Imagine looking through a window. The window has a set of curtains which you are holding in your hands. Those curtains are closed. You hear a car outside and you want to see it. If you open and close the curtains very, very quickly you might not be able to tell whether the car is moving or not. You will see there is a car there, but the length of time you were able to spend looking at the car might not have been long enough for you to determine whether it was parked or in motion. If you had kept the curtains open for a little longer, you would have been able to see quite clearly whether the car was moving. This how shutter speeds work. Shutter speeds determine how low you let the censor or film see the subject. If the film or censor does not get a good long look, how can it know the subject is on the move? If you let it have a long look it will see the subject is moving and will show it in final image.

Thus we can see how the shutter speed basically determines whether your subjects looks as if it is moving or not. You might want to freeze your subject’s movement with a fast shutter speed or you might want to show it is moving by using a slower shutter speed. However, do not be trapped into thinking ‘fast-moving subject, therefore select fast shutter speed’ when showing that the subject is moving might be far more interesting.

Next: Camera Basics - Controlling Aperture Part 1