What is shutter speed, and what does it do in photography?
Shutter speed captures action. It can freeze a millisecond in time or blur motion together. A long shutter speed can blend the rushing waters of a fall. Short shutter speeds can stop the movement of a runner in a single shot.
Shutter speed, mechanically speaking, is how long a camera’s shutter is open. The longer the shutter is open allows more light to touch the sensor.
A commonly used technique that attains to shutter speed is panning. Panning is rotating the camera to follow a moving object during the exposure so the subject stands out clearly, while the background is motion-blurred. Panning creates a sense of speed in a photograph.
How is one supposed to know when to use a short shutter speed or a long shutter speed? Well, for example, if you were to be taking a photo of a swim team athlete while they were racing 200m and you wanted to freeze a moment in time, a mere millisecond, you would want to use a short shutter speed. This would only allow the lens to be open for a short period of time, capturing action as it is in a second or less. On the other hand, if you were in London and wanted to create a photo with a sense of action by taking a picture of moving cars, you would use a long shutter speed. This would allow the lens to be open longer, which would blur and blend the lights of the cars.
Short Shutter Speed
The short shutter speed has captured the flow of water coming out of the fountain, making it look rippled.
Long Shutter Speed
The camera lens was open long enough to show the movement of the volleyball. The girl in the photo is still and full of joy, meaning that the lens was not open too long. If it would have been open too long, she would have been blurred.
Panning
The main subject in the photo is slightly blurred, showing movement. Unlike the subject, though, the background is very blurred, accentuating the movement of the subject. The panning affect has successfully created action in the photograph.
A Favorite
Here is a photo of a young boy in special educational learning. He is actively moving letters around to create words. I like this photo because you can see the motion of his hand as he moves and the calmness of his teacher as she watches.
