheld at slower than 1/25 or 1/40 for regular shots, and for macro shots you will need to shoot even faster.

06/02/2009 09:48:51 AM · #4

ya what i mean by high aperture is high "F".

bassbone

Nikon Df

Nikon MF 105mm f/2.5 AIS

06/02/2009 09:52:58 AM · #5

I echo

APs comments. For good macro (sharp, clear, etc), lighting and stability are keys to deliver good work. You don't need fancy lighting to get good macro like images. You can build your own light box with stuff you likely have at home. THIS tutorial by

rob_smith is a great starter for a light box

I agree that a tripod is really key here for sharp focus on stills. And to amend the comments that

AP has made, a good rule of thumb for sharp images is that the shutter speed should be approximately 1/the focal length that you are shooting to get good sharpness. Therefore, a shutter speed in excess of 1/200 of a second is needed for 200mm lens or greater than 1/60th for a 60mm lens.

Samsung Galaxy S21, S21+, S21 Ultra

06/02/2009 09:53:39 AM · #6

i see. thanks for your help guys!

Bear_Music

Sony 24-70mm F4 Vario-Tessar T* FE OSS

06/02/2009 10:52:18 AM · #7

Originally posted by bassbone:

And to amend the comments that AP has made, a good rule of thumb for sharp images is that the shutter speed should be approximately 1/the focal length that you are shooting to get good sharpness. Therefore, a shutter speed in excess of 1/200 of a second is needed for 200mm lens or greater than 1/60th for a 60mm lens.

It's worth noting WHY this is the case, and worth exploring how this relates to cropped-sensor (APS-C) cameras like most of our Nikon/Canon dSLRs:

1. The reasoning behind the reciprocal-of-focal length shutter speed is based on angular deviation: let's assume that when you are hand-holding your camera, you have a "stability factor" of + or - 1 degree; that is how much deviation you get due to hand tremors and the like. Now, if you are shooting with an extreme wide angle lens you may cover a field of view of 100 degrees in your shot, in which case your 1 degree of angular deviation represents a barely-noticeable-under-magnification 1% of the angular field of view; it doesn't take much of a shutter speed to cancel that out.

If, on the other hand, your longer lens gives you a 10-degree field of view: in that case, your 1 degree of angular deviation is a whopping 10% of the angular field of view, and you absolutely MUST have either a tripod or a fast enough shutter speed to eliminate that deviation.

2. The reciprocal-of-focal-length rule of thumb for shutter speed is based on full frame coverage (35mm FF), and of course this represents a wider field of view than the same lens provides on an APS-C camera. Therefore, when calculating your reciprocal to set your shutter speed for hand-held work, you need to use the 35mm-equivalent focal length of your lens. That is to say, the correct reciprocal for hand-holding a 100mm lens would be 1/160, not 1/100 (100mm x 1.6 = 160mm).

When doing hand-held macro work, the reciprocal is usually not fast enough anyway: at extreme close-up distances, all this is magnified because purity of detail is paramount in this sort of photography and just about any angular deviation is unacceptable.

R.

Ken

Canon EOS-7D

Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8L USM

06/02/2009 11:29:49 AM · #8

This can be tricky stuff when you don't have control over things like lighting and wind.

This past weekend I was shooting macros and it took me about 30-40 shots to get one of a single flower without blur and the focus where I wanted it. I was shooting at ISO 800, F/2.8, 1/80 sec, handheld about a foot away with the 100mm macro. The tripod wouldn't have helped due to the light breeze moving the flower (DOF too shallow) and I think I ended up holding the stem of the flower to steady it. The point here is that sometimes you have to take a lot of shots to get what you want. While I didn't use burst mode this time, I was firing them off quickly.

Bear_Music's advice on shutter speed for crop-sensor cameras is a very good guideline, but with a bit of luck and steady hand you can sometimes get lucky. Lots of practice helps too.

hankk

Canon EOS-5D

Sigma 24-70mm f/2.8 EX Aspherical DF for Canon

06/03/2009 10:32:52 AM · #9

Also, the rule ( shutter speed = 1 / effective focal length) assumes a certain print size (IIRC, 8x10 from a film negative).

You have to take into consideration how you will display the image (e.g. print or monitor) and what size it will be.

Also consider how much you will crop the image. cropping to 1/2 of the width and height means you have to shoot faster, Bear_Music's example of 100 degrees AoV becomes 50 degrees with a crop to 1/2 each of width and height.

taterbug

Nikon D300

Nikon AF Nikkor 50mm f/1.4D

06/03/2009 11:25:05 AM · #10

bassbone said, you don't necessarily have to spend a lot on lights and such. Here are a couple of sources for doing lighting and stuff on the cheap-
do it yourself (diy) photography, and the strobist.

eta- you might like the articles on diy about making very inexpensive macro ring lights (I've seen several on there)

Message edited by author 2009-06-03 11:27:13.

Bear_Music

Samsung Galaxy S21, S21+, S21 Ultra

Sony 24-70mm F4 Vario-Tessar T* FE OSS

06/03/2009 11:31:42 AM · #11

Originally posted by hankk:

Excellent points on both the cropping and the print size/viewing distance the image is optimized for. Hypothetically, if an image is destined for a billboard beside a freeway, for example, it doesn't have to be anywhere near as crisp as it would need to be for a 16x20 print on your living room wall. And the cropping, definitely, magnifies the results of camera shake exactly the same way increasing the focal length does.

R.

06/06/2009 12:26:36 AM · #12

Originally posted by taterbug:

If you have the aperture and shutter speed you want, but are getting too dark, if you are at least close, you could try raising your ISO. Of course, this kind of depends on the camera you're shooting also. A point and shoot probably will give you a lot of noise if you start amping up ISO, where as if you have say a D2 or a 5D, you can shoot easily at like 3200, and everything else will fall somewhere in between.

Also, I'll second what bassbone said, you don't necessarily have to spend a lot on lights and such. Here are a couple of sources for doing lighting and stuff on the cheap-
do it yourself (diy) photography, and the strobist.

eta- you might like the articles on diy about making very inexpensive macro ring lights (I've seen several on there)

I only have a Nikon D40x. Sounds like i need to upgrade a lighting system or a better camera that gives u good quality image in high ISO!!