In a previous blog post I described the affect that aperture has on the area of focus and the focal depth in a photograph.
Besides aperture, the camera's shutter speed has the greatest affect on the final image, especially when dealing with moving subjects. The shutter speed describes how long the camera's shutter remains open. A slower speed indicates that the shutter is open longer, a faster speed indicates it is open for a shorter period of time.
Most point and shoot cameras and all DSLR cameras have the ability to manually adjust the shutter speed. You can put the camera into "manual" mode and adjust the settings yourself, or you can use the camera's Shutter Priority mode to force the camera's shutter setting to remain constant when you take photos.
Here are some examples of different shutter speed settings.
The shutter was open for 1/2 second for the photo above. This would be considered a relatively long exposure as most of the time the shutter is open for just a fraction of a second.
Typical shutter speeds are a 60th of a second or faster.
Here's another example:
Can you tell that water is good for showing the affect of shutter speed?
The photo above was taken at 1/400th or a second or .003 of a second.
The faster the shutter speed the more you are able to "freeze time". You're capturing smaller and smaller segments of time with your camera the faster the shutter speed that you can use.
I like to be a little creative with the use of shutter speed, especially when taking photos at my son's soccer games.
Here's an example:
Just a slight blur really helps to convey that sense of movement that gives the photo some life and action. These photos wouldn't be as interesting if everything was crystal clear and frozen. The motion is what I wanted to capture here.
Another reason to use a slower shutter speed has to do with the amount of available light. Most camera's have a built in flash to compensate for low light situations. But sometimes you want to use the low light to create a mood. That's what I did in the candle-lit self portrait shown below. The only light used in the photo came from the candle
The shutter was set to 1/15th of a second. Again, this is a relatively slow shutter speed.
A rule of thumb that I've found works well is that you can take a good clear photo at shutter speeds of 1/60th of a second and higher (faster). Anything below that and you'll run the risk of a blurry hand held shot. This isn't always true, but most of the time it holds true.
So I carry a light weight tripod with me on photo trips. The top picture of the running water was taken using a tripod. As was the self portrait with the candle. The soccer pictures were done hand held, but I wanted that blurry look so that was the intended effect.
I'll leave you with one more photo of running water. This is one of my favorites. It was taken in Waterfall Garden Park in Pioneer Square in downtown Seattle.
Here's a map link for the location. It's a truly hidden and magical little park in the middle of the city.
So until the next post, enjoy your photo taking!
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