All three of these affect your exposure and control the amount of light hitting the sensor. Too much light and you\u2019re overexposed, not enough and you\u2019re underexposed. Your ISO represents how sensitive the sensor is and the aperture controls your depth-of-field<\/a> (what\u2019s in focus and what\u2019s not). The aperture is the diaphragm in front of the shutter that controls HOW MUCH light comes in.<\/p>\n The shutter speed affects HOW LONG that light is allowed to hit the sensor. Your Shutter Speed and Aperture usually work hand-in-hand, so if you already have the correct exposure but decide to change one you\u2019ll have to also change the other. In this post we\u2019re not really going to talk about the aperture, so let\u2019s assume that if we change the shutter speed that the aperture was also changed to make sure our exposure is right. This way we can talk about the affects changing the shutter will have on your photo.<\/p>\n So you see shutter speed numbers like 60, 125, or 250, but what do those numbers mean? Well, they\u2019re actually fractions of time. The number 60 actually means 1\/60th of a second (125 is 1\/125th, 250 is 1\/250th, etc). Over time, shutter speeds have been standardized so these numbers should be familiar to you.<\/p>\n Sometimes they\u2019re not fractions of a second. Sometimes they are full seconds. Higher end camera can have a shutter speed range of 30 seconds down to 1\/8000th of a second.<\/p>\n Have you ever noticed a \u201cB\u201d setting on your camera? Wonder what it is for? The \u201cB\u201d stands for BULB. No, not flash bulb. Back in the day photographers used to squeeze a bulb that would open the shutter and it would stay open till you let go. You can do the same now with cameras when you use the Bulb (B) Mode. The shutter will stay open till you release the shutter button. Of course, you would generally use this when you need a long, or very long, exposure so you really don\u2019t want to be touching the camera and shaking it. If you\u2019re going to use this feature get are shutter release trigger, or a wireless shutter release trigger. That way you\u2019re not moving the camera while it\u2019s taking an exposure.<\/p>\n Just as you can STOP UP (doubling the light) or STOP DOWN (halving the light) with your aperture, you can do the same with your shutter speed. When cameras were first invented the photographer would just remove the lens cap to let light in and place the cap back on after enough time passed to create the exposure. As film became more sensitive a faster shutter mechanism was needed.<\/p>\n By this time apertures were represented with a standardized system of doubling\/halving the amount of light that passed through the diaphragm, so a similar 2:1 scale was adopted for shutter speeds. Check out my post about f\/stops<\/a> and Apertures<\/a> if you want to know more. Below is the standardized shutter scale:<\/p>\nShutter Speed \u2013 Basics<\/h2>\n
Changing STOPS of Light<\/h3>\n
| 30 s<\/td>\n | 2 s<\/td>\n | 1\/8 s<\/td>\n | 1\/125 s<\/td>\n | 1\/2000 s<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| 15 s<\/td>\n | 1 s<\/td>\n | 1\/15 s<\/td>\n | 1\/250 s<\/td>\n | 1\/4000 s<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| 8 s<\/td>\n | 1\/2 s<\/td>\n | 1\/30 s<\/td>\n | 1\/500 s<\/td>\n | 1\/8000 s<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| 4 s<\/td>\n | 1\/4 s<\/td>\n | 1\/60 s<\/td>\n | 1\/1000 s<\/td>\n | <\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n These aren\u2019t the only shutter speeds available and just like with apertures, you can adjust your shutter speed by a third of a stop. So if you are using 1\/60 and don\u2019t want to STOP DOWN one complete stop to 1\/125, than you can move it down a third of a stop to 1\/80th a second, and down again to 1\/100th a second. This gives you a bit more control over your exposure.<\/p>\n Here\u2019s a quick note: In your camera you may see 1\/60 represented as 60 and 1\/125 as 125. Don\u2019t be confused by this. You may be thinking that if you\u2019re at 60 and you want to STOP DOWN, then you should go to 30 rather than 125, since 30 is smaller and 125 is larger, but don\u2019t forget these are fractions. 1\/125th a second is shorter than 1\/60th a second, so the light has half the amount of time to hit the sensor.<\/p>\n Shutter Priority Mode (Tv Mode)<\/h2>\nThere are two situations in which you should make the shutter speed your first priority: when the scene offers motion or action opportunities, or when you find yourself shooting in low light.<\/p>\n Shutter Priority Mode (also referred to as Tv Mode or Time Value Mode) is a semi-manual mode. With Manual Mode you control it all, but with Shutter Priority you set the shutter speed and the camera will worry about the aperture. This is good when you know you want to use specific shutter speed but you know the exposure will be changing.<\/p>\n If your subject doesn\u2019t move, and your camera isn\u2019t moving, you could easily do full manual mode, but maybe you\u2019re trying to shoot racecars or a child running around. With photos like these, you are more interested in capturing a sharp image and less interested in the depth-of-field. Btw, your SLR also has an Aperture Priority Mode too which does the opposite, but we\u2019re not covering that in this post.<\/p>\n Example of what we\u2019re talking about<\/h3>\nSay you\u2019re taking a picture of your child running in the park. To freeze the action you set your cameras shutter speed to 1\/500. But your child is running in and out of the shade and the scene (and exposure) keeps changing from bright to dark. If you are set to shutter priority than the shutter will stay at 1\/500 and the aperture may change from f\/11 in the sun and f\/5.6 in the shade.<\/p>\n
Since you are only worried about having the correct shutter speed, you are free to take many photos while the camera worries about the exposure.<\/p>\n Hand Holding and Camera Shake<\/h2>\nEver wonder why your photo is blurry? You know, you\u2019re at a bar, or in someone\u2019s house, at a concert, or a church wedding and you tell people to say cheese, but they just keep coming out blurry. Well, it\u2019s cause you\u2019re shaking the camera. I know, you were holding it still, you swear! But the truth is no matter how you hold it, it\u2019s going to shake. Just pressing the shutter button down shakes the camera.<\/p>\n The problem is that your shutter speed is too slow, so even the slightest movement blurs your photos. As a general guideline when hand holding your camera you should shoot at 1\/60 or faster. In most cases 1\/60 will be fast enough that camera shake isn\u2019t noticeable.<\/p>\n Now, that\u2019s just a guideline, but there are exceptions. Sometimes you can hand hold your camera and shoot with a slower speed of 1\/30 or maybe 1\/15. Three things can help you out.<\/p>\n
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