Shutter speed

 

Getting to know and experimenting with the shutter speed of your camera will really give you more exciting photographs and give you a real sense of achievement when you have mastered it.
 
 

So, what is the shutter speed?

 
Man relaxing, Ho Chi Min, Vietnam.
The shutter speed controls movement captured in an image and amount of light entering the camera.
 
Shutter speed is the amount of time that the shutter is open for, the longer its open the more light gets to the image sensor or film.
 
The shutter also controls motion being captured in the photograph. If you have a slower shutter speed the more movement will be recorded. If the shutter is faster the movement in the photograph will be frozen.
 

How the shutter speed is measured.

 
The shutter speed is measured in seconds and fractions of seconds. Shutter speeds change depending on the modal of your camera but standard shutters spends are as follows.
 
  • 1/1000 s
  • 1/500 s
  • 1/250 s
  • 1/125 s
  • 1/60 s
  • 1/30 s
  • 1/15 s
  • 1/8 s
  • 1/4 s
  • 1/2 s
  • 1 s
The larger the denominator the fast the shutter speed. 1/1000s is much faster than 1/15. And as I said before the faster the shutter speed the less light will enter the camera and fall on to the image sensor or film. As you can see the shutter speeds double with each increment.
 

Using a shutter speed over 1/60.

 
In most cases you will not want to use a slower shutter speed than 1/60. This is because when you slow the shutter down more light and more movement is recorded and holding the camera still is not really possible.
If you decide to use a slow shutter speed then you will have to think about using a tripod or steadying your camera. (placing on a wall or chair ect) This is to avoid camera shake.
 

Very slow shutter speeds

 
Some cameras give you the opportunity to have very slow shutter speeds. These are not measured in fractions of seconds but seconds. ( for example 1 sec 2 sec 10 sec 30 sec.)
These very slow shutter speeds and used when light is very low or the photographer wants to capture a lot of movement in a photograph. Also a very slow shutter speed can give you certain effects like trailing lights on a motorway.
 

What shutter speed should I use?

 
When choosing the right shutter speed you need to think about how much movement do you want to capture. For example if you are photographing a moving race car there are two ways in which it can be photographed.
 
  • You can capture a still image of the car, so its as if its frozen.
  • You can photograph a blurry image of the car to give a scene of movement.
 
In order to get the still image you will want to set a very fast shutter speed. If you want the blurry moving image you will need to set a slow shutter speed.
 

Using shutter speed.

 
So now you know the basics of shutter speed. Try different speeds and see what happens. The basic rules of using the shutter speed are as follows;
 
  • Fast shutter speed freezes motion
  • Slow shutter speed blurs motion.
 
You don't have to switch your camera from fully automatic to the manual setting. Most cameras have the semi automatic setting that allows you to adjust the shutter speed, the camera will then adjust the armature for you so you get the right exposure. This setting is called shutter priority and I have written more about using this mode so you can really get to know the shutter speed settings on your camera!
 
Have fun!
 
Abby x
 
 
 
 

 

 

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