Summary
Shutter Speed
- parameter that refers to the amount of time during which the shutter is open and the sensor exposed. It is exposed in fractions of a second.
- When you take a photo with a long shutter speed, your image will appear a bit blurry because of the movement. if someone is walking at a normal pace and you take a photo with 1/50 shutter speed with 50mm lens, there might be a bit of a blur in movement. With higher shutter speed, you can freeze the moment
- focal length affects your shutter speed because the more you zoom it, the narrower the field is and faster things move in front of your camera.
- With wide angle lenses, you can get away with lower shutter speed, because things are moving slower in front your lens
- With telephoto lenses, you have to increase your shutter speed to freeze the moment, because birds, cars, people move faster in front of your lens.
How to calculate minimum shutter speed limit
- you have to be stable to make sure your photograph is not blurry.
- For example, if you take a photo with 400mm lens on a full frame camera, a rule of thumb will be 1/400s to avoid blurry photo. However, because everything in front of your lens moves faster, to freeze what you are photographing, you need to double or triple it.
OIS allows to reduce shutter speed
- stabilisation can help you gain 1 to 3 stops (divide by 2 to 8) (fibonacci?)
Sensor size has impact on your minimum shutter speed limit
- When you shoot on a full frame camera, your images should be sharp at 1/50 with 50mm lens. However, when you are taking photographs with an APS-C body, you have to take into consideration crop factor and multiply it by that crop factor
Highlights
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This parameter simply refers to the amount of time during which the shutter is open and the sensor/film exposed. It is usually expressed in fractions of a second, since it will be relatively rare to need durations longer than one second.
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In order to achieve this, it is important to find the “handheld” limit, below which your images will be blurred. It depends on many factors:
How fast the subject is moving. Someone walking at a normal pace will usually appear sharp up to 1/50 or so. Sport photographers tend to use 1/500 to 1/1000 as a base speed, sometimes even faster. Here are some examples of fast moving subjects which required fast shutter speeds of 1/2000s:
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Which focal you are using. Since details are much smaller in the frame with wider focals, you can get away with slower speeds. Conversely, if you are using a 500mm lens, the tiniest lens movement will appear unacceptably blurry.
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How stable you are. It depends on your age, your physical condition, your training, the weight of your equipment, your position, the way you hold your camera and a myriad of other factor
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Whether your camera or your lens has some form of stabilisation (called vibration reduction by some). This will usually make you gain 1 to 3 stops (i.e. you can divide the speed by 2 to 8).
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The rule of thumb usually given is that the handheld limit is 1/focal length (in 35mm equivalent). So if you are shooting a full frame camera at 50mm, your images should be sharp at 1/50 and above, as long as the subject is static. On a DX DSLR, the same focal would require 1/75 or so (to account for the crop factor). However, this depends on so many factors that you may well find that your own limit is significantly faster or slower.