I wanted to write this post to help you understand all that you need to know on shutter speed basics. So let's start with the most basic thing of all, what is shutter speed?
Shutter speed is simply the speed at which the camera takes a picture. In your camera, there is a shutter. Every time you take a shot, the shutter opens and then closes. When it opens, light hits the sensor, the sensor captures the picture, and the shutter then quickly closes. Faster shutter speeds are able to freeze the movement. Longer shutter speeds are useful when there is a limited amount of light. If the shutter opens and closes rapidly, not a lot of light will be able to come inside the camera. Your pictures could turn out under exposed depending on how much light you are working with. You won't have such a problem on a sunny day for example if your shutter speed is around 1/1000 of a second or 1/500 of a second. This issue more commonly occurs indoors.
Imagine you are taking a photo of a sunset. If you select a very quick shutter speed, the photo will be dark. In this situation you would slow your shutter speed down. It may be a few seconds long. This depends on the lighting and also on the aperture value you have picked. By doing this, you will avoid the issue of your photos being under exposed and too dark, but another problem arises; you will need to use a tripod to keep the camera still. If you hand moves even a slight amount while you are taking the picture, or the subject moves, your picture will be blurry. Alternatively you can place the camera in a position where it will be totally still.
When you have an abundance of light, is it still possible to produce any nice effects by slowing the shutter speed down?
Of course this is possible! An example is when you take a photo of moving water, like a river or a waterfall. This approach will create a silky, dreamy effect on the picture of the water. You should to adjust your aperture to compensate for the abundance of light entering your camera. Some effects require us to adjust the aperture enough that the shutter speed can be as slow as two minutes! You might need an aperture number of about F18 or F22. This means that the aperture size will shrink so that there is less light coming in. It might still be over exposed and you might need to use a filter to block out some of the light.
This technique can also be used if you are standing on a bridge in an urban environment to take shots of roads with moving vehicles on, and it will make the vehicles disappear so that the only thing you can see is that nice streak of their headlights and rear lights.
Understanding Shutter Speed Basics
To change the shutter speed on your camera, you will need to locate the shutter speed dial. As you increase the shutter speed, you will see the F number getting smaller. This is because as you increase the shutter speed, less light will enter your camera, so the camera picks up a smaller F number, so the aperture opens up to get more light to come inside the lens. It is a good idea to experiment with taking some photos at various shutter speeds. If you make the shutter speed one or two seconds, you will easily be able to hear the shutter open and then close one or two seconds later.
With slower shutter speeds, it works best if you put your camera on a timer, so that your pushing of the button to take the picture won't make the camera shake slightly, even when it is on a tripod. Another tip is to carefully roll your finger off the button when you take the picture with the timer, so the camera isn't subjected to any small unexpected movements.
If you want a clear picture of any moving object, such as water or children (who tend to move around suddenly), you would be wise to use a quick shutter speed. 1/500 of a second is a good example of a decent shutter speed, but you sometimes don't need to use such a high speed.
For night time long exposure, we will examine this in another post.
I hope you found this article on shutter speed basics to be valuable and that it helped you to grasp the main concepts of the topic.
Shutter speed is simply the speed at which the camera takes a picture. In your camera, there is a shutter. Every time you take a shot, the shutter opens and then closes. When it opens, light hits the sensor, the sensor captures the picture, and the shutter then quickly closes. Faster shutter speeds are able to freeze the movement. Longer shutter speeds are useful when there is a limited amount of light. If the shutter opens and closes rapidly, not a lot of light will be able to come inside the camera. Your pictures could turn out under exposed depending on how much light you are working with. You won't have such a problem on a sunny day for example if your shutter speed is around 1/1000 of a second or 1/500 of a second. This issue more commonly occurs indoors.
Imagine you are taking a photo of a sunset. If you select a very quick shutter speed, the photo will be dark. In this situation you would slow your shutter speed down. It may be a few seconds long. This depends on the lighting and also on the aperture value you have picked. By doing this, you will avoid the issue of your photos being under exposed and too dark, but another problem arises; you will need to use a tripod to keep the camera still. If you hand moves even a slight amount while you are taking the picture, or the subject moves, your picture will be blurry. Alternatively you can place the camera in a position where it will be totally still.
When you have an abundance of light, is it still possible to produce any nice effects by slowing the shutter speed down?
Of course this is possible! An example is when you take a photo of moving water, like a river or a waterfall. This approach will create a silky, dreamy effect on the picture of the water. You should to adjust your aperture to compensate for the abundance of light entering your camera. Some effects require us to adjust the aperture enough that the shutter speed can be as slow as two minutes! You might need an aperture number of about F18 or F22. This means that the aperture size will shrink so that there is less light coming in. It might still be over exposed and you might need to use a filter to block out some of the light.
This technique can also be used if you are standing on a bridge in an urban environment to take shots of roads with moving vehicles on, and it will make the vehicles disappear so that the only thing you can see is that nice streak of their headlights and rear lights.
Understanding Shutter Speed Basics
To change the shutter speed on your camera, you will need to locate the shutter speed dial. As you increase the shutter speed, you will see the F number getting smaller. This is because as you increase the shutter speed, less light will enter your camera, so the camera picks up a smaller F number, so the aperture opens up to get more light to come inside the lens. It is a good idea to experiment with taking some photos at various shutter speeds. If you make the shutter speed one or two seconds, you will easily be able to hear the shutter open and then close one or two seconds later.
With slower shutter speeds, it works best if you put your camera on a timer, so that your pushing of the button to take the picture won't make the camera shake slightly, even when it is on a tripod. Another tip is to carefully roll your finger off the button when you take the picture with the timer, so the camera isn't subjected to any small unexpected movements.
If you want a clear picture of any moving object, such as water or children (who tend to move around suddenly), you would be wise to use a quick shutter speed. 1/500 of a second is a good example of a decent shutter speed, but you sometimes don't need to use such a high speed.
For night time long exposure, we will examine this in another post.
I hope you found this article on shutter speed basics to be valuable and that it helped you to grasp the main concepts of the topic.
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Now that you've gained a good level of understanding about the basics of shutter speed you may want to have a look at some other great tutorials to help you along your way as a budding photographer
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