Shutter(Bugs)

All you need to know about Shutters!!


I always believe medicine and photography go hand in hand. The more you know your medicine, the better you will know your photography. The shutter speed controls the controls the amount of time that your film, or digital sensor, is exposed to light, just like the pupil in your eye controls the amount of light entering your eye.



The shutter is a plastic device that opens and closes and thus regulates the amount of light entering into the camera. The shutter opens as soon as you click the ‘shutter release button’ on your cam and the shutter speed determines the duration the shutter remains open. The closing of the shutter causes a click sound, which is so characteristic of the camera. Shutter speed can vary from a fraction of a second to many seconds.

A shutter speed of ‘500’ means that the shutter will be open for 1/500th of a second. If the shutter speed is greater than a second, it is usually denoted with a ‘ or a similar symbol. Check out your camera’s manual for knowing the exact symbol. 15’ means the shutter will be open for 15 seconds. The longer the shutter is open, the more is the amount of light that enters the camera and vice versa. The shutter speed must be varied according to the situation to get the desired effect. Shutter speeds below 1/60th of a second are called slow shutter speeds and those at least above 1/500th of a second are called fast shutter speeds. Lower shutter speeds require the camera to be held still to avoid blurred images. So a tripod or the inbuilt image stabilization setup of your cam is required. Image stabilization comes in different names such as Anti-shake, Anti-blur etc

The shutter speeds is automatically adjusted in the normal point and shoot cameras. The camera decides the appropriate shutter speed according to the lighting. But there are still some hacks to increase or decrease the shutter speed on your regular point and shoot. I will explain about it a little later. In a DSLR or an advanced point and shoot camera, there are options to vary the shutter speed. In the DSLR there is a dedicated dial on the camera body to adjust the shutter speed and it is usually situated near the shutter release button, while in the advanced point and shoot cameras, shutter speed is usually displayed on the LCD screen and can be adjusted using specific buttons.

This brings us now to the various pre programmed modes on your camera which is dependent on the shutter speed. They have been set for your convenience, so that you can click your pictures with just basic knowledge. These modes are available both on the usual point and shoot cams as well as well as the highly advanced DSLRs. The different modes are:- Action mode aka sports mode is usually represented by a person running. Check up your manual to find out exactly how to activate the mode. Here the camera uses the highest shutter speeds suited for the light available. This helps in avoiding the blurred images especially when you take the picture of fast moving objects. But a word of caution is, don’t use it in low light situations because it tends to increase noise in the pictures (makes the pictures more grainy)

Landscape mode and night mode which is usually represented by a ‘mountain’ and a ‘crescent’ respectively, use slower shutter speeds so that more amount of light can be captured. In night mode, the more the amount of light captured the more clear the details will be. While in landscape mode, it helps giving a large depth of field, or something like a uniform focus throughout the picture in simple words, which will be dealt in subsequent posts. A word of advice here is to keep the camera on a stationary surface such as a tripod because the lower the shutter speed, higher is the chance of you shaking the camera and higher the chance of getting a blurred image.

Manual mode found exclusively in the DSLRs and advanced point and shoot cameras allows you to set up your own shutter speeds. It is usually denoted by the letter ‘M’. But one must be experienced enough to get the other settings right so that you can click the proper picture.

Shutter priority mode aka Tv mode is also exclusively found in the DSLRs and advanced point and shoot cameras. It is usually denoted by ‘Tv’ or ‘S’. This mode helps regulating the shutter speed while the camera adjusts the other parameters automatically accordingly.

The Program mode of the DSLRs and advanced point and shoot cameras denoted by ‘P’ usually allows adjusting both the shutter speed and the aperture modes simultaneously.

Now even if you don’t have a DSLR or advanced point and shoot camera, there is a small hack to increase your shutter speed in your normal point and shoot camera. The trick is to increase the ISO setting. This helps in increasing the shutter speed to a great extent. But alas it comes at a cost- higher ISO settings produce noisy pictures (they become grainy). Nevertheless you can still use higher ISO settings if there is sufficient light, such as bright daylight.

For capturing sharp images of fast moving objects, here are some shutter speed values to help you out:-

· Action sports like football – 1/400
· Children running - 1/350
· People jumping - 1/250
· Water Splashing - 1/350


Not all pictures need to be sharp and not all pictures need to be blurred. If you think about it, the possibilities are endless. This is an image got with high shutter speed. Here I was able to freeze the athlete half way through his jump. The image was caught with a shutter speed of 1/320th of a second.










With lower shutter speeds came the concept of light painting or light graffiti, one of the improvisations of the modern photography. I obtained this image by using a 15 second exposure. During this time I used a lighter to create the flame on top and a green LED was used and it was stroked all over a bottle filled with water to give this effect. The camera recorded all the events that took place during the 15 seconds and recorded it as a single picture.


As a final word, instead of being orthodox, experiment with different shutter speeds at different situations and you will be surprised at the results you get!



Happy clicking!


The Guild