Tutorial 02: Shutter Speed
- Details
- Category: Tutorials
- Published on Tuesday, 10 July 2012 17:58
- Written by Super User
- Hits: 190
Level: Introduction
Shutter Speed is a pretty self-explanatory concept. It is the amount of time that the shutter, or the little blades that block the light that enters your lens, stay open. Any changes that happen while the lens stays open will be recorded onto one still photograph. Also, the Shutter Speed controls the amount of light that enters the camera. If the Shutter Speed is too quick and your Aperture is too small, your picture will be very dark. If your Aperture is wide and your Shutter Speed is slow, your picture will be too white. Controlling the amount of light that enters your camera is the essence and the basics of photography. So each individual has to find the correct balance that works for them. You can make your picture as blurry or as crisp as you like by controlling these settings.
Once you set the camera to manual, your first step should be to set the Aperture you want. You do this while keeping in mind the amount of depth of field that you want to have as well as the capabilities of your camera. The next step will be to set up your Shutter Speed. Usually each change in speed will double or half the amount of light that will enter the camera. And the increments start with fraction of a second moving up to seconds and minutes.
Things like ISO setting and flash can completely throw off your Shutter Speed or Aperture if you are shooting completely on Manual. We will cover these settings later. For now lets just focus on keeping the balance between Aperture and Shutter Speed. Keep in mind, that more advanced cameras; you are able to set either Aperture or Shutter Speed and have the camera adjust the other settings on its own. This is a great way to shoot in Automatic and yet retain some sort of control over the types of pictures you get.
Recommended Exercises:
The Fuzzy / Frozen / The Gunslinger / Ying-Yang / ...