Camera Labs

that says you should use the shutter speed of 1/N second when the focal length is N cm to prevent blurriness?

I remember hearing it somewhere... Is it valid for ISO100? What else can you share about this rule?

Thanks in advance!

Cheers,
Tony

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GALLERY

The sunny 16 rule perhaps?

The rule goes: "Under direct sunlight, if you are shooting at a shutter speed that matches your ISO sensitivity, then your aperture should be f/16."

Example: My D40 starts at ISO 200. Applying this rule, I should set my aperture to f/16 if I wish to shoot at a shutter speed of 1/200 seconds. Similarly, if I set my ISO to 400, then the aperture should be f/16 when my shutter speed is set at 1/400. That settled, if I push either the shutter speed or the aperture forward or backward, I should compensate on the other by the same amount.

Don't know if the rule holds for all types of cameras -- especially digital (and shooting conditions), though.

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"Shoot RAW, ask questions later"
My Flickr Photostream. C&C Welcome!
Nikon D80 | AF-S Nikkor DX 18-135 mm f/3.5-5.6G ED | AF Nikkor 50 mm f/1.8D | AF Nikkor 70-210 mm f/4

don't worry about rules....... get out take lots of pixs at different settings or just on auto and learn to understand how your camera records in different light and then learn how to do minor ajustments to improve on basic camera settings

shoot wide open then shoot stopped down, of the same subject, and compare the difference. Also shoot the same sceen witha short lens and a long lens to help understand different optics.....

off you all go ..... home work in by friday

SSSR: "safe shutter speed rule"? I really don't know. I use it a lot though (even though I have image stabilisation) and it works good. I can imagine that with really long lenses (like a 500mm), you still couldn't handhold a shot.
Make sure you'll multiply your focal length with the cropfactor of your camera though .

- Bjorn -

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Street and documentary photographer | Google+ | Twitter | Blog | Tumblr

Leica M9-P (my article on Camera Labs) | Leica D-Lux 5 | 50mm Summilux

Thank you everyone for the inputs!

I actually think this rule is pretty important comparing to some rules of composition which IMO are quite subjective. This rule prevents the undesirable blurriness of pictures.




I certainly forgot that. Thanks for the heads up!!!

One last question, do you know if ISO speed will affect this rule?

Take Olympus ZD 50mm (100mm film equiv.) for example, I need at least 1/100 second to get a clear handheld shot, but does that apply for ISO100? If I increase the ISO speed to 400, how much time would it be now??

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GALLERY

I'm sure that ISO will affect this rule (some camera manufacturers actually call "raising the ISO automatically" "digital image stabilisation", because you'll be able to shoot at shorter shutter speeds with a higher ISO). I don't know how the rule would work when you increase ISO though, you'd have to see with what ISO you could get half the shutter time you'd have at ISO 100, and I guess you could do some calculations then.

- Bjorn -

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Street and documentary photographer | Google+ | Twitter | Blog | Tumblr

Leica M9-P (my article on Camera Labs) | Leica D-Lux 5 | 50mm Summilux

Lol I call it the "one over focal length rule" but is the name really important?

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Graham
Flickr

Hi all,

Actually I found out the name of the rule from another forum. It's called, wait for it,

the Rule of Thumb.

Yeah that's right. But as grahamnp and Bjorn said, name doesn't really matter!!!

I don't like following rules but this one is not actually a rule but more like a guide that helps you to get sharp pictures! I use it to verify the shutter speed. Again, it varies from person to person. Some need more than the guided speed, some need a lot less.

And last thing about the ISO relation, it actually doesn't affect the Rule of Thumb. A 50mm prime on a FF camera, the safe shutter speed is ALWAYS 1/50s. When increasing ISO, the shutter speed increases at the same time to meet the requirement. Bjorn was right about the ISO thing.

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GALLERY

I kinda think you'll probably find they referred to it there as A rule of thumb and not The rule of thumb.

Also see Wikipedia.


Ben