Understanding Shutter Speed And How To Use It Effectively

Cameras are easy to use, aren’t they? You just point and click. Taking photographs can be one of the simplest things you ever attempt, and with camera phones so readily available, virtually everyone on the planet is a digital photographer. But for those people who want to do more than take selfies and post relentlessly online about their food, learning a little more about your camera’s capabilities can be the difference between selfie quality and professional excellence.

One of these elements is shutter speed and it may be more important than you first thought. The basics of how a camera functions is you:

1. Push the button
2. The shutter opens to let in light
3. The film captures whatever the lens is pointed toward
4. The shutter closes.

From start to finish, that is the most entry-level version of why a shutter is important to photography. So, does speed really matter if it’s actually that basic of a function?

It matters

Yes. It absolutely does. You should take the time to look at your camera’s default settings to better understand why your images are coming out the way they are, and then you can better control the end results. It can be very frustrating when you’re trying to capture that fleeting moment, something precious that you want to remember forever, and then when you print the photo you see that everything is blurry.
Understanding shutter speed can help you fix problems like that before they even happen. In addition to a basic comprehension of aperture and ISO, you’ll quickly see that setting your shutter speed for any given subject or scene will result in much better photos.

What is shutter speed?

The shortest explanation is that shutter speed is how quickly the shutter opens and closes, allowing light exposure. This is the determining process for how back in the day, film accepted an image. This process is exactly the same, the only difference is that the film has been replaced by a digital sensor. Obviously, without this mechanical process, you wouldn’t have an image in the first place. The shutter cuts off light coming inside the camera completely, leaving the light-sensitive sensor unexposed. When the shutter opens, the sensor is exposed, and you get a photograph.

If it’s really that simple, then why is shutter speed so important? The quickness at which the shutter opens and closes either lengthens or shortens the exposure time. The slower the shutter opens and closes, the longer exposure time, and vice versa. In a digital camera, this translates to the amount of time that the sensor within the camera is exposed to light.

Why should I care about shutter speed?

Shutter speed is primarily responsible for two for important aspects of how your photo turns out:

1. The brightness of your photo
2. The amount/lack of blurring in your photo

Controlling these two aspects becomes critical when you’re attempting to photograph a different subject. For example, if you’re taking a picture of a person riding a bicycle, do you want the subject to appear to be moving fast? Or do you want the subject to be frozen in your frame? Adjusting your shutter speed can have an effect on what action your subject may be in the middle of doing.

What is the right shutter speed?

Shutter speed is measured in fractions of a second, almost faster than you can perceive with the naked eye. This means that the 1/250 setting on your camera will be making the shutter to open for only one-two-hundred-and-fiftieth of a second. That might sound fast, but there are shutter speeds as fast as 1/8000.

How shutter speed is marked on your camera can be different from brand to brand. Some will mark the increments as actual fractions (like 1/250) and others will simply put 250, so it’s good to know what the settings mean beforehand.

With such a large spread of shutter speeds to choose from, which is the right one? Well, it depends on what you are photographing, what you’re trying to accomplish and how crisp you want your photo to look. Faster shutter speed means less blurring, but you won’t be exposing it to as much light, and therefore the photos might be underexposed. If you want to freeze a moment in time, then the faster the shutter speed, the better. If you want to show movement in your image, then you may consider a slower shutter speed with a longer exposure, creating a blurring effect that captures active movement.

Your decision might also be based on the light that you have available in the scene. Since the longer the shutter speed is, the more light is hitting the sensor, if you have low light conditions then a slower shutter speed is the only way to capture the shot without using flashes. This is great for nighttime photography like for example photographing city scenes or stary skies. To better capture those stars, you want a longer exposure, and therefore a slower shutter speed. Needless to say that a tripod is a must when you are shooting with slow shutter speeds.

Other factors

Shutter speed isn’t the only factor that affects the brightness of your photo. Aperture (the lens opening where light passes through) and ISO (International Organization for Standardization) also impact how bright or dark your photo comes out.

For aperture, consider your own eye and how the iris opens and closes depending on the amount of available light in your immediate area. Aperture works the same way, but for a camera lens. By widening the aperture on your camera, you effectively allow a larger amount of light to enter the camera when the shutter opens. It can cause a blurred background or sharp foreground photos.

ISO is the result of combining two film standards in 1974 which defines film sensitivity. In digital cameras, the setting maintains similar brightness levels. Basically, the lower the ISO setting (such as ISO 100), the darker your photo. If you increase your level from ISO 100 to ISO 200, you’re effectively doubling the brightness of your photo. Beware of using very high ISOs as it can add unwanted noise to your image.

The best way to understand shutter speed is to get out there and start taking pictures! You can avoid having unintentionally blurry pictures or photos that are way too dark by experimenting with your camera. Don’t wait to try and play with the shutter speed, aperture, or ISO settings when you’re about to take an important photo. Go test them out first.

Photo credits: Kav Dadfar – All rights reserved. No usage without permission. Dreamstime.