Mastering Shutter Speed: Unlock the Key to Stunning Action Shots and Long Exposures

The Exposure Triangle (ISO, Aperture, Shutter Speed) is only one concept of photography that a photographer needs to accommodate, but it’s an important one. There are a lot of things that can be adjusted with post-production tools like Photoshop. But shutter speed gives you creative options that you’ll want to learn in the camera, which can’t be easily brought out in post-production tools. Shutter speed refers to the length of time the camera’s shutter is open, letting light hit the camera’s sensor (I talked about sensors in the post on ISO, and I wrote about Aperture here). Shutter speed is how long your camera takes the photograph.
Shutter speed has two major impacts on your image. It directly affects how bright the image is. Having the shutter open longer lets more light get to the sensor, so the image is brighter, and having it open for a shorter time lets less light get to the sensor, so the image will be darker. Shutter speed also gives you creative options for capturing motion. You can use a fast shutter speed to capture motion, “freezing” it for action shots, or you can capture a motion blur using a slower shutter speed. I’ll give examples of both of these options. The Automatic setting on your camera uses the best setting for an automated exposure of the subject given the current lighting conditions, but for the motion and freeze opportunities, you’ll need to select them yourself; you’ll need to “get off Automatic.”

How the Shutter Works

We talk a lot about the shutter like we all know what it is, but let’s take a look at what it is and how it works. The shutter mechanism consists of two “curtains,” which are like gates that move in response to the press of the shutter control button. I had thought of them as being plastic, but in researching the deep stuff for this post, I found out that plastic wouldn’t hold up to the repeated motion of opening and closing. Most shutters are made from either metal or rubberized fabric, or a combination of both. There are also two types of shutters, mechanical and electronic, but we’re going to save electronic shutters for another day and focus only on mechanical shutters as they exist on DSLR and Mirrorless cameras.
The shutter mechanism on today’s cameras consists of two curtains that perform in concert. The curtains are held in place by electromagnets and controlled by springs. When you press the shutter button, the first curtain rolls down to expose the camera sensor to light. The second curtain rolls down after the set shutter speed time to close the gap and end the exposure. The Slo-Mo Guys created a fabulous video showing exactly how it works.
Now we’ve got a process difference between DSLR cameras and Mirrorless cameras, based on their construction. Digital Single Lens Reflex cameras reflect the image onto a mirror and up to the viewfinder. It’s that “reflection” part that gives the name “Reflex.” Mirrorless cameras use an Electronic Viewfinder (EVF) to provide a preview of what the sensor will capture. The sensor of a mirrorless camera is always active and providing that preview, but it is the curtain action that will actually record the image to the storage. A DSLR camera needs to move the mirror out of the way in order for the sensor to capture the image. That flipping-up of the mirror will create a momentary “blackout” of the viewfinder that doesn’t happen with mirrorless cameras.

How Shutter Speed Works

If you select a fast shutter speed, 1/1000s (one one-thousandth of a second) or faster, you’ll be able to freeze the motion of an object. It’s great for birds in flight or a fast-moving car. You’ll be less likely to see blurring from camera shake or the movement of your subject. However, to shoot at settings that fast, you may need to bump up the ISO setting to make the camera more sensitive, since it’s not going to be getting light for as long as it would with a slower setting. Upping that ISO can introduce “noise,” as we discussed in the ISO post.
Selecting a slower shutter speed, 1/30s (one-thirtieth of a second) and slower will blur the motion. That silky water effect you see in the waterfall photos is achieved using a slower shutter. Light trails and star trails are also a product of slower shutters. While it’s not difficult to get these effects, you’re almost always going to want to use a tripod and an external shutter trigger to eliminate the possibility of camera shake. Sometimes even a breeze can introduce more movement than you want in the image, so you may find it necessary to add a weight to the tripod for additional stability. When I haven’t wanted to bring out the tripod for a quick few shots, I’ve gotten enough stability by bracing myself against a tree or holding the camera against my knee from a crouching position. (I don’t get into a crouch very often because I’m 63 and haven’t kept up the habit of crouching; but I’ll do what it takes to get the shot!)

