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Control On Shutter Speed

Shutter speed is the best part in any camera you can make awesome pictures.

What is Shutter Speed?

Shutter speed is the length of time camera shutter is open, exposing light onto the camera sensor. Essentially, it’s how long your camera spends taking a photo. This has a few important effects in how your images will appear.
When you use a long shutter speed, you end up exposing your sensor for a significant period of time. The first big effect of it is motion blur. If your shutter speed is long, moving subjects in your photo will appear blurred along the direction of motion. This effect is used quite often in advertisements of cars and motorbikes, where a sense of speed and motion is communicated to the viewer by intentionally blurring the moving wheels.

On the other hand, shutter speed can also be used to do just the opposite – freeze motion. If you use an especially fast shutter speed, you can eliminate motion even from fast-moving objects, like birds in flight, or cars driving past. If you use a fast shutter speed while taking pictures of a fan, fan will appear still, which might not even be visible to our own eyes.

One more thing is that Shutter Speed also determine how much light will be available in your exposer/picture.

How Shutter Speed is Measured

Shutter speeds are typically measured in fractions of a second, when they are under a second. For example 1/4 means a quarter of a second, while 1/250 means one two-hundred-and-fiftieth of a second (or four milliseconds).

Most modern DSLRs and mirrorless cameras can handle shutter speeds of up to 1/4000th of a second, while some can handle much quicker speeds of 1/8000th of a second and faster. On the other hand, the longest available shutter speed on most DSLRs or mirrorless cameras is typically 30 seconds. You can use a longer shutter speed by using external remote triggers, if necessary.

How to Find Shutter Speed

Do you know how to find what your camera shutter speed is set to? It is typically very easy to find it. On Nikon cameras that have a top panel, the shutter speed is typically located on the top left corner, as circled:

And On Canon Camera in the advanced exposure modes on your Canon Screen

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