Shutter speed, Movement & Light: My examples

Below are some examples of how I have used shutter speed for creative effect in the past, along with annotations in view of my previous post on this topic. Following on from this, I have included some very basic images from one of my travels with my camera.

f5, 1.3sec, ISO100, 18mm.
I'm sick of seeing this, but its one of the best (read: luckiest) images I've ever shot (May 2011). It is an obvious example of a light trail, which always look better in low light.

f7.1, 3 sec, ISO400, 18mm.
I consider this as part of the same series at the above. I called this series 'Urban Colour', due to the fact I originally over-cooked the images using Nikon's own processing software that came with the camera. I was equally as overjoyed when I took this, due to the fact the light trail of the tram in motion stretches exactly from one end of the frame to the other.

f20, 5.1 sec, ISO100, 26mm.

Two things to mention here: the extremely narrow aperture allowed for over a 5 second exposure and a nice sharp image. The best thing for night shots is the use of a tripod and a nice narrow aperture. This was bonfire night last year: I set my tripod up, stuck my camera on self-timer, and covered the lens with a piece of thick black card. The shutter was on Bulb mode, which allowed for a completely manual exposure, which starts by exposing the black card, and removing this only when I felt the explosion was n view. I then replaced the card and ended the exposure. This is meant to be more accurate with a remote shutter.

f8, 1/250th, ISO100, 18mm.
I want to compare this (shot during the perfect light of a crisp January morning this year) with the same scene (shot at night) to show how the shutter speed varies from day to night; how slowing the camera down is the major way of accommodating poor light conditions.

f10, 15sec, ISO100, 18mm.
The fact I have used the same ISO setting in both images makes it easier to compare. You can see from the shutter used here that it is a good twelve stops slower than that of the one shot in daylight (if I may use this term), based on the fact that one turn of the dial in Shutter Priority constitutes a third of a stop. Of course, had I increased the ISO (and subsequently compromised the sharpness of the image), this would have allowed for a much faster speed (each time the ISO is doubled, it allows a whole stop of light onto the camera's sensor).

Below are a few snapshots of passing cars I shot to demonstrate how much movement is recorded at various shutter speeds.

1/20th second.

1/10th second.

1/5th second.

The above images are shot a 1/3rd of a stop apart, all at f22, using Shutter Priority.