Slo-mo scenes

Dan Mold shows you how to use your Canon’s Shutter Priority mode to extend your exposure time and inject a sense of motion to landscapes

Get to grips with shutter speed for amazing long exposures

Last month in part two of our landscape photography skills series, we covered aperture and the role it plays in depth of field as well as exposure. Another, equally important setting is your shutter speed, which determines how long the shutter is open and your camera’s digital sensor is exposed to light.

Your shutter speed is an integral part of the exposure triangle, along with aperture, and ISO value which sets how sensitive your camera’s sensor is to light. We’ll cover all this, and how these values can be used to make images lighter or darker, in more detail later on in this series.

A longer shutter speed will allow you to inject a sense of motion, and blur moving objects within the frame, although it will cause camera shake when you’re shooting handheld. You could also choose a really fast shutter speed of, say 1/2000 sec, which would freeze motion still. Extending the shutter speed will mean the aperture will need to be closed, or the ISO lowered, to maintain a good exposure, or vice versa when choosing a faster shutter speed.

A tripod is essential when trying to blur moving elements in landscapes, as it means that the stationary parts will appear sharp in shot. Be sure to use a sturdy set of legs, and try hanging your camera bag off your tripod or centre column to add a bit more weight, like we did – this helps secure it even more by acting like a ballast. Here’s everything you need to know…