What Does Shutter Mean In Photography?

Hi, everybody. Welcome to Episode 24 of the photography explained podcast. In this episode, what does shutter mean in photography?

I’m your host, Rick, and each week I will try to explain one photographic thing to you in plain English in less than 10 minutes without the irrelevant details. My aim is to explain things in just enough detail to help us with our photography and no more.

Okay

As I established in the last episode, I’m explaining two photographic things per week at the moment because I’m twice weekly. I’m toying with the idea of going once weekly, but I do find I am enjoying this.

Anyway, back to the question. You don’t want to hear me waffling about myself. No, you just want to know the answer and that is quite right.

This is my answer.

The shutter in a camera controls the amount of time the camera sensor is exposed to light. When you press the shutter release button, the shutter raises and lets light into the sensor. You set the shutter speed, which is the amount of time the shutter is open as the sensor is exposed to light. The longer the shutter speed the more light that reaches the sensor. The shorter the shutter speed the less light that reaches the sensor.

Shutter speed is one of the three elements of the exposure triangle, along with aperture and ISO.

You can listen to the episode here

Or keep on reading. Or do both. Entirely up to you!

So that’s it.

In normal times the shutter is closed (unless it is a mirrorless camera). It’s opened when you press the shutter release button (or shutter button). Okay. That’s probably all we need to know about this one. So thanks for listening. See you on the next one.

No just kidding.

In the last episode I talked about aperture. And one of my starters was this – what is the lens aperture made of? And the answer from Canon Sony and Nikon was – we’re not telling you.

What is the shutter actually made of?

Now then, what’s the shutter made of in the camera?

I asked Sony Canon and Olympus and guess what? They’re not telling me.

I have had a look at the shutter on my Canon 6D and it would appear to be metal, no surprise, nothing earth-shattering there then. Does this really matter? It doesn’t really. I don’t really care.

I was just curious really about what the shutter was made of – it was not a blatant attempt to make Canon, Sony, and Olympus aware of me and my podcast honest!

So why is it called a shutter?

Well shutter is a shutter isn’t it – open it lets light in, closes it does not. You have shutters on windows so, why not shutter? Turns out this is one of the few logical terms in photography that I have explained so far.

What is the shutter speed?

This is the thing that you can set as I explained probably quite badly earlier. In the last episode, I explained that the aperture and the shutter speed combined to control the amount of light that gets through to the sensor.

So the shutter speed is quite literally the time the shutter is open, exposing the sensor to light.

What is the shutter speed range?

In editing this transcript I have noticed that I say so far too often, so these are being edited out….

Okay, as exciting as reading the aperture scale out last week was, I will tell you what the shutter speed range is, and we’re talking in full stops here. I will explain this more in the exposure triangle.

This is the shutter speed range, and this is going to be duller than the aperture scale. The shutter speed range in full stops is as follows.

1 second

½ second
¼ second
1/8^th second

1/16^th second
1/30^th second
1/60^th second

1/100^th second
1/250^th second
1/500^th second

1/1000^th second

You get the idea I hope.

And there are longer shutter speeds than one second and faster shutter speeds than 1/1000^th of a second.

There is also a setting on most cameras, which is B for Bulb. Why it is called Bulb I have no idea. But with Bulb, you press the shutter and when you let go again, the shutter goes up.

I should add that to my notes because Bulb is one of those things that I need to explain. Added.

A conventional shutter speed range will be from say 30 seconds to 1/4000^th of a second. I think in general terms the more expensive the camera, the broader the shutter speed range, but yeah, 30 seconds to 1/4000^th is quite standard.

And another thing.

This reminds me of something else I need to add to my list of episodes – neutral density filters.

Now for the maths – the important bit

From one second to half a second, we are halving the amount of time that the shutter is open. So if the shutter is open for half the time the shutter is letting half as much light into the sensor.

The longer the shutter speed, the more light gets into the sensor.

The shorter the shutter speed, the less light gets into the sensor.

That’s the general principle that’s important here.

Okay, so you get the idea.

What shutter speed should I use?

Or should you use? I never know what to say – I or we – but I know what I mean. And when you’re listening, hopefully, you’ll know what I mean as I am talking to you.

The number one answer in photography is this – it depends.

It depends on what you’re photographing. It depends if you’re holding your camera handheld or on a tripod.

I take the vast majority of photos on a tripod, so it doesn’t matter to me.

Quick tip here if you’re taking photos handheld

If you’re using a focal length of 50mm, your shutter speed should be faster than the reciprocal of that. Now I don’t understand what reciprocal means. If you put a one in front of 50mm your shutter speed needs to be faster than that i.e. faster than 1/50^th of a second. This is a general rule, but a very good general rule for handheld photography.

Now, if your shutter speed was 1/60^th of a second and you wanted to shoot at 100mm focal length what do you do (forgetting image stabilisation and other clever stuff)? Well you open up the aperture by one stop which means you can change your shutter speed to 1/125^th of a second – by opening up the aperture, you’re letting more light in which compensates for the faster shutter speed.

Different shutter speeds

A fast shutter speed means less time which will freeze fast-moving action, and with a slow shutter, the shutter is open for longer. If you’re handheld, you’ll get camera shake. Again, the the rule of thumb is below 1/60th of a second, you’re at risk of getting camera shake, but you can get camera shake at faster shutter speeds if you’re rubbish.

You should be alright at 1/60^th of a second upwards.

Tripods

I use a tripod, so it’s not an issue. I’m normally using a slower shutter speed than a faster shutter speed. That’s because I’m photographing buildings and other things that don’t move. But if you’re into sports, you want to use a faster shutter speed – if you are photographing people running, football, rugby, squirrels, or anything involving movement.

I’m more concerned about the aperture, so my camera is normally on a tripod.

Use a tripod and you can use longer shutter speeds.

A quick word on ND filters

You can use things called neutral density filters, which cut the amount of light reaching the sensor. These allow you to select a slower shutter speed which can be dead handy.

Okay, we’re nearly done here.

What’s next in the photography explained podcast? I explain exactly what ISO means.

Thank you

So I will say thank you for listening. I hope you enjoyed this episode. I hope you understand what the shutter speed is, what it means to you, and why it is important. If you did, please leave a nice review and rating wherever you get your podcasts.

And also please subscribe so you don’t miss an episode. And if you could also tell everyone you know about my podcast that would be even better – probably best if you tell one person who might be in interested, don’t tell everybody because they’ll just look at you funny!

And please check out my website, Rick McEvoy Photography, where you can find out all about me and my architectural photography and construction photography work. And also you can find my blog there, where there’s lots and lots of stuff about photography that I’ve written.

And on my website, you can also get in touch with me. This is how you can ask me to explain something to you on my podcast. I can chuck it on the list, which is on my website. And when I do answer your question, which I will, I will give you a shout-out.

In the next Photography Explained Podcast episode 25 – Happy New Year, followed by episode 26 – What Does ISO Stand For In Photography?

This episode was brought to you by the power of optimism that 2021 is going to be a better year.

I’ve been Rick McEvoy thanks again for listening and giving me 11 minutes of your valuable time and I will see you on the next episode.

Cheers from me, Rick

OK – that was the podcast episode.

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Thank you

Thanks for listening to my podcast (if you did) and reading this blog post (which I assume you have done as you are reading this).

Cheers from me Rick