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Shutter Speed Tips

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The ability to control the camera’s shutter speed is a powerful creative tool. It allows you to control the duration of the exposure of a photograph. A high shutter speed freezes motion; a low shutter speed allows the subject – or camera – to move during the exposure, which can result in blurring. This is sometimes desirable, for example when you want to capture the moving parts of a picture as blurry. Waterfalls are beautiful when you use long exposures; so are seascapes. With an exposure of a couple of seconds, you can also capture interesting light trails caused by cars passing during the exposure. Just remember that your camera has to be firmly supported.

Most modern cameras allow shutter speeds (durations) of anything from several seconds to 1/1000th or even 1/10 000th of a second. Shutter speeds are shown in the camera’s menu without the ‘1/’ part: 1/125th of a second might appear at 125. It’s therefore important to remember that a higher number usually means a shorter exposure.

Here are a few of the factors involved in choosing a shutter speed:

Controlling the Amount of Light

If you set a specific aperture to control depth of field, it will dictate the shutter speed. Keep in mind that longer shutter speeds let in more light, so they’re required for low light scenes.

Avoiding Camera Shake

If you don’t support your camera when using a low shutter speed, you will get camera shake – an overall blurring of the entire frame. As a general rule of thumb, you need a shutter speed that is roughly the same as the (35mm – equivalent) lens focal length in use. Thus, a typical 38 – 115mm-lensed camera will need you to use approximately 1/40th sec at the wide end and 1/125th sec at the long end of the zoom. Most cameras will display the shutter speed in use on the LCD screen.

Long Exposures

Long exposures don’t need to be a challenge as long as you support the camera to avoid camera shake. Most digital cameras can set exposures of up to one or two seconds in their fully automatic (‘program’) mode; all you need to do is turn off the automatic flash and the camera will do the rest.

Some camera models have scene (or subject) modes specifically designed for shooting in low light and without flash, and some even have special long time exposure settings. Dusk and dawn scenes roughly need exposures in the ¼ to 1 second region, whereas an exposure in the deep of night (to capture car trails) may require between 4 and 8 seconds.

Be aware that long exposures tend to exacerbate noise in the image.

Although there are no hard-and-fast rules, you can experiment with the following shutter speeds for typical subjects:

• Landscape with a wide lens, handheld: 1/30th sec or higher;

• Telephoto shots of non-moving subjects: 1/200th sec or higher;

• Freezing motion (car or running animal moving across frame): 1/500th sec or higher;

• Freezing motion (car or running animal moving towards you: 1/250th sec or higher;

• Freezing action with a long lens: 1/1000th sec or higher;

• Panning (following motion): 1/10th to 1/30th sec;

• Blurred water (waterfall): ½ sec or longer – need tripod;

• Car light trails and fireworks: ½ sec or longer – need tripod.

If you found inspiration on our understanding shutter speed page, feel free to browse the following pages too:

Related Pages

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