Shutter Speed - Motion Blur

As well as aperture, shutter speed is another factor that controls the amount of light that reaches the camera's sensor. The faster the shutter, the less light reaches the sensor and, the slower the shutter, the more light reaches the sensor.

Shutter speeds are measured in fractions of a second or in whole seconds. A typical digital camera may have the following shutter speeds: 1/1000sec, 1/500sec, 1/250sec, 1/125sec, 1/60sec, 1/30sec, 1/15sec, 1/8sec, 1/4sec, 1/2sec, 1sec, 2sec, 4sec, 8sec, 15sec and 30sec.
Changing the shutter speed by +/- 1 increment changes the exposure value by 1 stop. By going up or down a stop, it will double or half the amount of light that reaches the sensor.  

As well as affecting exposure, the shutter speed can freeze a moving object as a sharp image and reduce camera shake. It can also do the opposite and capture movement in an image. For example, if you chose to photograph a car or a runner moving across a chosen viewpoint, you would need to select a shutter speed of 1/250sec or more in order for the moving object to appear clear and frozen in action on the photograph. Fast shutter speeds are often used in sports photography. If you were to select a shutter speed of 1/60sec or less, the moving object would appear blurred on the photograph. Slower shutter speeds would be used for more creative and abstract effects. 

So......the shutter speed plays a role in determining how an image will look. Depending on what you want to achieve in your images, you need to set the shutter speed and aperture accordingly. For example, the lack of a tripod in low-light conditions may well need a fast shutter speed of 1/125sec to reduce camera shake. Such a fast shutter speed in low-light will need a wide aperture to allow more light to reach the sensor and the wider the aperture, the shallower the depth of field.


Here are some images experimenting with slow shutter speed. I used a shutter speed of 6 seconds. I got my sister to do some 'lighht drawing'....