Shutter Speed Lesson

What is Shutter Speed? 

Shutter Speed is the amount of time that the shutter is open.

In order to understand Shutter Speed it is important to remember all of the following rules/guidelines.

1. Shutter Speed is mainly measured in fractions of a second. For example, 1/1000, 1/60, 1/30 etc. 1/1000 is much faster than 1/60 and 1/30. An easy way to determine which is faster is to simply look at the denominator (bottom of the fraction) and see which one is a larger number. 
2. For both the purpose of this class (and in general) you will use 1/60. This is because anything larger will be more difficult to take a photograph of. This is due to camera shake which indicates that there will be a blur in your photos as the camera is moving to take its shot. 
3. When using most cameras (including our school ones) the shutter speed will double (approximately). For example: 1/8, 1/15, 1/30, 1/60 etc. Warning as you increase the shutter speed your aperture settings will be affected. Therefore, depending on how much light you want into the image, you may need to adjust the aperture settings manually.  
4. Know how you want your image to look before you take it! Shutter speed can make an image look faster or can freeze the frame of something moving quick. If your intention is to show movement, then you may want to decrease the shutter speed to show blur. However, if you want to freeze something that moves fast (car, snowboarder) then you should increase the shutter speed. 

Images of Shutter Speed

Both the images of the bird and surfer below are using a higher shutter speed as the photographer's intention was to freeze the frame (1/1000 and 1/4000). 

Moving onto our next photograph, we have a vehicle that looks like it is moving really quickly due to the blur. This photographer used a much lower shutter speed (1/30) 

Shutter Speed vs. Aperture Explained

When you increase your shutter speed (for example 1/30 to 1/60) you are letting half as much light into your photograph. In order to balance out the exposure of your photograph, you may need to adjust your f numbers (for example f16 to f8). Reminder: the lower the f number, the bigger the opening is for light to get in. Use the photograph below to review. 

Shutter Speed Video

Watch this helpful video to better understand how to take shutter speed photographs.