How Shutter Speed Affects Exposure

Changing the shutter speed will affect the other settings in the Exposure Triangle. If you increase the shutter speed, less light hits the sensor. You can open the aperture (using a lower f-number) to accommodate the lighting requirements. However, a wider aperture also narrows the depth of the scene that will be in focus. That’s fine if you don’t need the whole photo to be in sharp focus, and I explained this in the post on Depth of Field. If you absolutely must have the whole scene in sharp focus, for example, in a landscape, you need a narrower aperture (larger f-number), but then you’re getting less light to the sensor, so you need to work with the ISO.
It comes down to thinking about what the most important thing to control is, based on what you’re trying to convey to the viewer. Work backward from that. Set that part up first, and then adjust everything else around that. You know now the affects of making those adjustments. One great thing about digital cameras is the ability to play around with settings, make immediate changes, and try again. I could never afford the amount of film and development costs it would take for me to learn all of this!

Creative Uses of Shutter Speed

Now that you know the mechanics and techniques, let’s talk about when and how to use them. You’ll want to play around with each of them before you need to use them. I’m a strong believer in just-in-time learning for some things, but life moves quickly, so I like to learn camera and photography skills well in advance of needing them.
Fast shutter speeds can be great, as I mentioned, for birds in flight, but if you have a kid in sports, you’ll want to learn how to capture, say the moment a soccer player kicks the ball or a magnificent catch in the outfield. You’ll want to use rapid shots to make sure you get that one image (sometimes called bursts), because the time between pressing the shutter and the image save can result in a lost opportunity. Another example of knowing in advance what the shot is that you want. It’s not just sports, though. In our part of the country, we have dolphin tours out in the Gulf of Mexico, and you’ll want to play with those fast shutter speeds to catch the dolphins in mid-leap. Pets doing pet things are another candidate for fast shutter speeds combined with bursts. There’s another advantage of faster shutter speeds: details. By pulling in that shot at a rapid shot, you’re more likely to get fine details like a bird’s feathers, even a siting bird, or an athlete’s muscles in flex. Your camera on Automatic setting may do an adequate job, but now you don’t need to be satisfied with “adequate.”
Slower shutter speeds over a second can create that silky effect you see in waterfall or beach scenes, and it can smooth out the clouds in the sky. The advantage of a slow speed, mechanically, is that you can use a much lower ISO, and you aren’t as limited on the aperture for exposure. However, you are going to want a tripod, because it’s almost impossible to remain completely, absolutely still for more than a second. Your heartbeat alone will introduce a bit of motion, believe it or not. A Neutral Density (ND) filter is something else that is helpful for longer exposures because you might not be able to make enough setting adjustments to avoid overexposing the shot. I haven’t gotten a new set of ND filters for my new camera, so that’s an option for another post after I get it.
Light trails are fun to create, and that’s another use of longer exposures. They’re created at night, or at least in much lower light conditions, so you don’t have quite as much difficulty controlling for overexposure. Star trails and astrophotography will require both long exposures and higher ISO settings, but if you’re trying to capture celestial objects without creating trails of stars, you’ll need a star tracker as well. That’s an area of photography I’m not qualified to teach — yet. If you want to play with light trails of cars or other objects, like theme park rides at night, experiment with the different shutter speeds and see what happens.
There’s another technique you should play around with: Panning. Panning is achieved when you keep an object in focus while the object is moving, but blurring the background. It’s tricky to learn, but lots of fun when you figure it out. The only way to figure it out is to play with it. Start with a relatively slow shutter speed, 1/20s to 1/60s, and set your camera to burst mode, or it may be called “continuous” mode. Start tracking your subject before you hit the shutter button, and keep following the subject after the shot, so that you ensure smooth motion. You’re going to want to have a stable stance for this, keeping your feet about shoulder-width apart, and you’ll need to rotate your body as you follow the subject. If your camera has continuous autofocus (AF-C), and most do now, use that so that you can keep that moving object in focus. You can practice this with a friend on a bicycle so that you get the idea of how to set the camera up and how to move yourself in concert with the object you’re shooting.

Common Mistakes and How to Avoid Them

During slow shutter speeds, you’re more likely to need some additional techniques, tools, and settings than using faster speeds. One of the most common issues is camera shake or movement, so here are some ways to avoid it.

