Shutter speed part 2. Dripping tap meets Lego swingers

By the way. I've added more images to this page

Varying shutter speed on a stationary camera

As a counterpoint to varying shutter speed while panning, the next exercise was to vary shutter speed on a stationary camera while capturing motion. One example I have seen is that of a dripping tap. A fast shutter should be able to capture individual water droplets, while a slower speed would turn a number of individual drops into a blurred stream. I didn't think that a dripping tap on its own seemed all that photogenic, so I added Lego figures swinging on cotton thread to provide a little more interest!

Note: No Lego figures were harmed during the filming of this sequence.

f16 at 1/4 of a second. ISO 160. Lots of blurry Lego with a blurred stream of droplets from the tap

f13 at 1/6th of a second. ISO 160. Slightly less blur. Blurred droplet stream still visible.

f11 at 1/10th of a second. ISO 160.

f8 at one 1/15th of a second.ISO 160. Some elongated droplets becoming visible.

f4.5 at 1/50th. ISO 160. Less motion blur on the figures.

f4.5 at 1/125 second. ISO 400. Motion blur reduced more. I had to up the ISO to get this faster shutter speed at f4.5

f6.3 at 1/1250th of a second. ISO 6400. No motion blur. Individual water droplets captured. Again, I had to up the ISO to get this faster shutter speed at f6.3