Minimum Shutter Speed in Aperture Priority

Ben Pascoe

11 months ago

minimum shutter speed

Minimum shutter speed is a great setting to make sure you get sharp photos whist still opening up creative options for aperture settings, this lesson shows you how to use it and why it works so well for surf photography.

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There are lots of cameras which have the ‘minimum shutter speed auto ISO’ setting available, but many that don’t. The Sony a6000 doesn’t, but the a6300 and a6500 do. The only way to know for sure is to look in the manual or in the menu on the camera, it’s usually under the Auto ISO settings.
Sony’s help guide for the ISO AUTO Min. SS setting on the a6300
Canon’s help page for minimum shutter speed for auto ISO
Nikon’s page on auto ISO sensitivity – shows the menu you need

In this video, I will show you how to use different modes to achieve the best results for surf photography. One of the most important settings is the minimum shutter speed, which determines how fast your camera captures the action. Let me explain how it works and why it is useful.

The minimum shutter speed is a feature that allows you to set the lowest shutter speed that your camera will use in aperture priority mode. This means that you can choose the aperture that you want, and the camera will adjust the ISO automatically to maintain the shutter speed that you have selected. This way, you can control the depth of field and the noise level, while ensuring that your shutter speed is fast enough to freeze the motion of the waves and the surfers.

Not all cameras have this feature, but some models like the Sony A6000 do. You can find it in the menu under ISO Auto min SS, which stands for auto ISO minimum shutter speed. You can choose from different values, ranging from 1/4000 to 1/8 of a second. For surf photography, I recommend setting it to 1/1000, which is the ideal shutter speed to capture sharp images of fast-moving subjects.

One of the advantages of using the minimum shutter speed feature is that you can use different apertures depending on the lens and the situation. For example, I have been testing the Sigma 100-400mm lens, which has a maximum aperture of f/6.3 at 400mm. This is a bit slower than the Sony 100-400mm lens, which has a maximum aperture of f/5.6 at 400mm. However, as I discussed in the aperture section, you can get better image quality and more depth of field by using a smaller aperture, such as f/8 or f/11. With the minimum shutter speed feature, I can set the aperture to f/8 and the camera will keep the shutter speed at 1/1000, regardless of the light conditions. This way, I can get the best of both worlds: a sharp and well-exposed image with enough depth of field to get everything in focus.

Of course, you can also use the widest aperture possible to let in more light and create a shallow depth of field effect. This can be useful if the ISO is getting too high and you want to reduce the noise level. However, as I mentioned in the ISO section, I don’t mind having some noise in my images, as long as I can achieve my creative vision. I prefer to have a frozen surfer and a wide enough aperture to get them in focus, rather than a blurry surfer and a low noise level. But that’s a personal preference, and you can experiment with different settings to find what works best for you.

So, that’s how you can use the minimum shutter speed feature in aperture priority mode to get great results for surf photography. It’s a very handy feature that gives you more control and flexibility over your exposure settings. However, if your camera doesn’t have this feature, don’t worry. You can still use manual mode, which is another option that I will cover in the next video. Stay tuned!

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