Shutter Speed

Shutter speed is how long the sensor is exposed to light. When we take a photo and press the shutter release button it’s as if a window opens and closes.

If that window opens and closes quickly, we have used a fast shutter speed. That means very little light has entered the camera. But it also means we won’t get camera or subject movement. Our photos, if they are in focus, will be sharp and clear. If we leave the shutter open longer, a slow shutter speed, we let in more light but risk blurry photos.

Shutter speeds are represented in fractions of a second, except for very long exposures that might be used to photograph a nighttime scene for example. Your phone may show a shutter speed of 1/1000 for example. This is one thousand of a second—a very fast shutter speed that can freeze a subject’s movement.

If you use an app that shows you the shutter speed, such as the Lightroom Mobile app, keep an eye on the shutter speed. Try to keep your shutter speed above 1/250 or faster for moving subjects.

For fast moving subjects, such as athletes, race cars, small children at play, we will want faster shutter speeds to freeze their action. 1/1000 or faster is commonly used in sports photography for example.

And sometimes we will intentionally use slow shutter speeds to create blur to show motion. This is something we will discuss in future lessons.

While not shot on a phone, these photos demonstrate what happens as you change shutter speeds.

Notice how increasing the shutter speed affects the sharpness. In the first image the children are blurry because they are jumping and the house is blurry because the camera moved during the exposure.

In the second the children are still blurry, though less so. At 1/60 it’s possible to hold the camera steady though you still need to be careful.

In the final photo a very fast shutter speed freezes their motion.

A fast shutter speed, about 1/1000 of a second freezes the motion of the baseball player in mid-flight.

A slow shutter speed, about 1/15 of a second and a technique known as ‘panning,’ created the sense of movement in this photo. The camera follows the curling athlete as he slides. Since the camera and the subject are moving together, it’s as if he isn’t moving. The background blurs while he is relatively sharp. We will learn more about this technique in later lessons.

A very long exposure and a tripod was used to create this photo. The streaks are star trails created with an exposure that lasted several hours.