Hello! Today, we are going to cover the first component of the Exposure Triangle: Shutter Speed. You may remember from our previous lesson that the exposure triangle refers to the three primary settings that control how your camera handles light. Understanding these components is vital to learning how to move away from the auto setting and into manual. Not to worry, manual is not as scary as it sounds. And the one big benefit of using manual over auto is that you will be able to control the outcome of each shot. Rather than solely relying on the camera to decide what it thinks is “properly exposed” you will be able to make that judgment call yourself, and even apply some creative vision to your pictures. camera sensor. Shutter speed is the component of the exposure triangle that controls how long the camera’s sensor is exposed to the light and is the key component when considering how to capture motion. Do you want to show motion or freeze it?

What is Shutter Speed?

Shutter speed is how long the shutter stays open when taking a picture and is the component to consider when photographing motion. A high shutter speed can freeze motion and a low shutter speed can show or blur motion. When the shutter is open for a longer period of time, it lets more light in to hit the camera’s sensor. When the shutter closes more quickly, it allows less light to hit the camera’s sensor. Shutter speed is measured in seconds or most frequently in fractions of a second. However, you can choose a much longer shutter speed in increments of several seconds or even minutes if you are shooting a long exposure image (showing lots of motion).  That’s pretty much it.

Some Tips & Tricks

When I am photographing kids, I usually take my shutter speed into consideration first because I want to “freeze” them, and kids pretty much never stop moving. As a personal standard, I do not go lower than 1/250 shutter speed (ss) if there are kids in the picture. It’s my rule, and a little tip that I will share with you. Another little tip is to use a tripod if you are choosing a slow shutter speed. By having a slow shutter speed, your camera will detect motion not only in your picture but also if you have any handshake when holding your camera, even just a little. Even if you feel like you have a steady hand, you would be surprised to discover how difficult it actually is to hold your camera PERFECTLY still while shooting. To avoid camera shake, a good rule of thumb is not to go below the focal length of your lens if you are not using a tripod. Focal length can be found on your lens. For example, for my 50 mm prime lens, my shutter should not be lower than 1/50 if I am not using a tripod.

But, shutter speed is only one component of the exposure triangle and, if you remember, there are three. And all three have to play together to expose an image properly. So if a high shutter speed does not allow for enough light to expose an image properly then aperture and ISO have to be adjusted to compensate. Each affects how light reaches the camera’s sensor in its own way.

Key Learnings

• Shutter speed controls how long the shutter is open as you take a picture
• The slower the shutter, the more light is let into the camera’s sensor. The faster the shutter, the less light that is let in
• Shutter speed is measured in seconds or fractions thereof
• At a fast shutter, shutter speed can freeze motion and at a slow speed shutter speed can show motion

Practice

Now we can start talking about activities you can do to reinforce your learning from this lesson. With shutter speed, there is a setting in your camera that will allow you to choose the shutter speed and yet the ISO and the aperture stay in auto. This allows you to practice setting your shutter speed without having to worry about “balancing” the other settings to get proper exposure. So go ahead and get your camera out and move your dial to “S” or “TV” depending on whether you own a Nikon or a Canon camera. Play with your shutter speed setting. Post your pictures below in the comments section along with your thoughts and questions.

A great exercise to complete that illustrates the impact shutter speed has on your images is to set your camera up on a tripod in front of your sink and to take various photos of the water running from your facet at different shutter speed settings. You will notice that the water appears blurred at slower shutter speeds which makes it look like it is flowing and then at higher shutter speeds you can freeze the individual water droplets midair.

Note

A slow shutter speed is fun to play with for landscape photography and especially for nighttime / low light photography. For nighttime shots, you can actually capture some of the motion from any lights you may have in the frame … remember learning in grade school that light travels? Well, by slowing your shutter down you can capture a little of that movement as your light “travels” before the shutter fully snaps shut. This makes the lights in the image appear to glow.