Shutter Speed Fundamental

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Hello folks, it’s been many days I ain’t publishing any articles ever since I started my own blogging. While I was doing photography in last week (which is off working days for me) I came up with shutter speed issues/complains being raised by many people surrounding me. So, I thought of writing some little information about it which might help many others to understand this small yet powerful feature of a DSLR /Advanced cameras.

Let’s being from basic (i know it’s little boring but read, it is interesting to know these stuffs).

Q. What is shutter in a camera?

A. Simply it is a window (as like in your house) between the camera and lens. Which opens and closes in the event of snapping photographs. At your left is a sample picture for understanding what is shutter in your camera.

Q. What happens when it opens and closes back?

A. When the shutter is opened after you hit the SHOT button, then the camera starts getting light from outside while it snaps immediately and completes the process of taking a picture. If you ask, then yes, earlier the place is all dark and it needs to remain dark at all time. (I wouldn’t have answered this question but seems like many people wants to know it so here you go) for dummies .

Now let’s talk about shutter speed. I am sure you might have already guessed what is shutter speed and that is almost correct whatever on your mind. I will now clear your query and thus will increase your photography skills, the explanation of your question is as below:

Q. What is shutter speed & how it is measured?

A. The time a shutter consumes to open for snapping a picture and closes back, this total time determines the shutter speed. It is always measured in split-seconds in all types of advanced cameras. Now read carefully and save it in your brain the following laws:

• Longer the shutter window remains open, much more light is being allowed in your camera = Lower Shutter Speed
• Faster the shutter window closes, smaller amount of light allowed in your camera = Higher Shutter Speed

Even though it is a very easy and simple part of the camera but that is the main portio. This is very powerful that you can change the type of your photographs easily and without the skill of adjusting shutter speed, you won’t get good results with your SLRs or DSLRs.

You already know the laws of shutter speeds and below are examples of bird hunting for fish & water drops related pictures that were taken in Higher Shutter Speed:

These are the pictures that we always see that professional photographer shoot but now you’d got the point that now you can take photos like above and you must be feeling so good about it but don’t be too happy. I just said about the shutter speed only, the photos in this articles include different tweaks, specially Aperture settings. This is just one step of learning professional digital photography.

Here’s some examples of Lower Shutter Speed pictures of fireworks, highway at night & streets taken with advanced cameras:

Slower shutter speed photographs are much harder to take without any tripods. It is advised to use tripods or keep your arms in a hard surface for steady shot as you need to hold it for a while (tripod is a must if using shutter speed of 1/30 or lower). Best for fireworks related photographs and cool night city lights photos. You can get good amount of real blurry effects on your photo (this is not a after effect by Photoshop but real one that you can capture directly).

Practice and practice with your camera or lend one for practicing and you will learn lot’s of techniques that I might not know. When you’re playing with shutter speed, as a tips I can tell you to use faster shutter speed of 1/125 or more for fast moving objects. Where as shutter speed of 1/60 or slower for pictures like fireworks (not good for sports because they requires faster shots).

Feel free to comment back if you do not understand any part of my articles (I will spare some time to reply back), all I hope that my article helps anyone who is learning digital photography.

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