Wait a second

Many thanks to Daenatte Aria for proofreading this.

1/250 is widely accepted as the one shutter speed to go for in street photography. It is fast enough to capture most of people’s movements as well as to minimize camera shakes. However, just like any other aspects of photography, there is no one setting to rule them all. Sometimes, rather than avoiding motion blur, I lengthen the exposure time on purpose for better visual effect.

In this picture, the little girl was resting in her mother’s arm, being all sick and tired. I took several shots at different speed and settled with 1/10s. It was enough to keep the girl’s facial expression and blur the crowd reasonably to depict their nonstop movement. The mother and the girl were almost perfectly still. This evokes the feeling of loneliness and tiredness, yet there is a glimpse of warmth and tranquility from a hug filled with love.

In this mini-series shooting Hang Ma Street, one of the most packed streets in Hanoi during Mid-Autumn festival, I used long exposure time and hand movement to describe the chaotic and noisy atmosphere of the scene. Everyone was moving, jostling, talking and having fun. My senses were overloaded with people, lights, decorations and loud music, and bubbles everywhere. I wanted to capture that chaotic beauty with all of its hassles and craziness, so here they are.

Settings: Sony A7C, Sony FE 28 @ F5, 1/2 sec, ISO-100.

Settings: Sony A7C, Sony FE 28 @ F4.5, 1/6 sec, ISO-320.

Settings: Sony A7C, Sony FE 28 @ F4, 1/2 sec, ISO-125.

I love to travel light, so I rarely bring my tripod with me. Obviously, that means I can’t hold the camera perfectly still for a good second for any kind of long exposing cityscapes. In most cases, I use low shutter speed to emphasize the main subject(s) or the moving nature of the scene. I either try to stay perfectly still or to pan the camera following the subjects. The camera strap helps a lot, but you would also want to tuck your elbow in and hold your breath to stabilize the shots. Most importantly, you have to be patient and click the shutter button plenty of times until the God of photography smiles (or gets sick of watching you) then gives you the best image of the bunch. Then you take some more just in case.

The cheap shot

Mirror mirror on the wall

TÙNG XUÂN LÂM