Along with aperture and ISO, shutter speed is one of the fundamental parameters that control the exposure of your image and give you the creative latitude for rendering the frame as you see fit. If you are new to photography and want to learn how to use shutter speed both to create technically correct photos and to explore your creativity, check out this fantastic video tutorial that will show you everything you need to know.
Coming to you from Dylan Goldby, this great video tutorial will show you how to take greater control of shutter speed in your images. One mistake I often see newer photographers make regarding shutter speed is keeping it too slow in an attempt to keep the ISO as low as possible, resulting in blurry images from camera shake or subject motion. You can always work on noise from using a high ISO in post-processing, and modern software has gotten remarkably good at reducing it while maintaining sharpness. On the other hand, if an image is blurry because of camera shake or subject motion, there generally is not much you can do to save it. A noisy but sharp image is always the better choice. Check out the video above for the full rundown from Goldby.
the proliferation of image stabilization has changed the equation