Slow shutter-speed street photography (Fujifilm X-Pro 2)
UPDATE
I recently filmed a Youtube video talking about this too which you can watch below.
I felt inspired to go out and shoot for a full afternoon in Kathmandu. But, I wanted to do something a little different. Instead of my normal street photography style, I thought I’d aim to only shoot slow-shutter speed images. The area I’m staying in in Nepal, is extremely busy. Narrow streets force everything to walk very close to each other to avoid being hit the still fast driving traffic.
12mm | 1/15sec
It’s easy to do slow shutter speed photography at night, but in the day you will need an ND filter. An ND filter, as you may know, limits the amount of light that is coming through the lens, and you can then slow the shutter speed to compensate for the loss of light.
Fujifilm X-Pro 2, Rokinon 12mm F2 and a Variable ND filter
Camera Setup
Fujifilm X-Pro 2 (If you are thinking of getting in to Fuji, I’d recommend this model though as it’s their newer model and slightly cheaper than mine too)
Rokinon 12mm F2 with this Variable ND Filter
Fujinon 35mm F1.4 with this Variable ND Filter
Here are some of my favourite shots from the afternoon with some tips at the end.
12mm | 1/15sec
12mm | 1/2sec
12mm | 1/15sec
35mm | 1/15sec
12mm | 1/15sec
35mm | 1/15sec
12mm | 1/15sec
12mm | 1/2sec
12mm | 1/15sec
35mm | 1/15sec
35mm | 1/15sec
12mm | 1/2sec
12mm | 1/15sec
12mm | 1/2sec
12mm | 1/2sec
Tips
There are two main techniques you can use when shooting slow shutter-speed images.
Holding the camera still will only blur things that are moving.
12mm | 1/15sec
Panning with a moving object will keep the moving object sharp, and blur everything else except what you are panning with. Like this :
12mm | 1/15sec
Which shutter speed?
1/15 seemed to work well for me for panning images. 1/30 worked pretty well also. For the very blurred images, I used about 1/2 second. There is no right answer here - play with different shutter speeds to see what works well for you.
Tripod?
Using a tripod can also work, but as this was street photography and I was more on the move, it wasn’t practical. To help with stabilisation, I wore a neck strap and and would sometimes pull the camera away from me to tighten the strap. This is where in-body image stabilisation can help a lot. In the Fujifilm lineup, that is only available with their X-H1 camera.
Cool, that’s it for this post. Have fun with this technique and feel free to send me some images or tag me on social media. Always love to see what you come up with.
Later,
Dylan
Hi, I’m Dylan.
I’m a professional photographer, videographer and content creator. But really, just a human on earth.