DIY Photography

Your one stop shop for everything photo-video

  • News
  • Inspiration
  • Reviews
  • Tutorials
  • DIY
  • Gear
Search

Submit A Story

Watch this 10-step guide to shooting “shutter drag” portraits on location

Aug 24, 2021 by John Aldred 2 Comments

  • Share
  • Tweet
  • Flipboard
  • WhatsApp

Shooting portraits with slow shutters can be a lot of fun, whether you’re doing them during the day or at night. They’re not that easy to pull off, though, often requiring a lot of practice to get good at. Well, to help get you started, here’s wedding photographer Pye Jirsa with his 10-step guide to how he shoots his environmental shutter drag portraits.

You’ll notice that there are seven whole steps before your subjects actually get in front of the camera. This is because it gets boring for subjects standing in front of the camera waiting for you to take a shot while you fiddle with your camera for five minutes. So, get everything prepared and ready so that when they step in front of it, you can just hit the shutter.

Here’s Pye’s complete 10-step list…

  1. Choosing Time of day
  2. Scouting your angle
  3. Placing your tripod
  4. Securing your camera
  5. Use a wide-angle lens
  6. Finalise composition
  7. Setting your exposure
  8. Bring your subjects in
  9. Use continuous shooting mode
  10. Verify your images before ending the shoot

While Pye recommends shooting such images at dawn or dusk (golden hour, yo!) due to the lower light levels allowing for an easier long exposure without it getting too long, it is possible to shoot these during the brighter by using a neutral density filter. Of course, if it’s a sunny day, you’ve got the angle of the light to think about. You could also potentially do these at night, too, if you wanted to try a long exposure for the environment and then popping a bit of flash at your subject, but that’s beyond the scope of Pye’s video.

Pye’s list is a great place to get started, though, and really gets you thinking about the shot instead of just blindly pointing your camera at your subjects while they’re stood in potentially uncomfortable conditions.

FIND THIS INTERESTING? SHARE IT WITH YOUR FRIENDS!

  • Share
  • Tweet
  • Flipboard
  • WhatsApp

Related posts:

Default ThumbnailHow To Capture Motion Trails While Freezing Subjects Using Shutter Drag Step by step guide for Composite Product Photography A step-by-step guide to using the Waveform Monitor Default ThumbnailSatoki Nagata’s Combination of Street Photography And Shutter Drag

Filed Under: Tutorials Tagged With: location photography, portrait photography, Pye Jirsa

John Aldred: from diyphotography.net

About John Aldred

John Aldred is a photographer with over 20 years of experience in the portrait and commercial worlds. He is based in Scotland and has been an early adopter - and occasional beta tester - of almost every digital imaging technology in that time. As well as his creative visual work, John uses 3D printing, electronics and programming to create his own photography and filmmaking tools and consults for a number of brands across the industry.

« Instagram to ditch swipe-up links and replace them with stickers
Funny video shows what Perseverance Rover’s Google Photos account would be like »

Submit A Story

Get our FREE Lighting Book

DIYP lighting book cover

* download requires newsletter signup
DIYPhotography

Recent Comments

Free Resources

Advanced lighting book

Recent Posts

  • Here’s a bullet time video booth you can build yourself
  • Ricoh has discontinued the HD PENTAX-DA 21mm F3.2AL Limited silver lens
  • This “stellar flower” unravels the twilight’s evolution in 360 degrees
  • Strobes vs Continuous LEDs – Which is right for you?
  • Wave goodbye to Apple’s My Photo Stream next month

Udi Tirosh: from diyphotography.netUdi Tirosh is an entrepreneur, photography inventor, journalist, educator, and writer based in Israel. With over 25 years of experience in the photo-video industry, Udi has built and sold several photography-related brands. Udi has a double degree in mass media communications and computer science.

Alex Baker: from diyphotography.netAlex Baker is a portrait and lifestyle driven photographer based in Valencia, Spain. She works on a range of projects from commercial to fine art and has had work featured in publications such as The Daily Mail, Conde Nast Traveller and El Mundo, and has exhibited work across Europe

David Williams: from diyphotography.netDave Williams is an accomplished travel photographer, writer, and best-selling author from the UK. He is also a photography educator and published Aurora expert. Dave has traveled extensively in recent years, capturing stunning images from around the world in a modified van. His work has been featured in various publications and he has worked with notable brands such as Skoda, EE, Boeing, Huawei, Microsoft, BMW, Conde Nast, Electronic Arts, Discovery, BBC, The Guardian, ESPN, NBC, and many others.

John Aldred: from diyphotography.netJohn Aldred is a photographer with over 20 years of experience in the portrait and commercial worlds. He is based in Scotland and has been an early adopter - and occasional beta tester - of almost every digital imaging technology in that time. As well as his creative visual work, John uses 3D printing, electronics and programming to create his own photography and filmmaking tools and consults for a number of brands across the industry.

Dunja Djudjic: from diyphotography.netDunja Djudjic is a multi-talented artist based in Novi Sad, Serbia. With 15 years of experience as a photographer, she specializes in capturing the beauty of nature, travel, and fine art. In addition to her photography, Dunja also expresses her creativity through writing, embroidery, and jewelry making.

Copyright © DIYPhotography 2006 - 2023 | About | Contact | Advertise | Write for DIYP | Full Disclosure | Privacy Policy