Shutter Speed Explained

What is Shutter Speed?

To put it as straight forward as possible, shutter speed is the length of time that light is exposed to the film (or sensor) in your camera.

A camera works by having light exposed to its film/sensor. In order for a photo to be properly exposed (not to bright, not to dark) the cameras film/sensor needs to be exposed to light for a certain period of time. If its a bright sunny day with lots of available light, you will only need a very short or “fast” shutter speed to properly expose your photo. However if your in an environment were there is not as much available light, such as indoors or at dusk, you will need to use a longer shutter speed to allow enough time for your film/sensor to be exposed to light.

How Shutter Speed is Measured.

Shutter speed is measured in seconds, usually in fractions of a second 1/60th of a second is at about the speed that we can hand hold a camera without getting hand shake (blurriness from your movement) some people can hand hold a camera as low as 1/30th of a second (assuming there subject is not moving).
You’re generally going to want to use a shutter speed above 1/60th anything lower and you’re going to want to use a tripod to reduce camera shake. Some cameras will let you use a shutter speed as low as 30 seconds, this is great if your trying to take photos at night. Some cameras also have a bulb setting which allows you to press the shutter button to open the cameras shutter, then press it again when you want to close the shutter, this is great for shooting star trails (check out my posting on star trails) witch can require the shutter to be open for hours at a time.

Shutter speed techniques.

By controlling your cameras shutter speed you can chose to freeze any movement with a fast shutter speed, or show movement by using a slightly slower shutter speed.

Lets take a look at the two photos below. Both consist of a similar subject, but have been taking using different shutter speeds. The first photo show a water fall taken at a fast shutter speed and its freezing the motion of the water falling. The second photo uses a slower shutter speed to blur the water as its falling to achieve a feeling of movement. Both are great photos but depict a different feel.
By controlling what our cameras shutter speed is we can effect what our images will look like, we can choose to use a fast shutter speed to freeze a moving object, or slow the shutter speed down to portray some movement or compensate for a dark environment.

Some things to try.

Try taking photos of moving cars or children playing, start at a shutter speed of around 1/300th of a second, then move your shutter speed down gradually until you reach around 1/30th of a second. Notice how your photos come out, at 1/30th you’re not going to be able to get a sharp photo of a moving subject, but at around 1/100 try panning your camera and follow your subject as you shoot, see if you can get your subject sharp by moving the camera with them and make the background blur from your movement.

Feel free to post a photo demonstrating a slow shutter speed in our forum, or leave a link to your image!