Help regarding shutter speeds

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Chumpalot

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Hi all,

I'm struggling to learn how to raise the shutter speed on my D40x. I've tried different modes, P, S and M and fiddled with the ISO but the fastest shutter speed I can obtain is 1/200. This is while using an SB-600, as soon as I take the flash off I can raise it to whatever I like but the pictures are extremely dark. The sun is out and there is plenty of light?

I'm trying to capture a bee on a flower with decent DOF whilst keeping the bee in focus (high shutter speed to freeze him). I'm really confused as to what settings I should be using to achieve what I want :(

Grateful for your advice. I'm starting to want to pull my hair out :'(

Cheers

Dave
 
Forgot to add:

Select "S" then raise Iso to 400 or 800 and then bring the shutter speed up to a higher number 1/1000 second should do it, this should work just fine in bright sun light, shutter speeds will be high enough to freeze most action shooting requirements.
 
1/200 is the maximum flash sync speed of your D40x, unfortunately it doesn't support FP, even when using the SB-600, so I'm affraid that's your lot, sorry.

Fortunately this isn't really an issue with the type of shot you're trying to take as it will be the aperture that will control the flash-lit portion of your picture and freeze the action, not the shutter speed.
 
Flash In The Pan said:
It'll probably be dark....

and noisy
Click to expand...

Indeedily doodily.

Also, the bee on the flower type shot, more or less fits into the category of macro and macro needs a ton of light to get decent exposures.

Most macro shooters rely on flash in one way or another. I have seen a few shots with crazy ISO speeds but frankly there's no comparison to a good shot with a slice diffused flash.

There's plenty of info re macro on the web, just google away and you'll have an abundance of start up guides, info and guidances :thumbs:

EDIT> I'm pretty sure one of our wind swept and honorable mods 'Hacker' posted a beginners guide to macro?, I'd try searching for it for you mate but I'm on a ferry from Tallinn to Helsinki at the mo and the wifi signal is pants!
Have a search and see if anything comes up.
 
Well, here is the best shot of the bunch. I tried a multitude of different settings to see what would work. On reflection, the aperture is too small imo and the shot would benefit slightly from reduced DOF. This will allow me to push the shutter speed up a bit more:

3559491356_b5beec52e3.jpg


I'll take a look at the macro for beginner's guide. Thanks for your advice :thumbs:
 
Chumpalot said:
So what if I try...

f/9-10
ISO 800
1/1000
Click to expand...

You shouldn't need a shutter speed that high for macro. I've had a look at the shots I've taken and most are around 1/200 - 1/400 on sunny days without tripod. I also much prefer to be in Aperture mode so I can control the depth of field because in macro this is, in my opinion, more significant.
 
TriggerHappy said:
You shouldn't need a shutter speed that high for macro. I've had a look at the shots I've taken and most are around 1/200 - 1/400 on sunny days without tripod. I also much prefer to be in Aperture mode so I can control the depth of field because in macro this is, in my opinion, more significant.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the advice. I'm slowly but surely getting the hang of it. I'll keep the shutter speed down from now on :thumbs:
 
Chumpalot said:
Thanks for the advice. I'm slowly but surely getting the hang of it. I'll keep the shutter speed down from now on :thumbs:
Click to expand...

No worries. Post the pictures you take up on the Macro section and I'm sure you'll get worthwhile feedback too.
 
Will do :thumbs: Whilst I think my pictures are OK, they're nowhere near the level of some of the ones I've seen on here using similar kit.

Will just have to keep practising :)
 
Chumpalot said:
Thanks for the advice. I'm slowly but surely getting the hang of it. I'll keep the shutter speed down from now on :thumbs:
Click to expand...

Now I am surprised here as I thought that at such slow speeds you would be forced to used a tripod. I am soon hoping to get my order Sigma 150 Macro so do not have experience in this field but from what I hear, getting a sharp shot is not so easy at 1:1 where I would have thought a very short exposure time would be beneficial.
 
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