Photography Basics: Understanding Shutter Speed

Make Your Photographs Stronger with Basic Elements

There are three basic elements to capturing good photographs: shutter speed, aperture and ISO (film speed). In this article, we will explore the basics of shutter speed and how to use this element to improve your digital photography. Whether you are a photography novice or just use a point-and-shoot digital camera, understanding how shutter speed affects your photographs will help you produce better images.

Shutter speed refers to the amount of time the camera's shutter is open, allowing light to hit the film (or the modern version of film, the digital sensors). The shutter is a panel of incredibly thin, overlapping leaves which fold back to expose a square of film (or the digital sensors) to the light reflecting back from the subject. You may change the shutter speed, how long those leaves stay open, anywhere from 1/2000 of a second to several seconds at a time.

If you are photographing outside in direct sunlight, there is a ton of light ready to race through the shutter and flood your film. In this case you would use a shutter speed of 1/1000 or higher. With this much light, it only takes a millisecond for the film to record the image. If you left the shutter open too long the picture would be all white, or burned/washed out.

If you are photographing in a low-light situation, like indoors or at night, it will take the small amount of light longer to reach the film and record an image. In these cases you use a longer shutter speed, such as 1/20 or 1/10.

You know those awesome photographs of lightening over the beach? Usually, the photographer leaves his shutter on the "Bulb" setting to take those. When the camera is set on Bulb, the shutter remains open as long as the photographer holds down the shutter button (the main button that triggers the photograph). To avoid camera shake, skyline photographers will set their cameras on a remote and leave their shutters open for twenty minutes or more to capture several streaks of lightening.