Shutter

The first of the photographic skills you need to learn is exposure, everything follows from it. This is especially true for film shooters. Digital shooters have a little extra wiggle room. I don’t care about wiggle room though. It is my firm belief that you start out with the best possible image from the camera. This makes for less work in Photoshop, it makes for a higher quality image, and it makes you more of a craftsperson and an artist.

Two major controls on the camera work in conjunction to set an exposure. They are shutter speed and aperture. (There is a third, but we'll get to that in a future lesson)
The aperture determines the amount of light, and the shutter controls how long that light is exposed to the film or sensor.

Since it’s an easier concept to grasp, we’ll start with the shutter first.
On older cameras, the shutter speed dial is engraved with numbers. You’d turn the dial and line up a number with a mark on the camera body. Today, you have an LCD to display the numbers, usually on the top panel of the camera and inside the viewfinder.
On the older cameras, the series of numbers went something like this 4, 2, 1, 2, 4, 8, 15, 30, 60, 125, 500, 1000. Notice that the three numbers on the left are red. I’ll get to that in a minute.
The rest of these numbers represent time in fractions of a second. Put a one over each. 2 becomes 1/2. 4 becomes 1/4, 60 becomes 1/60, and so on. As the numbers on the dial get bigger, the time becomes shorter. Remember the pie analogy from school? A half (1/2) piece of pie is bigger than a quarter (1/4) of the pie.
The numbers in red represent whole seconds. Cameras with LCD readouts represent whole seconds with what looks like a quotation mark following the number. 2” is two seconds.

Do you notice anything special about this series of numbers? What would come after 1000 (1/1000 second)? You’re right, it’s 2000. Each setting represents either twice the time or one-half the time of the setting next to it. For example, in the series 8, 15, and 30, 15 (1/15 second) is half the time of 1/8 second and twice the time of 1/30 second. This means the 1/15 second setting lets in half the light of 1/8 second and twice the light of 1/30 second.

Remember this doubling and halving of the light, you’re going to see it pop up again in future lessons (and the rest of your photographic life).

On newer cameras, not only will you have the series of shutter speeds shown above, you’ll have in between values too. A typical series of numbers (remember, these are really fractions) will be 4, 5, 6, 8, 10, 13, 15, 20, 25, 30, and so on. Your camera may be different, check your manual.
If you have an SLR (Single Lens Reflex) camera, you should also have a “B” setting on your shutter dial. “B” stands for “Bulb” and what it does is keep the shutter open for as long as the shutter release button is pressed. It’s for setting exposure times longer than what’s built in to the camera.

Ok, so we’ve established that the shutter controls exposure by setting how long the light is striking film or sensor. What else can it do for you?
Well, the shutter controls motion. Rather it controls the apparent motion recorded on film or sensor. This means we can use the shutter in creative ways.
To stop motion, use faster shutter speeds. To show motion, use slower speeds.
A wildlife or sports photographer may want to freeze the action, a shutter speed of 1/250, 1/500 or faster will do that.
A landscape photographer may want to create a silky waterfall and show the flow of water by using a longer shutter speed like 1/2 second or longer.

On the other hand, the wildlife or sports photographer may wish to convey the power of movement, using a slower shutter speed like 1/15 second to capture a bit of blur that will suggest that movement. A landscape photographer might want to show the power of Yellowstone Falls by using a fast shutter speed like 1/60 or 1/125 to stop the motion of water and capture that sense of power.

Try thinking of other reasons you’d use either a fast or slow shutter speed.

Here’s your assignment. Get out your camera and camera manual. Find out the range of shutter speeds for your camera. Hint: you’ll need to be in the manual exposure mode.

Next, Aperture...