Week 12

This week I experimented with low light and slow shutter speed. I had to take photographs in the following scenarios:

1 – Wait until it’s almost dark outside. Take your camera and go and sit in a busy tourist area. Choose a building or statue to photograph. Place your camera on a tripod and set the shutter speed to 30 seconds or more (if you don’t have a tripod, something stable, like a chair, will also work. If you don’t live close to a busy street, just get one or two people (or even your dog) to move up and down past the camera during the 30 seconds).
Take a look at your photograph. Do you see a lot of people in it or just the building/statue?

It doesn’t really get dark in June where I live so I had to take this picture at midnight. There were not many people out at that time so I chose a building in my neighbourhood, put the camera on a tripod, set the shutter speed to 30 seconds and walked in front of the camera several times. No image of myself walking around was captured, only the building. I thought a moving person would at leaset leave a trail, but the picture turned out completely clean. Good to know for future night shots!

2 – Wait until it’s dark. Go and stand on a bridge over a busy street (or look from the window of a high-rise building). Place your camera on a tripod and set your shutter speed to 30 seconds or more. Inspect your photograph. What do you see?

(If there’s no bridge or high-rise building close to where you stay, find a street where there are some cars driving or alternatively ask a few people to help you by driving up and down your street. You can even pay an taxi/uber-driver. Ideally you should capture this from a bit higher than street level. You can ask a hotel in your area to use their window or the flat of a friend that stays on the second floor. Some buildings have a secret stairway to the roof… be creative, and safe!)

I took this pictures from a side walk that is a bit higher than the street using a tripod. The cars and bus lights created lines as they drove away and towards the camera. In the second photo I used a timer, so there is no movement when I pressed the shutter. In the first photo I didn’t use a timer, so the street lamps “draw” some figures as the camera moved.

3 – Ask a friend to help you with this activity. Choose a dark room in your house and switch off the lights. Place your camera on a tripod and set your shutter speed to 30 seconds or more. Ask your friend to “draw” a picture in the air using a flashlight. Take a look at your photograph. What do you see? This fun activity is called light painting. Try an easy pattern first, but also a more complicated one.

In this case I used a tripod and a timer, so I could move to the front of the camera. I used a green screen on my phone to draw the figures above. First, I tried a simple circle and in the second photo I wrote “HOLA” (hello in Spanish).