Shooting in Shutter Priority Mode

Shutter speed is a good starting place to get your feet wet and begin using the manual features of your camera. Your camera’s shutter is a mechanism that allows light to pass for a certain amount of time. You can think of it in terms of a window shutter that you open to let light into a room. The longer the shutter is left open, the more time that your camera’s sensor is exposed to light. The sensor being exposed to light is what creates the photograph, or exposure.

Shutter speeds are typically displayed on your camera as whole numbers–125, 250, 500, etc. These numbers are abbreviations for fractions of a second. For example, 125 would be 1/125 of a second.

The speed of the shutter can be used creatively to freeze the action taking place in front of the camera or to imply motion. As Bryan Peterson points out in Understanding Exposure, there are three main ranges of shutter speeds: fast, slow, and super-slow.

Fast Shutter Speeds

Your fast shutter speeds are from 1/250 and up (1/320, 1/500, 1/640, etc.). Shooting at these speeds will help to freeze the motion.

Yet another example is a shot I took of this couple as they jumped from a bridge. Don’t worry, the bridge was only a few feet off the ground, so they survived the fall. I set my shutter speed to 1/200 sec and was able to capture them mid-air with just a small amount of motion blur.

Slow Shutter Speeds

Your slow shutter speeds are around 1/15, 1/30, 1/60. These speeds are good for giving a slight sense of motion to your photos, but still keeping a fair amount of detail in the subject(s).

I like to use these speeds at parties and family gatherings that are indoor with low light. I’ll turn off the camera’s flash and set my shutter speed somewhere around 1/15 to 1/60 sec (depending on the amount of available light) and just wait for a good moment to happen.

Super Slow Shutter Speeds

The super slow shutter speeds are 1/4, 1/2, 1, or longer. These speeds help you imply motion, but to a greater extreme. Because of the amount of time that your shutter will be open, it’s recommended that you put your camera on a tripod or other steady surface. If you’re shooting pictures of a stream or waterfall, try setting your shutter speed around 1/2 or 1/4 to get a silky, flowing motion out of the streaming water.

Your longer exposures (around 8 seconds and longer) can be used to turn moving lights such as headlights, tail-lights, etc., into streaming lines of glowing light.