Understanding shutter speed is essential if you want to control movement in your photography. It directly affects how sharp or blurred moving subjects appear in your images.
Coming to you from Benjamin Jaworskyj - Simply Learn Photography, this informative video demonstrates how shutter speed shapes your photos by capturing waves at different settings. Jaworskyj highlights that shutter speed not only controls motion blur but also significantly impacts your photo's brightness. For example, in landscape photography, he uses slower shutter speeds to achieve creative effects, such as making waterfalls look smooth or misty. Conversely, fast shutter speeds freeze motion, which is essential for sports photography or capturing droplets in sharp detail. Jaworskyj clearly explains how the shutter acts like a door, opening briefly to expose your camera's sensor to light, and the speed at which it opens and closes directly affects how motion is portrayed in your images.
Jaworskyj walks you through practical steps to experiment with shutter speed, encouraging you to test various settings to see these effects firsthand. He advises starting with a slow shutter speed, like half a second, to intentionally blur movement, then progressively shortening it to freeze action. Throughout, he emphasizes the interconnectedness of shutter speed, aperture, and ISO, providing clear examples of how adjusting one setting demands compensating adjustments in another. This exercise highlights the dynamic nature of exposure and helps you gain practical skills for managing exposure manually, especially useful in challenging lighting situations.
The video expands on the relationship between shutter speed and exposure, offering practical tips such as working in shadowed areas or during low-light conditions like dawn or dusk. Jaworskyj suggests that experimenting at these times allows you to use slower shutter speeds effectively without overexposing your photos. He also touches on the necessity of sometimes increasing ISO when using extremely fast shutter speeds to compensate for reduced light, reassuring you that higher ISO is a tool to embrace, not fear.
Jaworskyj shares further insights on capturing motion creatively, using examples like waves and waterfalls to encourage experimentation. He suggests using a tripod for stability, which eliminates unwanted camera shake, allowing you to focus solely on how shutter speed affects motion. Check out the video above for the full rundown from Jaworskyj.
