In my previous post, I had said about shutter-speed priority and aperture-priority modes, but it'll be completely useless unless I define what shutter-speed and aperture is.
So, what is shutter speed?
Shutter speed/ Exposure time is the time for which the camera's shutter remains open after it is pressed. Compare the camera's shutter to your eye.
Close your eyes; after that open it fully for the shortest amount of time you can, and close it again. You'll have a glance of the sight recorded temporarily in your memory.
After that, close your eyes again, and open it and move your head from that sight to another, and close your eyes. Now, you'll have a set of images recorded in your memory, stacked very quickly upon one another, to create something what we call a clip. Now you don't have a glance of only one image, you have recorded the events from opening your eyes, to the point you closed it.
The camera's shutter is the digital counterpart of the human-eye. When it remains open for an extremely short amount of time, like 1/6000th's of a second ( it's way beyond a human eye's capability); the image captured is the one which gets recorded on the sensor for that amount of time. Obviously 1/6000th of a second is the time small enough to freeze all kinds of earthly motion.
Also if the shutter remains open for 15 seconds (its the max. a P-S will allow); the camera's shutter captures all the events that happened during those 15 seconds, and stack them to form a single image.
Here I'm going to give examples of photos captured with different shutter speeds, and you are to spot out the differences.
Lets analyze the photos.
In the 2nd photo, the shutter remained open for 1 mS, which was enough to freeze the blades of the fan (remember, the fan is rotating, the camera captured just a glance of its rotational motion).
In the 3rd photo, with an exposure time of 0.25 second, (probably it's the time taken to blink an eye), the camera wasn't able to freeze the motion at all, and it captured what wee generally see through our eyes.
In 0.25 secs, the fan had made a number of rotations, and the camera captured all of them. So, the blades couldn't be perceived like in the 2nd photo.
In the 1st photo, with an exposure time of 1/60 secs, the camera wasn't able to freeze the motion completely, nor it could capture what we see through our eyes. Thus the result is an intermediate, it shows the blades and we also get a perception that the blades are moving.
For waterfalls, some of you might have seen some silky smooth waterfall images. Have you ever wondered how is it possible? It's achieved with long-exposure (some love to call it slow-shutter) technique. The trick is to keep the shutter open for 1/3 or 1/2 second, and the camera will capture all the water which fell through that 1/3 second. For capturing waterfall with that silky effect, the magic number is 1/3 second. The result is a silky smooth effect. Or, if you want to freeze the waterfall, to show the tiny droplets of water falling, you have to choose a higher shutter speed, to freeze the waterfall's motion.
Take a look at the two photos:
The 1st one was shot with 1/160 sec exposure time, and the second with 1/3 sec exposure time. In the 1st one, the camera was able to freeze the motion, hence showing all those tiny droplets of water falling. In the second, with an exposure time of 1/3 second, the image got the so called "Silky effect".
The long-exposure technique is used to create masterpieces, and it opens up many specializations of photography. I'll write separately about long-exposure later.
Take a look at my photos captured with long-exposure:
All these were shot with more than 5 secs exposure time, and I ended up with these photos.
So, what is shutter speed?
Shutter speed/ Exposure time is the time for which the camera's shutter remains open after it is pressed. Compare the camera's shutter to your eye.
Close your eyes; after that open it fully for the shortest amount of time you can, and close it again. You'll have a glance of the sight recorded temporarily in your memory.
After that, close your eyes again, and open it and move your head from that sight to another, and close your eyes. Now, you'll have a set of images recorded in your memory, stacked very quickly upon one another, to create something what we call a clip. Now you don't have a glance of only one image, you have recorded the events from opening your eyes, to the point you closed it.
The camera's shutter is the digital counterpart of the human-eye. When it remains open for an extremely short amount of time, like 1/6000th's of a second ( it's way beyond a human eye's capability); the image captured is the one which gets recorded on the sensor for that amount of time. Obviously 1/6000th of a second is the time small enough to freeze all kinds of earthly motion.
Also if the shutter remains open for 15 seconds (its the max. a P-S will allow); the camera's shutter captures all the events that happened during those 15 seconds, and stack them to form a single image.
Here I'm going to give examples of photos captured with different shutter speeds, and you are to spot out the differences.
 |
| See how the photos of the same subject(here, a rotating fan) differ, when captured with different shutter speeds. (Google images) |
In the 2nd photo, the shutter remained open for 1 mS, which was enough to freeze the blades of the fan (remember, the fan is rotating, the camera captured just a glance of its rotational motion).
In the 3rd photo, with an exposure time of 0.25 second, (probably it's the time taken to blink an eye), the camera wasn't able to freeze the motion at all, and it captured what wee generally see through our eyes.
In 0.25 secs, the fan had made a number of rotations, and the camera captured all of them. So, the blades couldn't be perceived like in the 2nd photo.
In the 1st photo, with an exposure time of 1/60 secs, the camera wasn't able to freeze the motion completely, nor it could capture what we see through our eyes. Thus the result is an intermediate, it shows the blades and we also get a perception that the blades are moving.
For waterfalls, some of you might have seen some silky smooth waterfall images. Have you ever wondered how is it possible? It's achieved with long-exposure (some love to call it slow-shutter) technique. The trick is to keep the shutter open for 1/3 or 1/2 second, and the camera will capture all the water which fell through that 1/3 second. For capturing waterfall with that silky effect, the magic number is 1/3 second. The result is a silky smooth effect. Or, if you want to freeze the waterfall, to show the tiny droplets of water falling, you have to choose a higher shutter speed, to freeze the waterfall's motion.
Take a look at the two photos:
.jpg) |
| Take a look, hope you are able to differentiate the two |
 |
| Compare the two |
The long-exposure technique is used to create masterpieces, and it opens up many specializations of photography. I'll write separately about long-exposure later.
Take a look at my photos captured with long-exposure:
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| The sea at night. On the banks of Kanyakumari, India. |
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| Dal lake: Kashmir, in evening |
 | |
| Dal lake: Kashmir, at night. | . |
All these were shot with more than 5 secs exposure time, and I ended up with these photos.
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