What is Shutter Speed?

Shutter speed is one of the three components of Exposure triangle, which determines how god your image turns out. We have already discussed Aperture in ‘What is Aperture?’ and ‘Depth of Field and Aperture’. ISO will be discussed in future posts.

Shutter speed is, in most simple terms, the amount of time the shutter of lens remains open.

Right before the image sensor in your camera, there is the flap called shutter. When you take a picture it snaps open and shuts to capture the light and create the image. The longer period it stays open, the slow the shutter speed. The quickest it shuts back, the faster the shutter speed.

Measuring Shutter Speed

Shutter speed is measured in seconds, or usually fractions of seconds. The larger the denominator, faster the shutter speed. As the denominator gets smaller, the shutter speed gets slower. For Example 1/1000 is faster than 1/60.

Usually, a speed faster than 1/60 is used. Any speed lower than 1/60 is very difficult to capture without getting a camera shake. A camera shake will then result in blurred or fizzy photo. Try to avoid camera shake. If you are shooting at or slower than 1/60, you must use tripod or something else to stabilize your image. 

Points to Remember:

• Slow Shutter Speed (Big denominator): More lights enter the camera, Motion blurs
• Fast Shutter Speed (small den.): Less light enters, Motion captured/camera shake avoided