dragging the shutter?

[slapshot]

Ok, I saw this in another thread. The advice was to learn to drag the shutter. What is this.?I have not heard this term before. Thanks for the help.

[Paulo]

I'm sure I'll be corrected if wrong but it's a way to capture ambient light when using flash.

http://planetneil.com/tangents/flash...g-the-shutter/

[frostedglcok]

manually drop the shutter speed to 1/30 and under using flash. keep hand steady and you catch the subject with flash so it remains sharp as well as catching ambient light without blur like those pictures on paulo's link. (correct me if i'm wrong).

[Paulo]

Originally Posted by frostedglcok

...like those pictures on paulo's link. (correct me if i'm wrong).

Ha Ha Ha! That's funny. You're right. But I believe the image on that link was intentionally made to look that way. I believe the blur was included for additional effect. You'll see similar "blur" effect posted in the Wedding section of the forum.

[rott]

Read up:

Thread 1
Thread 2

Trick is to practice it. Set your camera on manual, flash on auto (TTL, or ETTL or whatever). Leave the ISO and aperture alone and adjust only the shutter speed. Take many photos of your cat/lego man/coffee mug/whatever that is many feet in front of the background. Fire away, adjusting the shutter speed down a stop each time and observe the effect. Basically, your foreground should be exposed about the same in all the shots. Only the background brightness will change.

[brad]

The term is used any time your shutter is synced at a speed to allow ambient light to expose all or part of the image, in addition to your flash. Remember that a flash only fires for the briefest of moments, no matter what your shutter speed is, that doesn't change... the only thing that affects the amount of light from the flash in your exposure is your aperture (the more wide open, the more light.. the less wide open, the less light.. FROM THE FLASH).

For instance, you have a scene in a living room.. someone sitting next to a lamp. Shoot that scene with a flash and the highest shutter speed you can manage with the flash, and the lamp will appear to be turned off in your photo because the shutter wasn't open long enough to see the lamp... but bump that shutter down.. make it slower.. such as the 1/30th or less that someone suggested above and the lamp appears to be on. Since the flash "froze" your subject for its brief instant, they will be fine if they move slightly at this slower shutter.

Here's an example I shot of my daughter a few years ago in front of Christmas lights.. this was shot on a tripod with a shutter of about 1 second.. aperture was about f/8.0.. she was told to stand as still as possible.. but you know she wasn't perfect for an entire second.

[tabasco333]

Rott is correct, the trick is to practice, practice on anything. This is a wonderful method of shooting for wedding receptions. By this time of day I am pretty tired and all the 'big' shots are in the bank.

By dragging my shutter I am able to create strong images with a lot of depth to them. It is a great way to make on camera flash not look like the snapshot Uncle Herb is taking. Plus i like seeing some of the room in the background, it really gives the image a sense of place.

Shutter: 1/20
Aperture: 2.8
ISO: 1000

[AndrewCCM]

Good explanations above. When I shoot wedding receptions, I pretty much drag the shutter 95% of the time. I am personally not into the whole deer in the headlights look of blasting flash. I typically meter for about 1-1.5 stops under the ambient level.

[slapshot]

Thanks for the info. I had never heard this term before, but it makes perfect sense. i will give it a try.

[buzzlghtyr]

Originally Posted by tabasco333

Rott is correct, the trick is to practice, practice on anything. This is a wonderful method of shooting for wedding receptions. By this time of day I am pretty tired and all the 'big' shots are in the bank.

By dragging my shutter I am able to create strong images with a lot of depth to them. It is a great way to make on camera flash not look like the snapshot Uncle Herb is taking. Plus i like seeing some of the room in the background, it really gives the image a sense of place.

Shutter: 1/20
Aperture: 2.8
ISO: 1000

Awesome picture.

[CaptainTom]

As said above. Another way to say it is that dragging the shutter is akin to "fill flash"... You are exposing for the background but the flash is exposing for the subject. You can allow some ambient light (as in the fine example in a previous post), or you can let in a lot of ambient light ( as in this example).