• Use a tripod, and make it a good one. Lower-cost tripods are fine for learning the reasons you need one, but as your skills improve, you’re going to want a good, sturdy tripod.
• Use a remote shutter release. You can use a wireless or cabled connection, but you’ll find a lot of uses for it. Every time you touch the camera to depress the shutter, you introduce a bit of motion, and that’s even more likely when you’re using a tripod.
• Experiment with Image Stabilation (IS) and/or Vibration Reduction (VR). I’ve read that you should use it, and I’ve read that you shouldn’t use it, so try it both ways, and make a note of what worked best for you.
• Practice holding your camera for stability. If you don’t have a tripod with you or if it’s not practical to use it, hold the camera close to your body, tuck your elbows in, inhale to a comfortable lung fill, exhale slowly while pressing the shutter. I often lean up against a tree or pole if one is available.
  If you’re using a DSLR, you can enable mirror lock-up so that the process of flipping up the mirror doesn’t introduce additional internal vibrations.
• Add some weight to the tripod for stability and wind resistance. Most good tripods include a hook, and that’s exactly what the hook is for. Your camera bag will do, since it’s the most likely thing you’ll have with you.

The other issue you’re likely to encounter at different shutter speeds is exposure challenges. Here are some tips to get you through that:

• Monitor the exposure levels, using the camera’s exposure meter. That’s the little ruler at the bottom of the screen or viewfinder. The different wheels on your camera will control different settings, which will move the line on the ruler. Most of the time you’ll want to move the wheels to keep that line in the center.
• Learn to use the histogram. If you see the histogram weighted too far the the left, you’ll end up with an underexposed image, and if it’s too heavy on the right, it’ll be overexposed.
• Use exposure compensation to set one setting and let the camera make the other adjustments. For example, if you want to control the depth of field manually, you’ll use the AV (Aperture Value). You’ll set the aperture value that you want and the camera will control the shutter speed and ISO setting to maintain a good exposure. Or you can set it to TV (Time Value) to manually set the shutter speed and let the camera control the aperture and ISO.
• Bracket your shots. Take multiple shots at different exposures, then blend them in post-processing. This will allow you to catch details in the shadows that you might miss at one setting while catching details in the lighter areas that you might miss in a different setting. Blending them in post-processing will bring in the best of all worlds. You’ll take one shot at “normal” setting, one at a less-exposed setting, and one at a more-exposed setting. You can use more than three, if you’d like to, and the program will blend them all, or you can pick the ones to blend. This technique absolutely requires a tripod, because the shots have to be identical except for the exposure, but it can be a great option for challenging lighting situations.

YOUR TURN

I’m a sucker for a waterfall, so I spend a lot of time trying to get pretty pictures of them. We recently took a trip to Ohio for my high school reunion, and we stopped at the Smoky Mountains on the way home. Well, not exactly “on the way,” but not exactly “out of the way,” either. We toured the Roaring Fork Motor Nature Trail just outside of Gatlinburg, which I’ve always wanted to do, and near the end of the trail is a great spot to catch the river tumbling over some rocks. I thought it was a great opportunity to play with some shutter speed settings, so you can see how different shutter speeds affect the final image.

This image shows the smooth, silky effect you can get from slowing down the shutter. This wasn’t even that slow, it was 1/6s.

Compare that with this image of one of the many waterfalls in Yellowstone. With everything set to Automatic, the camera selected a shutter speed of 1/200s, and you can see more of the individual water flow, almost to single droplets.

With the ability to shoot 100 images for the same cost of shooting one, there’s no barrier to experimentation. Play around with shutter speeds and see what you can come up with. What happens when you show it down? I wanted to capture the motion of the trees in the wind, so I slowed the shutter down, but forgot to compensate for the additional time the sensor was receiving light, so I couldn’t even see anything. I tried to reduce the exposure in Lightroom, but the experiment taught me why Neutral Density filters are important for that kind of photography. You can get away with shooting a waterfall without a ND filter, but if the sky’s involved in more than about a quarter of the image, you’ll probably need one.
Tell me in the comments about your successes and failures, and drop a link in where I can see them!!!

Here are a few links where you can learn more on this subject:

Springs, levers and electromagnets are what makes a DSLR shutter mechanism work

Shutter Speed in Photography: The Essential Guide

Introduction to Shutter Speed in Photography

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