Creative Shutter Speed: Master the Art of Motion Capture

Chapter 1. Tap the Power of Every Shutter Speed

Have you ever counted how many shutter speeds your camera has? Like many digital SLRs. my camera has over fifty marked shutter speeds. Yours probably has a similar number. That's a lot of shutter speeds and it can be an overwhelming number when it comes time to choose the appropriate setting for a specific situation.

That tally raises an important question: What can you possibly do with over fifty different shutter speeds.

Well, that's what this introductory chapter is all about These pages show you some of the fantastic pictures you can take once you learn how to use the full range of your camera's shutter speeds. As you look at the photographs and begin reading, you may want to pick up your camera and experiment with some of the shutter speed settings used in these introductory pages That's not a bad idea. In fact, whenever you get inspired by a tip or a photo or one of your own ideas, bookmark your place and go out and shoot some pictures of your own.

I'll introduce you to some major players in the shutter speed lineup, but I'm not going to bore you by talking about every single shutter speed setting. After all, there's not much difference between the results delivered by neighboring shutter speeds such as 1/1 5 second and 1/13 second, or I /500 second and I /640 second. Instead, I'll give you an overview of a shutter speed series as its duration doubles, starting with the fastest shutter speed available—I /8000 second. So the sequence ...