aperture and shutter speed

[Dan]

ok guys, probably a really easy answer to this question and im just being dim but i have a fujifilm s1500 and i want to shoot so that i have a focal point and the reason of the image blurs, now i have been reading through this http://www.photonhead.com/beginners/shutterandaperture.php and i sort of understand what it means, but on my camera as i put it into m so adjust both aperture and shutter the aperture is pretty simple, lowest i can go is f2.8 but the shutter speed i dont understand, people are saying for example f2.8 1/125 is about right but my camera doesnt read like this, the shutter speeds go like this if i go up it goes 1.6 1.3 1" 1.3" 1.5" 2" 2.5" etc all the way upto 8" but if i go the other way starting at 1.6 it goes 1.6 2 2.5 3 4 5 6 8 10 13 15 20 25 30 etc all the way upto 2000, can someone tell me what going up is and what going down is on the shutter speeds as im confused on what f2.8 1/125 would be on mine

 

[Doddy1974]

I used to use one of these...but haven't got it with me at the moment to double check, but I'm sure it would just read 125 and not 1/125.

 

[EdBray]

8" would be 8 seconds, 30 would be 1/30 sec, to get 1/125 sec you need to select 125.

Now to get the correct exposure you have to balance the aperture to the shutter speed to get the required tone. This will also depend on your selected ISO.

There is a general rule of thumb called the sunny 16 rule, this is on a sunny day you should set your shutter speed to the reciprical of the ISO setting (1/100 @ ISO 100) and an aperture of f16. This would give you too much depth of field for the effect you want so you would have to adjust accordingly.

so to get to f2.8 from f 16 you would have to open up the aperture by 5 stops so you would therefore have to compensate by speeding up the shutter by the same 5 stops like so:

f16 - 1/100
f11 - 1/200
f8 - 1/400
f5.6 - 1/800
f4 - 1/1600
f2.8 - 1/3200

So to use an f2.8 aperture on a sunny day with the cameras ISO set at 100 you would need to set a shutter speed of approximately 1/3200 to get a correct exposure. This may need a slight adjustment one way or the other, but it will get you near enough to start!

 

[KIPAX]

ok guys, probably a really easy answer to this question and im just being dim but i have a fujifilm s1500 and i want to shoot so that i have a focal point and the reason of the image blurs, now i have been reading through this http://www.photonhead.com/beginners/shutterandaperture.php and i sort of understand what it means, but on my camera as i put it into m so adjust both aperture and shutter the aperture is pretty simple, lowest i can go is f2.8 but the shutter speed i dont understand, people are saying for example f2.8 1/125 is about right but my camera doesnt read like this, the shutter speeds go like this if i go up it goes 1.6 1.3 1" 1.3" 1.5" 2" 2.5" etc all the way upto 8" but if i go the other way starting at 1.6 it goes 1.6 2 2.5 3 4 5 6 8 10 13 15 20 25 30 etc all the way upto 2000, can someone tell me what going up is and what going down is on the shutter speeds as im confused on what f2.8 1/125 would be on mine

if you place it at 1.6 and hit the shutter you will notice the shutter takes some time to click... if you then set it to the 2000 you will notice the shutter goes faster


so in simple terms your camera shutter at 125 is the 1/125



Sorry posted as ed posted nut not as quick.. however i was dumbing down the answer

 

[Dan]

Ah cheers Ed, i did assuming it was something along them line but i thought id double check as i was really confused lol

so basically if i wanted to shoot f2.8 id need it set on 2000 as thats the highest it will go

 

[EdBray]

Ah cheers Ed, i did assuming it was something along them line but i thought id double check as i was really confused lol

so basically if i wanted to shoot f2.8 id need it set on 2000 as thats the highest it will go

That may well give you too much exposure and you may need to set f4 or an even smaller aperture.

On a cloudy day you may well get away with it though!

You have to keep the proportions between the shutter speed, aperture and iSO constant or you will get over or under exposure.

Read this!

 

[KIPAX]

so basically if i wanted to shoot f2.8 id need it set on 2000 as thats the highest it will go

erk no...

you have three settings in manual... aperture, shutter and iso.. you need to find a happy medium using all three.. you cant just set your highest shutter .. the biggest and most important thing will be the light... f2.8 indoors you may not get a picture using higher than 500 shutter.. f2.8 outdoors on a sunny day and 2000 might not be enough shutter

ADDYONBIT
damm I am slow

 

[JackMcIntyre]

All of the numbers you quoted are shutter speeds.

The ones with the "speech marks" are seconds - so 3.2" = 3.2 seconds. The ones with a / are fractions of a second - for example 1/4 is a quarter of a second which would keep the shutter open for a long time, blurring your image, or 1/500 is one five-hundredth of a second which would flash open your shutter and freeze any movement in the frame.

 

[Dan]

k im slowly getting the concept, gonna be a case of playing about and finding a happy medium, will have to wait for my tripod to arrive so i can have a proper play with the setting

 

[Scarecrow]

You shouldn't need a tripod if you are shooting at 1/125s or faster. Tripods are useful for combating blur due to camera movement when using longer shutter speeds.

 

[The Matt]

I get shutter speed but never quite got the numbers on my fuji. If it says 60 then sure, that's 1/60th, if it says 3" then 3 seconds, but 1.6!? What is a 1.6th of a second exactly?

 

[looneytunez1024]

so to get to f2.8 from f 16 you would have to open up the aperture by 5 stops so you would therefore have to compensate by speeding up the shutter by the same 5 stops like so:

f16 - 1/100
f11 - 1/200
f8 - 1/400
f5.6 - 1/800
f4 - 1/1600
f2.8 - 1/3200

So to use an f2.8 aperture on a sunny day with the cameras ISO set at 100 you would need to set a shutter speed of approximately 1/3200 to get a correct exposure. This may need a slight adjustment one way or the other, but it will get you near enough to start!

this helped me understand it a little more thanks now i know why i couldnt get the right exposure on my pics