Practical Artistry: Light & Exposure for Digital Photographers

92 Selecting Shutter Speed

Shutter Speed and Subject Motion

Shutter Speed and Subject Motion

I’ve explained how camera motion can negatively ef-

fect a photo, but in my opinion, it’s much more exciting

to realize that shutter speed has a huge creative impact

on the way motion in the subject of your photo appears

in the finished photo.

I’ve already noted that if you are photographing some-

t

hing that doesn’t move, like a still life or a rock, you

don’t have to consider the motion of the subject. But

once water flows around the rock, the situation has

changed. Time, that is, the duration of time determined

by the shutter speed setting, changes the way the mo

-

t

ion of the stream that surrounds the rock is rendered.

Indeed, being able to show the impact of time passing

in the single frame of a photo is one of the great gifts

of still photography. When you make your choice of

shutter speed, if your subject is in motion, you choose

how this motion will be stopped and rendered visually

in your photo.

A very fast shutter speed will appear to completely stop

motion. Using these shutter speeds, even the fastest of

moving objects, such as birds in flight, racing cars, and

crashing waves, appear “frozen.”

Intermediate shutter speeds will mostly (but not com-

p

letely) stop motion. At these shutter speeds, a lot de-

p

ends on your precise choice of shutter speed and on

the motion of the subject. ...