29 Nov 09: Shutter speeds

As my attempt to demonstrate the effect of using fast and slow shutter speeds taking pictures of horses (9 Nov 09: Shutter speeds/sodium lighting) didn't work out too well I decided to have another go but this time taking some photos of the traffic from a motorway bridge.  I went just as it was starting to go dark so that I would be able to use the effect of the car lights to really demonstrate the impact of using a slow shutter speed.
As seen below a fast shutter speed freezes the action

f/5.6 1/30sec

whilst the images below show the difference when using a long shutter speed to blur the action:

f/11 1/3sec

f36 1.0sec

f/36 2.0sec

f/36 4.0sec

I had also read about a technique taking a photo of a stationary object using a slow shutter speed and zooming in whilst the shutter is open to create a feeling of movement. So I decided to give this a try - the first picture was taken as a reference point and the second taken on a slow shutter speed (1.0 sec) whilst zooming in - the results are not quite what I was expecting - I got more of a ghosting effect than a feeling of movement.

Interesting though.

I subsequently found an article in What Digital Camera Magazine that explains how to do this: http://www.whatdigitalcamera.com/techniques/darkroom/photoshop/387157/create-a-zoom-burst.html. So its something I will be experimenting with in the near future.