Photography Tips

In the last two posts in this series, we discussed two technical terms which every photographer should know! Aperture and Depth of Field.

Term #3: Shutter Speed

Shutter Speed Explained - Wikipedia

Shutter speed determines the amount of time the shutter is open. As mentioned in the previous post, this along with the aperture size determines the amount of light that gets captured by the image sensor.

Shutter speed is determined in seconds (in fact, in fractions of a second). For e.g. a shutter speed of 1/60 means the shutter is open only for 1 by 60th of a second. As a thumb rule; a higher denominator generally means faster shutter speed and conversely, a lower denominator means slower shutter.

“Enough of technical mombo jumbo! What can I do with this?” you ask.

Freezing Motion

Faster shutter speeds helps us get a sharp image of a subject in motion. This could be a moving car, a hyper active baby or animals and birds around us.
Blurring Motion

A slow shutter speed allows more light to enter the sensor and hence generally gives a blurred image. However, this can be used creatively to get some artistic shots. For e.g. a waterfall shot with a slow shutter speed gives a silky smooth milk-like effect to water.

Low Light Scenes

In low light situations it helps to have a slow shutter speed as it allows more information to be captured by the sensor. The hindsight however is that images tend to get blurred if held by hand. In such cases, use a tripod and shoot the scene with a timer to reduce the camera shake.

Hope these terms will help you understand your camera and photography in general. I would like to know how you feel about this series. If you have any tips or want clarifications on those mentioned above, do let me know! Keep Clicking!