What is a camera shutter?
Shutter speed exists because of something known as your camera shutter – which, simply put, is a curtain in front of the camera sensor that stays closed until the camera fires. When the camera fires, the shutter opens and fully exposes the camera sensor to the light that has passed through your lens. After the sensor is done collecting the light, the shutter closes immediately, stopping the light from hitting the sensor. The button that fires the camera is also called “shutter” or “shutter button,” because it triggers the shutter to open and close.
What is shutter speed?
Shutter speed is the length of time your camera shutter is open, exposing light onto the camera sensor. Essentially, it’s how long your camera spends taking a photo. This has a few important effects in how your images will appear. It can freeze action or show the passage of time.
Fast Shutter Speed
If you want to capture still photos of fast motion (like pressing pause on a video) you have to use a fast shutter speed. Many sports use very fast shutter speeds to capture the peak moment and freeze it in time.
Slow Shutter Speed
If you want to show the passage of time (with a running river or waterfall), then you can use a slower shutter speed. Any shutter speed below 1/60 of a second will require a tripod to avoid blurry or out of focus pictures.
When considering what shutter speed to use in an image you should always ask yourself whether anything in your scene is moving and how you’d like to capture that movement. If there is movement in your scene you have the choice of either freezing the movement (so it looks still) or letting the moving object intentionally blur (giving it a sense of movement).
How is Shutter Speed measured?
Shutter speeds available to you on your camera will usually double (approximately) with each setting. As a result you’ll usually have the options for the following shutter speeds – 1/500, 1/250, 1/125, 1/60, 1/30, 1/15, 1/8 etc. This ‘doubling’ is handy to keep in mind as aperture settings also double the amount of light that is let in – as a result increasing shutter speed by one stop and decreasing aperture by one stop should give you similar exposure levels (but we’ll talk more about this in a future post).
Confused?
Shutter speed is control by the shutter speed dial. Shutter speed means timing and duration of opening and closing of the shutter curtain at the back of the camera. A fast shutter speed will freezes action while slower speed creates blurring effect.
Shutter Speed and Exposure
The other important effect of shutter speed is on exposure, which relates to the brightness of an image. If you use a long shutter speed, your camera sensor gathers a lot of light, and the resulting photo will be quite bright. By using a quick shutter speed, your camera sensor is only exposed to a small fraction of light, resulting in a darker photo.
Assignment:
Fast Shutter
- Photograph in-class fast shutter speed activities (Contact Sheets Not Required)
- Correct 4 images from each activity (Water Balloons, Bubbles, Glitter, Pompoms) +16 total
Slow Shutter
- Photograph in-class fast shutter speed activities
- Create Contact Sheets
- Correct 4 images (minimum)
Credits:
Created with images by Anthony Tyrrell - "untitled image" • Rogan Coles - "untitled image" • Freddy Marschall - "untitled image" • Luke Besley - "untitled image" • Cassie Boca - "untitled image" • Dan Gold - "untitled image" • jill111 - "light painting sparkler writing fourth of july" • Raventhorne - "magic potion smoke" • Genessa Panainte - "untitled image" • Rodolfo Marques - "untitled image" • Avery Morrow - "untitled image" • Eric Muhr - "untitled image"