In Part One and Two of this series we went over the basics of how lens aperture and film speed control the amount of light that enters your camera. In part three we will go over the basics of shutter speed.
Shutter Speed.
Shutter speed represents the time that the shutter remains open when the shutter button is pushed. This works in conjunction with the aperture to determine the amount of light that enters the camera the film or digital media in the camera.
Shutter speeds range form 1/8000 on some camera to 30 seconds. Some camera have a Bulb setting which allows for shutter speed for as long as you need. For each stop you move you shutter speed you either half or double the amount of light. For example if you set to 1/500 of a second, moving to 1/250 of a second cuts the light in half.
The fall back of a longer shutter speed is obviously that motion is affected. The chart below show some examples.
Shutter speeds and what they do:
1/4000 to 1/2000………. Stop a Hummingbirds wings or other fast action
1/1000 to 1/500………… Freeze a human running and most athletes
1/250 to 1/60…………… Stop most daily movement and handheld blur safe
1/30 to 1/8……………… Blur motion (camera should be on a tripod)
1/2 to long time………… Dark scenes, night time, etc (tripod only)
Using and understanding shutter speeds can allow for some creative motion blurred shots. In this shot below the AV setting (aperture priority) to set my cameras ISO and the aperture to f/22 the camera set the shutter speed to 1/8th of a second:
Another creative way to use shutter speeds is by Exposure Bracketing. This allows you to be able to combine multiple exposures to create HDR (high dynamic range) type shots. That process it out site the scope of this tutorial but will be covered later.
The best way to learn your cameras shutter setting advantages and limitations is to expiration with them. Set you camera to manual and take the same shot at different shutter settings and see how it affects the look of your shot. Experimentation is the best way to learn and develop you photographic style.
In part four we will show how all 3 parts of the photographic triangle relate to each other.
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*This is part of my series to introduce people to the world of photography. My hope is to help current DLSR camera owners to stop relying on the auto setting of their camera and unlocking the photographic potential of what they hold in their hand.
Richard Call is a Nashville, Tennessee based photographer whose work has been published locally as well as internationally and can be seen at richardcallphotography.com
Facebook | @rcphoto
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