Shutter Speeds

Another one on Creating Keepsakes. This time it's on shutter speeds. This will come in handy! :)

Picture Perfect Photography: Shutter Speeds

by Candice Stringham

Appeared In: September 2007

Shutter speeds, what are they? What do they do? How do I change them? And why does it matter?

It’s less complicated than you might think. Every camera has a shutter. A shutter is like a door—it opens and closes when you press the button to expose your image. The speed refers to how long the shutter is open. The longer the shutter is open, the more light you let in. Sounds great right? If you always had a slow shutter speed letting in lots of light, would always get great pictures? Not exactly, your shutter also controls the movement your photograph shows. Fast shutter speeds freeze movement. Slow shutter speeds show movement so the subject blurs.

When you are taking portraits and you want the subject to be sharp, you should always use a shutter speed above 1/60. And above 1/125 is even better. This is good to know because if you are photographing a sporting event (or a toddler), where the subject is moving quickly, than you will want to use a really fast shutter speed (1/500 or even 1/1000.) If you want to show movement in a photograph by blurring the subject, then you would use a slow shutter speed like 1/30th or 1/15th.

When you are using a slow shutter speed, you should try to use a tripod so that you don’t get camera shake. Camera shake is when the shutter speed is so slow it blurs not only the moving subject but the whole photograph. This is usually caused by your unsteadiness while holding the camera.

So where do you control this on your camera? Of course you can control it on manual. But to simplify things while you are learning, use the TV or S (depending on the camera) mode on your camera. On this exposure mode you choose the shutter speed and your camera will choose the aperture to give you a correct exposure.

Here is a list of shutter speeds to go by. Some cameras will go longer or shorter depending on the brand and some have in-between speeds, but these are the basic speeds. Basically, 1/8000 is the fastest and 2 seconds is the slowest.

1/8000 s

1/4000 s

1/2000 s

1/1000 s

1/500 s

1/250 s

1/125 s

1/60 s

1/30 s

1/15 s

1/8 s

1/4 s

1/2 s

1 s

2 s

Bulb ( which means the shutter will stay open until you push the shutter button again then it will close)

The photograph above was taken at a shutter speed of 1/20th. The subjects are blurred especially where they were moving the most, in the legs and feet. Also the background is slightly blurry because I was holding the camera myself instead of using a tripod.

This photograph was taken at a shutter speed of 1/1000th. Even though the subjects are jumping at the same speed, their images are sharp and frozen in the air because of the fast shutter speed.

Play around with your shutter speeds and watch the different results your camera produces. Once you get the hang of it, you’ll be able to capture a great variety of action shots.