The Definitive Guide to Shutter Priority for Street Photographers
Introduction
In my opinion, Shutter Speed is the most important element of street photography - you want to be able to freeze the action, freeze your subjects, or blur them, and shutter speed is the answer, giving you all the control you need to do so.
So how do you use Shutter Priority for street photography and how do you get the best out of the Shutter Priority mode?
Let's get into it.
What is Shutter Priority?
Shutter Priority setting is a mode that you choose on your camera which allows you to select the shutter speed that you want for the image that you are taking, whilst the camera chooses the aperture to ensure a proper exposure. Therefore, in Shutter Priority mode you get to control the shutter speed and the ISO.
What is Shutter Speed?
The length of time that the camera's shutter is open will determine whether the action is captured sharply, or whether it is blurred in the image. The longer that the shutter is open the more light hits the sensor resulting in a brighter exposure. Shutter speed is measured in units of time and is shown in seconds or fractions of a second when you use a long shutter speed where the shutter speed goes below one second.
What does Shutter Speed do?
Shutter speed is used to freeze action or blur action. The faster the shutter speed denotes how quickly action will be captured. For instance, you would use a shutter speed of approximately 1/1000 sec to photograph birds in flight, and anything from 1/100 sec to 1/400 sec to freeze people sharply when shooting on the streets.
On the flip side, if you want to blur action you would use a slower shutter speed. Focusing on street photography, anything under 1/100 sec to 1/4 second, in specific situations, could cause motion blur in your subjects. However, this can be used for great effect for atmospheric photography. (More on this later.)
Very slow shutter speeds can be used when you want to completely get rid of people in your scenes. Long exposure photography is a whole subject in itself and is great for cityscape photography, landscape photography and even urban landscape street photography.
How to use Shutter Priority
Using shutter priority for beginners is simple.
Simply turn the mode dial on your camera to S or TV, depending upon your camera brand.
Set your ISO depending upon the light conditions.
Then choose your shutter speed, letting the camera pick the aperture. The shutter speed that you choose will be dependent upon what or who you want to shoot; what your subjects are doing.
Use Exposure Compensation if you see that highlights or deep shadows might be clipped. Exposure Compensation in shutter priority mode changes the aperture resulting in a brighter or darker exposure.
How to use Shutter Priority for Street Photography
Daytime Street Photography
For shutter priority street photography, as a rule of thumb, during the day, I will select a shutter speed of at least 1/250 sec in order to freeze action. Depending upon the light conditions mostly it is set to 1/400 sec which covers any street photography, freezing subjects, eventuality.
My ISO is then set to ISO 400 - 800, which is light-sensitive enough to shoot dark or dimly lit streets or cloudy areas that I might encounter. I will then leave the camera to choose the aperture to get that proper exposure and Exposure Compensation for any exposure adjustments.
If depth of field is not an issue then I have no problem letting the camera choose the aperture, providing it doesn’t go beyond f/16, where there is the distinct possibility of diffraction. However, if I particularly want a shallow depth of field, maybe for street portraits, then I will choose aperture priority mode instead.
Night Street Photography
The faster the shutter speed the darker the exposure, as the shutter is open for much shorter of a time, therefore shooting in the darkness of night, in most cases, even 1/250 sec would produce an exposure too dark.
For night street photography you generally want to pick a shutter speed of around 1/100 sec, depending on how fast the subjects are moving and also the light conditions that you are in. You will also want to use a high ISO of around 3200 - 6400, depending upon how much ambient light there is from shops and street lights. The camera will pick a wide aperture in order to make the exposure. Just be prepared to use Exposure Compensation to minimise those highlights coming out of those street and shop lights.
Urban Landscapes on a Tripod
If you are not photographing people and simply want to focus your photography on streets and buildings and you're using a tripod, then you do not need to worry about camera shake when you are using slow shutter speeds, as the tripod gives you all the support you need. Especially at night when it is quieter, you could quite simply pick the slowest shutter speed that you want and keep your ISO to the minimum.
However, for urban landscape photography, it is best to shoot in Manual Mode or Aperture Priority. You definitely want to be able to choose your depth of field for that street or building to be in sharp focus throughout, or just to have creative control of the scene, rather than freeze action, unless you are looking to completely eliminate people from your photos (where you would use an ND filter to do so); and if you wanted to shoot light trails (where you would use long shutter speeds of approximately 5 seconds - 10 seconds).
Street Portraits
For the street portraits, I would recommend switching over Aperture Priority or Manual Mode as you definitely want to be able to choose the aperture, especially for that crowd-pleasing bokeh.
Get Creative with Shutter Priority
For atmospheric and creative street photography, experiment by using slow shutter speeds when shooting your subjects. Particularly at night when the night lights are on, slightly blurred subjects can create some unusually moody, mysterious and beautiful street photography that is full of atmospheric vibes.
A Word on Image Stabilization
Image stabilisation is a great function of modern cameras as it lets you hold the camera without a tripod shooting with fairly long shutter speeds of up to 1/50 sec depending upon camera brand, and your hand holding steadiness abilities.
The Reciprocal Rule in Photography
The reciprocal rule in photography is a good measure of what shutter speed you are able to handhold at, although it varies upon the person and the camera's Image Stabilization capabilities. The reciprocal rule states that if you're shooting with a 50mm lens, then 1/50 sec is the minimum shutter speed that you should use if you want to handhold the camera. If you are shooting with a 100 mm lens then 1/100 sec is the minimum shutter speed that you should use when hand holding the camera, etc.
Auto ISO
Auto ISO in Shutter Speed priority works differently from Auto ISO in Aperture Priority mode. Whereas you can still select your ISO range that you want to work within, you cannot select a minimum shutter speed, like you can in Aperture Priority Mode with Auto ISO because you are in Shutter Priority mode and you have control over the shutter speed.
However, Auto ISO can be really useful if you want to take the ISO out of the equation when shooting, allowing you to concentrate on your photography whilst having an element of control over the shutter speed.
Examples of how it works
In your camera’s menu, select Auto ISO and choose a minimum and maximum ISO, for example, 100 (minimum) - 800 (maximum).
At a shutter speed of 1/500 sec, and f/ 8, the camera uses the aperture variable to get a proper exposure whilst maintaining your minimum ISO. Therefore, if you decide to slow down your shutter speed a full stop to 1/250 sec, the camera will increase your aperture a full stop to compensate, to f/ 11, whilst maintaining your minimum ISO.
A word of warning - If you decide to choose a very slow shutter speed, such as approximately 1 sec and the camera has to choose the minimum aperture of your lens, i.e. f /22, and cannot go any further to darken down the exposure, then your shot will be overexposed.
Conversely, if you decide to choose a very fast shutter speed, such as 1/2000 sec and the camera chooses your maximum aperture, i.e. f.2.8, and the image is still underexposed, the camera then increase the ISO from the minimum ISO that you set.
If you have chosen the fastest shutter speed of 1/4000 sec and the camera has chosen the maximum aperture of f/ 2.8 and has increased the ISO to the maximum that you set of 800 and the image is still too dark, then your image will be underexposed and you will need to increase your Auto ISO range. The camera will not go beyond the Auto ISO range that you set.
Conclusion
Especially for daytime street photography and for many street photography scenarios, Shutter Priority mode definitely has its place for fast, snappy and creative photos.
Go forth and create.