Shutter Speed

Shutter speed is the amount of time that the shutter is open and the amount of time that the film is being exposed to the scene that is being photographed.

Shutter speed is measured in factions of seconds. Fast shutter speed can be used to freeze the scene creating no blur. For example, if you wanted to capture a splash of water or any movement, a fast shutter speed would be used. This speed could possibly be 1/2000 of a second. Slow shutter speed is used to create an intentional blur from moving objects. This can be effective when used in different ways. For example if you’re taking a photo of motorway using slow shutter speed, a blur would be created where the cars have moved, but the environment would be focused as long as there was no movement. If this photo was to be taken at night the lights would stand out. A possible speed that could be used is 2 seconds.

This photo is a fast shutter speed. The speed 1/4000 of a second was used. It caught me doing a cartwheel in mid-air without any blur occurring. I think that this shutter speed is very effective.

This photo is a slow shutter speed. The speed used was 4 seconds. This captured the movement of the light used in the dark consequently creating a glowing line. Using this technique this is my attempted at creating a smiley face.

Shutter speed does come with problems however. One of these problems is that the images can be underexposed. To fix this the image can be retook at a slower shutter speed or a different time of day or in better lighting conditions. Alternatively the ISO speed of the camera could be increased.

Another problem with shutter speed is poor framing, hands and head could be missing as well as distance of the subject. This can be corrected by timing whilst shooting and taking multiple photos. Also this can be fixed by using a tripod.

A third problem can be that photos can be out of focus. This can be fixed by taking time whilst focusing or putting it on automatic focus.

Overall most problems can be fixed if you get closer to your target, experiment with ISO settings and shutter speed more, review images and take multiple images.

My targets for taking picture next time are to experiment with different camera setting including shutter speed, manual focus, ISO settings and more.