Monday, July 30, 2012

Understanding Shutter Speed

By definition, the shutter speed is the time frame when the shutter on your camera is open. More easily, shutter speed means less time in which the sensor we 'see' the subject which we will photograph. Simply shutter speed is the time between pressing the shutter button on our camera until the button is back to its original position.
So easy, we translate this concept in some of its use in cameras:
  1. Setting the shutter speed of 500 means the span of your camera as much as 1/500 (seperlimaratus) seconds. Yes, the shortest and the spark of it. While for the exposure time of 30 seconds, you'll see something like this: 30''
  2. Setting the shutter speed on your camera is usually in multiples of 2, so we'll see a row like this: 1/500, 1/250, 1/125, 1/60, 1/30 ff. Now almost all of the camera also allows setting 1/3 stop, so less movement of the shutter speed is more dense; 1/500, 1/400, 1/320, 1/250, 1/200, 1/160 ... and so on.
  3. To produce a sharp image, use a shutter speed that is safe. Rule is safe in most conditions is setting shutter speed 1/60 or faster, so that the resulting image will be sharp and safely shaded from the photo (blurry / unfocused). We can outsmart the safe limits of this with a tripod or use the Image Stabilization feature (discussed in upcoming posts)
  4. a safe shutter speed limits are: shutter speed we should be larger than the length of our lens. So if we use a 50mm lens, use a minimum shutter 1/60 sec. If we use the 17mm lens, use a shutter speed of 1/30 sec.
  5. Shutter speed to freeze motion. Use a shutter speed as high as reasonably achievable to freeze motion. The faster an object moves we want to freeze the image, the faster the shutter speed is needed. To freeze the motion of a flying bird for instance, use the Shutter Priority mode and set shutter speed at the rate 1/1000 sec (ideally ISO set to auto option) so that the results are sharp. If you notice, the photographer was idolized sport mode S / Tv this.
  6. Deliberate Blur - shutter speed to show motion effects. When photographing a moving object, we can deliberately slow shutter speed to show the effects of our movement. Make sure you include at least one stationary object as the anchor image. 

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