Shutter Speed

Shutter speed is the term used to describe the amount of time that a camera's shutter is open for. This  determines how much light will be in the picture. The standard shutter speeds range from 4 seconds to 1/2000th of a second and can be manually set on both digital and film camera's.

When the shutter is open for longer, the camera can register more movement. More light will also enter the picture and using long shutter speed in bright areas can cause the photo to be too bright. On the other hand using a quick shutter speed can cause it to be too dark. Sometimes photographers will extend the exposure to many seconds in order to photograph lightning or create light pictures.

Shutter speed can also determine whether parts of the photograph will be sharp or blurred, however, shooting without a tripod when shutter speed is slower than 1/30th of a second can cause the entire picture to be blurry. 

Klimka