Beginning Photography Tips
(Understanding Shutter Speed)

The article entitled beginning photography tips is just one of a series of articles on basic photography information. This particular article is about understanding shutter speed. If you are looking for some other specific topic, browse around some more or use the site map to find other digital photo tips.

It is very easy to just set your digital camera to one of its automatic settings and be done with it. However, if you want to advance your photography skills, a basic understanding of shutter speed will help you choose what the best camera setting to use to get the desired effect you are trying to create.

Shutter Speed will effect the sharpness of your photo. It will also effect what lens opening or aperture will give you the correct exposure. It may mean you will need a tripod, flash or image stabilization to get a sharper image as well.

Shutter speed is almost always expressed in fractions of a second. It is simply the length of time the light is allowed to enter the camera and strike the sensor.

This photo of the helicopter had a shutter speed of 1/400 of a second. With most cameras this is indicated by the number 400 in your viewfinder or on the LCD screen.

Notice that this fast or short exposure was enough to almost perfectly freeze the motion of the helicopter blades. I did a series of photos with varying shutter speeds using billiard balls for this article on how to stop taking Blurry Pictures.

Another reason to grasp beginning photography tips with regards to understanding shutter speed is to have the ability to get creative with slow shutter speeds.

When the shutter is left open for a full second, you can get really cool nature photos involving water like the one above. The shutter speed on many cameras will then put a quotation mark after the number like this: 1" which is a shutter speed of one second.

The opposite technique is sometimes used to get a completely different effect as shown below. In the bright sun, it is easy to go for a fast shutter speed. There is more light available to get a good exposure and freeze any motion and capture a moment in time.

It is also useful to know as a beginning photography tip what shutter speed to use to intentionally just blur the background to create a sense of speed or action: Blurry Background.

One common photography mistake that beginners make is to forget that changing the shutter speed will mean that your aperture will have to change to get the right exposure. The new aperture will then change the depth of field or the range of things in your photo that are in sharp focus.

Macro photography for Beginners. If you have an interest in macro photography and are a beginning photographer.

Happy Shooting
Photo TipMan

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