I wanted to practice taking some night shots. Hubby found this little guy in a tree outside. Thought I would just stick to the auto night function, considering I have no idea how to take night photos.
The area was partially lit up with a flood light, the first shot I got was too bright for my liking, so I went to take another. The owl took off as I clicked... looking at the photo later it shows a ghost owl!?
Why isn't the owl a blur? Exif says shutter speed was 2 seconds. How did I create this ghost-like picture?
That is what a 2 sec does to your pic. It only recorded a fraction of the sec of the owl in the pic and the rest of the 2 sec that part of the pic was filled with only lights from the background tree :-)
If the shutter speed is faster you may get a blur owl flying in a darker image, and if the shutter speed is longer you may not even notice the ghost at all because the long exposure light from the trees in the background may make light from the owl invisible.
@viranod - - - yep I've seen this one, I even fav'd it :D ...but had no idea how you did it! Now I have some idea, although I think I'd be struggling to get a shot that good :D
Long shutter speed.
1/4 - 1/8 of a sec will freeze the feet, and blur body (sometimes no body). With longer exposure it all depends on the subject if it moves or stay still. So you may try "shutter priority" mode and let the camera compensate f-stops for the shutter speed you select. Have fun.
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So if the shutter speed was higher, then would the owl be a blur?
So I tried a similar thing for my own project:
And then had a go just for my own amusement using people (myself):
(taken in the same place - just because I thought it looked lonely and I like that)
and
just to try out the same effect but a bit differently. :)
@katiegc24 - - - thanks for the examples :) I must have missed Greg the ghost! I love the second one, very clever!
1/4 - 1/8 of a sec will freeze the feet, and blur body (sometimes no body). With longer exposure it all depends on the subject if it moves or stay still. So you may try "shutter priority" mode and let the camera compensate f-stops for the shutter speed you select. Have fun.