How shutter speed affects motion.

How motion is captured by shutter speed.
Understanding shutter speed is one of the cornerstones in photography.  Shutter speed is one of the main controls over blur - caused by motion instead of focus condition - and it has a significant impact on the outcome of the shot.  Fast shutter speeds reduce the effect of movement on an image while slow shutter speeds enhance it. 

The exact way in which shutter speed affects a photograph is highly dependent upon the situation and equipment.  This is highly conditional; there are a tremendous number of parameters involved in what the outcome will look like.  Without putting specific numbers on it though, suffice it to say faster shutter speeds produce less blur due to motion and slower shutter speeds produce more.

A good example of a parameter relates to the speed of the pinwheel-like spinner above.  How fast is it actually going?  This is important because, if it were perfectly still and the camera was on a tripod a 30 second exposure would produce an image with crisp edges.  The spinner could also be driven by hurricane-force winds and a shutter speed of 1/1000th of a second would still produce significant motion blur.  Other factors include proximity to subject, size of image, and the type of image capture being employed.  An electronic shutter uses a capture technique very different than a focal-plane mechanical shutter or a lens-based leaf shutter; each one would render the image slightly differently.

I find that 1/250th of a second is a good starting shutter speed for freezing motion, but often higher values are needed.  While sharp edges on a subject has merit, sometimes blur produces a pleasant effect.  What shutter speed is good for producing visually desirable blur?  Again I have only the answer that it is highly dependent upon situation and equipment.  Of the four shots above, I like the third one (1/13th) the most, but this is a personal bias and others may favour a different one. 

The best way to get the shot you like is to take several at the same exposure value but with various aperture and shutter speed pairings.  For example, an aperture of f/5.6 at 1/125th of a second will create the same exposure as f/16 at 1/15th of a second all other things being equal.  Photograph a scene where you want to enhance motion by shooting at a variety of such pairings.  Look at your shots when time and learn something about what you did.  Eventually, it will all start to make sense.

Thanks for reading.   www.ericspix.com   Eric Svendsen

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