Photo How To

Today's eye-opening tutorial from the Adorama TV YouTube channel explores a variety of pro techniques for capturing sharp and dynamic images of moving subjects when shooting with shutter speeds that are slower than you may have thought reasonable.

Instructor David Bergman is a highly acclaimed photographer whose eclectic portfolio includes a wide range of genres from celebrity portraits, sports photos captured at the Olympics, and images of live performances shot on tour. His unique Ask David Bergman website enables anyone to poise questions on popular photography topics, and you just might see his response to your query right here on Shutterbug.

This episode is his reply to a reader who wondered how slow you can push shutter speed shutter speed when photographing concert photos with action, but the techniques that Bergman explains will prove equally valuable for capturing other types of images. And Bergman provides a variety methods for getting the job done in barely nine minutes.

Bergman's techniques work the same whether you're using a camera's mechanical or electronic shutter. He explains that the shutter speed you choose impacts an images in two ways; namely, exposure and motion. "The faster your shutter speed the less light enters the camera—making images darker." And because faster shutter speeds capture a shorter slice of time, they give you a better chance at freezing movement."

But here's the rub: The foregoing considerations often work in opposition to one another. Here's a clear example: You may be in a dark environment where you've opened the aperture as wide as the lens permits, while raising ISO as far as you're comfortable given the low-light performance of your camera. But, alas, the image you capture may still be too dark.

So what do you do: "At this point, the only way to brighten up the image is to slow down your shutter speed." The challenge is that you risk the possibility of motion blur if you go too slow. Fortunately, Bergman leverages his years of experience in a way that enables him to address this seemingly insurmountable conundrum.

And you can too by following his straightforward advice. Best yet, these methods don’t require mad skills or any exotic equipment. There's a lot more to learn about in-camera and post-processing techniques on the popular Adorama TV YouTube channel so be sure to take a look.

We also encourage you to watch a timely tutorial we featured recently in which another experienced pro demonstrates how she captures festive holiday portrait photographs on the street after the sun drops below the horizon.