Street shooting shutter speeds

[jaimiepeeters]

Hi there,

Well, the past few days I've been spending a lot of time street shooting in Rome during my holidays. Experimenting with shutter speeds, f stops etc. I was using Portra 160vc (loving it!!) in a Canonet QL17 Giii black that I had sent for a CLA earlier.

The QL can't go any faster than 1/500, I thought this would be fast for enough everything, but I was wrong.

All the shots from a distance of let's say 5 meters and further were nice and sharp. But when shooting a person walking, relatively slowly, towards me and I to him, for instance on a cross roads, the person isn't frozen but showed movement blur on the prints.

So although I love the QL I seem to have to search for an alternative with a faster shutter.

The question is ... Which alternative for this technique?

- street photography of people standing still and walking in a fast pace. I like my images really sharp and with a large dof (f8 and up). I like heavy contrast and vivid colors.

 

[zauhar]

That sounds strange - here is a shot I took of a skateboarder, and while he was not moving terribly fast, he was certainly in significant motion. My memory is that shutter was 1/125:

I don't understand why you need 1/500 to avoid blur. Or do you consider my shot blurred?

Randy

 

[Jubb Jubb]

That's strange, majority of the time I try to shoot 1/250 for street and it seems to capture movement very well. What f-stop are you using?

 

[Johann Espiritu]

I can also manage quite well with "just" 1/125. Can you post some examples of the motion blur?

 

[porktaco]

i go down to 1/15 at night. apparently people move more slowly in the evenings.

really, i'd say 1/60 to 1/125 should be perfectly fine for a 40mm lens

 

[Gumby]

You might want to look into the very real possibility that your technique needs to be smoother. Shutter speed is not your problem.

 

[kdemas]

From the description given in this scenario both the shooter and subject are moving towards each other as the frame is captured. Lots of moving parts there...shutter speed not really the problem is my guess.

 

[ulrich.von.lich]

1/500 would be more than enough. For most street shots, I would consider 1/125 a must.

The problem is the shutter speed of the QL will probably not go that high on aperture priority if you use slow film and large DOF. When using ISO 800 to 1600 films, sometimes I only get f11 and 1/250 during the day.

I would suggest the Provia 400 (C41 it if necessary) or the Portra 800, with some post processing.

 

[ulrich.von.lich]

By the way, it would be certainly useless to find a camera with higher shutter speeds without knowing the actual shutter speeds you have ever used on the QL. That's something I don't like about automatic cameras.

I don't think the shutter speed in question has anything to do with the focal length. The needed speed to fix the motion of street is higher than enough to handle well a 90mm.

And Randy, I think your photo is blurred. 🙂

 

[goffer]

I typically try to keep it at or above 1/125th, but that is if I'm standing still... if the both of you were in motion I would think a faster shutter would need to be used, but 1/500th should be plenty, I would think, at 40mm.

 

[MIkhail]

1/500 would be more than enough. For most street shots, I would consider 1/125 a must.

Exactly! You dont need anything faster, little movement blur is a lot more natural than people frozen...

 

[pinkarmy]

is it possible that the internal exposure meter is aged and gives false reading?
(i believe the camera choose the shutter speed / aperture combination for you when you set it at "A")

it is almost unthinkable for me that you can use 1/500 sec with 160 ASA film in a QL17.

 

[Bob Michaels]

............................ The problem is the shutter speed of the QL will probably not go that high on aperture priority if you use slow film and large DOF. When using ISO 800 to 1600 films, sometimes I only get f11 and 1/250 during the day.

I would suggest the Provia 400 (C41 it if necessary) or the Portra 800, with some post processing.

The QL is only shutter priority. You dial in 1/500th and it selects the aperture. And 1/500th is the fastest it will go so iso 400 film will put you right at the max shutter speed and min aperture of f16 in normal day lighting.

 

[Bob Michaels]

.................................. it is almost unthinkable for me that you can use 1/500 sec with 160 ASA film in a QL17.

Normal daytime exposure for iso 160 film at 1/500th would be between f8 and f11.

 

[pinkarmy]

Normal daytime exposure for iso 160 film at 1/500th would be between f8 and f11.

it is sub-tropic noon, 21°C, sunny with scattered clouds, sharp tree shadow on ground,
my QL17 gave a f5.6~8 reading at 1/500 sec for iso 160.

what is the daylight in Rome?

 

[jaimiepeeters]

I will post an example when I er back home from Rome (to Amsterdam) later today. In Rome the sun was really bright and harsh and the settings were:

Shutter speed 1/500
F set to A reading between 8 and hitting 16
ISo 160

And yes I think the example is blurred. I want a crisp image of a person I quickly bend down my knees for to get a lower angle shot, of a person that walked up to me and it got blurred a bit even at 500.

When I try it with my X100 I reach shutter speeds between 640 and 1000+ with ISO 200 and both F and S on auto.

I remember trying to take a shot of a marathon runner, couldn't get it frozen with the QL.
It had just been CLAd too.

 

[pinkarmy]

...yes I think the example is blurred...

then what you really need is a modern camera with a top speed faster than 1/1000 (or above)
because it seems to me you are looking for "Sport Illustrated" style freeze action shot.

 

[danielmk2]

The problem is, that the shooter is moving. If the camera is moving, due to a very interesting "magnifying" effect, the "relative" speed between the scene and the camera becomes very high. Just think about the shake of the camera that causes the blurs, the principle is similar, but in this case it's more seriously affected. If the camera not only moves, but also rotates, this problem will be a nightmare.

I'm always experiencing this problem when I'm shooting in the street. If the camera is still, 1/125 is far more enough. If the shooter is moving, 500 even 1000 is what I find, a must, sometimes even 1000 is just bare enough if we are both moving.

 

[SimonSawSunlight]

1/500 is definitely fast enough, it must be camera or user error.

these were taken at 1/250:

and these at 1/500:

and 1/125:

 

[furcafe]

As others have posted, it's probably a combination of your movement plus your camera's shutter not really hitting 1/500th. Even properly maintained, I don't think leaf shutters like those on the QL17 are any more accurate than focal plane shutters @ high speeds. In-spec Leicas, for example, are often slow by about 1/3rd of a stop @ the 1/500th & 1/1000th settings.

Hi there,

Well, the past few days I've been spending a lot of time street shooting in Rome during my holidays. Experimenting with shutter speeds, f stops etc. I was using Portra 160vc (loving it!!) in a Canonet QL17 Giii black that I had sent for a CLA earlier.

The QL can't go any faster than 1/500, I thought this would be fast for enough everything, but I was wrong.

All the shots from a distance of let's say 5 meters and further were nice and sharp. But when shooting a person walking, relatively slowly, towards me and I to him, for instance on a cross roads, the person isn't frozen but showed movement blur on the prints.

So although I love the QL I seem to have to search for an alternative with a faster shutter.

The question is ... Which alternative for this technique?

- street photography of people standing still and walking in a fast pace. I like my images really sharp and with a large dof (f8 and up). I like heavy contrast and vivid colors.