How can you use slow shutter speeds creatively and improve your portrait photography? You might find it difficult to capture slow shutter speed portraits at your first attempts, but once you get used to it, you can easily click great, artistic photos.
In this article, I will provide some essential tips, tricks, step-by-step instructions, and ideas to help you capture artistic portraits with this technique. Whether you are a beginner or an experienced photographer, get ready to improve your shooting skills with this technique.
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Without ado, let’s dive in and discover how to get creative with slow shutter speed portraits!
What do we mean by slow shutter speeds portraits?
Slow shutter speed portraits are pictures captured with a longer exposure time. They are portrait photographs infused with senses of motion, dynamism, and artistic flair. Such photographs usually appear more creative, intriguing, and visually striking.
In traditional portrait photography, we (photographers) usually set our shutter speeds to freeze the motion so we can get sharp images of our subjects. But when using slow shutter speeds, we deliberately introduce motion blur and creatively capture the effect of movement in the pictures.
Generally, slow shutter speed is a technique when your camera’s shutter stays open for a longer duration letting more light into the image sensor. This can help you improve your photographs in several ways, such as adding a sense of energy or life to your images. Most landscape and street photographers use it to emphasize movement or gestures, incorporate the surrounding environment, or create visually compelling effects such as light trails.
Portrait photography aims at capturing the personality, character, and emotions. It can either be candid or artistic. Portrait photography requires more than just the ability to understand your camera settings, lighting, and composition.
You must also possess the ability to connect with your subjects and capture their unique qualities. So, it is a difficult but rewarding genre of photography.
Click Below to read a comprehensive guide to learning and mastering the art of portrait photography.
Thus, using a slow shutter speed for portrait photography is a great way to manipulate your images and create your desired effects. Personally, I find this technique fascinating when doing creative model headshot photography. This style makes it easier to add an element of creativity, experimentation, and storytelling to the model images.
You can use this slow shutter speed technique to make moving subjects or elements within the frame appear blurred while stationary objects, like trees, remain sharp. Apart from portrait photography, you can use this shutter speed approach in different genres of photography, including landscape, street, and even night, to add a dynamic and extraordinary touch to your photos.
How do you do slow shutter speed portraits?
The first step in getting slow shutter speed portraits involves gaining complete control over the shutter speed by switching your DSLR or mirrorless camera to manual or shutter priority mode. I suggest you go through our article on how to change the shutter speed on Nikon and Canon cameras to learn how to swiftly switch your device from any mode to S or Tv mode.
The next step involves adjusting your camera’s shutter speed settings to longer exposure times, such as 1/30th of a second or less. The specific settings will depend on the effect you’d like to create in the portraits. Subsequently, choose a great shooting location (somewhere with interesting elements or backgrounds), and place your camera on a sturdy tripod or any stable surface to minimize camera shake.
Thirdly, set your ISO value to 200 or 400 (depending on the lighting situation) to reduce image noise and achieve high-quality slow shutter speed portraits. Similarly, I suggest opening up your aperture to allow more light into the sensor. You may start with f/4 or f/2.8 and adjust accordingly.
The fourth step involves directing your subject to remain as still as possible while you capture the portrait. This will help you prevent excessive blurring. Nonetheless, you can break the rule and introduce intentional movements or gestures to make the portraits appear even more creative.
You may direct your subjects to slowly sway their heads and let their hair flow in a particular direction or create grace movements with their arms or hands. Capturing the intentional movements or gestures with a slower shutter speed can add a sense of fluidity to the portrait and also help you create interesting patterns, shapes, and trails of motion in the slow shutter speed portraits.
Finally, I recommend experimenting with different shutter speeds and fine-tuning your images by adding extra layers of creative effects and filters. Furthermore, try to sharpen your slow shutter speed shooting techniques by repeating the process and trying different poses, movements, and expressions.
7 Tips for slow shutter speed portraits
1. Stabilize your camera with a tripod
A sturdy tripod is a must-have tool when shooting portraits with long exposures. As I have mentioned earlier, it will help you avoid excessive blurring.
2. Consider choosing locations that offer interesting elements
To capture creative shutter speed portraits, look for a location with interesting elements, such as moving water, city lights, or natural elements like wind-blown foliage. Such a place can creatively enhance your photographs.
3. Consider using neutral density (ND) filters
By reducing the amount of light entering the camera, ND filters enable photographers to use slower shutter speeds even in well-lit environments. This makes it possible to achieve longer exposures without overexposing the images.
You may be interested in the article:
Are ND Filters Good For Photography? When Should You Use An ND Filter On A Camera?
4. Incorporate motion props and accessories
Incorporate props that can create motion, such as flowing fabric, twirling umbrellas, or spinning toys, into your slow shutter speed portraits.
5. Create unique and artistic effects with intentional movements
Directing your subject to move during the exposure can help you capture some creative slow shutter-speed portraits.
6. Experiment with different exposure times
Additionally, I suggest you try different exposure times ranging from a few seconds to several seconds, depending on your desired effects.
7. Focus on the expressions and emotions of your subject
As you might already know, portrait photography involves capturing your subject’s personality. So, do not forget to emphasize the emotions and expressions of your subject when using a slow shutter speed.
5 Ideas for creative slow shutter speed portraits
1. Combine slow shutter speed with flash
Create a striking contrast between sharpness and motion by using a slow shutter speed and a burst of flash to freeze a portion of your subject while allowing the surrounding areas to blur.
2. Incorporate available light sources to create light trail effects
Create mesmerizing light trails around your subject by adding moving light sources, such as cars, to the photos. This will definitely add a dynamic and visually appealing element to your slow shutter speed portraits.
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3. Invite your subject to dance with ribbons
Allowing your subject to dance or twirl with colorful ribbons or fabric is another beautiful idea you can try when using slow shutter speeds for portrait photography.
4. Silhouettes in motion style
To achieve this, place your subject against a well-lit background or a vibrant cityscape during twilight, and instruct the subject to move slowly in front of your camera while you record the moment with a slow shutter speed. The result will be a striking silhouette with blurred motion against the background, adding a sense of mystery.
5. Capture your subject reflection in the water
This is another beautiful idea you can try when shooting portraits with slow shutter speeds. Simply pose your subject close to a calm body of water (like a lake) and capture the reflection. You may incorporate intentional movements to create a distorted and painterly reflection effect.
In conclusion, getting creative with slow shutter speed portraits requires practice, experimentation, and a willingness to depart from taking conventional portraiture. Finally, do not forget to like and share this article.