What is shutter speed?
In Layman’s terms, the shutter speed of a camera is simply defined as the time taken by your camera’s shutter to capture a photograph. In other words, it’s how long your camera shutter remains open, exposed to light.
Measurement of shutter speed
Shutter speed is measured in seconds, or in most cases, a fraction of seconds. The bigger the number, the faster the speed such as 1/2500 is much faster than 1/250. Lower the number lower would be the speed such as 1 second is much slower than 1/30.
What shutter speed to use?
Ideally, in most cases, you’ll need a shutter speed of 1/100 or above. All the images shot below 1/100 or 1/60 will cause a motion blur to your images or else you will need a tripod to shoot. There is image stabilization technology in professional full-frame cameras, so the chances of camera shake/motion blur are reduced. But still, it is advisable to use a tripod at slower shutter speeds because you cannot get track sharp focused images. After all, your shutter will be open and it will cause a camera shake.
When is fast shutter speed used?
All those images that you see containing motion such as birds flying, an animal running, sportsmen playing, etc. are all shot at high shutter speeds to avoid camera shake and get a sharp focused image. In short, we can conclude that high shutter speed is used to freeze motion. Let’s look and analyze some of the examples below:-
Image by- Ishan Sachdeva
at 50mm, ISO- 400, 1/4000 sec, F/1.8
In this particular image, the tennis ball was first dipped in the water and then was spun to get those water droplets. The motion was frozen using a shutter speed of 1/4000 (which is of course, very high!
In this picture, Marsh Harrier (name of the specie), is captured while flying. It must have been shot at a very high shutter speed of about 1/2500-1/4000 to freeze the motion.
When is slow shutter speed used?
Ever thought about how photographers shoot those silky waterfall images, pictures of the sky full of stars, and all that? Yes, they are all shot using slow shutter speed using a tripod. For getting that silky water effect in your photograph, mount your camera on a tripod and drop your shutter speed to under 1 second, (You’ll probably need an ND filter to capture the same during day time), and boom, you’d’ve got that shot by now:). Let’s look at some of the images below:-
See that silky water effect? What caused the camera to create that? Yes! it’s because of the slow shutter speed. This was shot at a shutter speed of 6 seconds.
Slow shutter speed is also used to photograph the Milkyway, this image was shot at a shutter speed of 13 seconds at F/2.8. Slow shutter and lower F-stop number allowed my camera to intake more light into the sensor which ultimately resulted in this!
Shutter speed and exposure
Another important effect of shutter speed is on the exposure of the image. If you increase your shutter speed, it will result in darker images because the sensor of the camera will be exposed to light for a very small amount of time whereas, on the other hand, if you decrease the shutter speed, it will result in brighter images.
However, shutter speed isn’t the only aspect that determines the exposure of an image. There are other aspects such as Aperture and ISO too. Together, all these three factors (shutter speed, ISO, and aperture) make up the exposure triangle which determines the overall exposure of the image.
However, I will not go into detail to explain how aperture and ISO work as this article only concentrates on shutter speed. You can watch this video if you wish to understand the exposure triangle-
For English viewers
For Hindi viewers
Focal Length and shutter speed
Another important element to consider while choosing your shutter speed is the focal length of your lens. Longer the focal length, more will be the camera shake. So choose a faster shutter speed when using longer focal lengths probably above 200mm. This is the reason why wildlife photographers use a tripod with gimbal head.
Conclusion
Only choosing and depending upon your shutter speed while clicking a photograph is not what you want to do. You need to understand other aspects too i.e. ISO and aperture. Combination of all three is what makes a perfect exposure. You also need to learn how ISO and aperture affects your image. Sometimes, there can be a case when you need to bump up your shutter speed to freeze a motion, but then you maybe have to compensate with your ISO and aperture. Similarly, there can be other cases too.
I hope you would’ve gained something about shutter speed from this article. You can hit me up anytime if you have any queries regarding the same. Just shoot your queries by filling out this form. I’ll be more than happy to help you:)