In my previous article, I mentioned I would explain ISO, shutter speed, aperture, and how the affect photo the final photo. This will be a three part series and in each article, I will talk about one of the three major settings. In this article, I will focus on shutter speed.
Manual is great because I have more control over the final photo.
Most DSLRs these days are more than capable of taking amazing photographs if you stick it in auto. However, as you will or have already learned, photography is so dynamic and subjective, that there will be many times that leaving the camera in auto just doesn’t quite capture the image you want.
Note that the image on the left has much richer greens, and doesn’t seem so washed out compared to the image on the right. Why is this? Most likely in auto, the camera was compensating for the relatively harsh lighting coming in (telltale sign: lens flare). Regardless of why, in this case, the auto setting wasn’t able to deliver the image I truly wanted. This is where the manual setting really shines.
The most popular use of controlling the shutter speed is to ramp it up and get those lovely light trails/light painting photographs. While amazing, this isn’t the only benefit of being able to control the shutter speed. Photographs of waterfalls and streams that appear ethereal and misty are also achieved by using a longer exposure. Similarly, holding the shutter open can also create the illusion of glassy waters for lakes, etc.
Another benefit of reducing the shutter speed is to reduce noise during low-light photography. Typically, you need to increase your ISO to compensate for the lack of lighting during night and/or low-light photography. However, a trick I’ve found is to reduce the ISO and increase the exposure (longer shutter speed).
The downside to this technique is that it becomes almost impossible to get crisp images of moving subjects. These two images are great examples of just how challenging low-light photography can be. The image on the right has a lot noise (briefly explained in my previous article) and very poor color. Everything looks blue-hued and underexposed. The image on the right however, is much better exposed and has much better color but is out of focus and a little shaky. In low-light, many cameras will struggle to autofocus, often resulting in low quality photographs. Granted, these two shots were taken as an exaggerated representation of the two scenarios, but you will run into similar situations while shooting in low-light.
Now it goes without saying that the longer the exposure, the more blurring you’re going to get and the more light you will let in. This can result in more blurring than intended, or an overexposed photo. The former is easily remedied by dropping the shutter speed. The latter is not as straightforward.
Let’s say you need to maintain the shutter speed, you can try increasing your f-stop or aperture and reducing your ISO. However, there’s only so much you can do, and on bright sunny days, a high f-stop often isn’t enough to counteract the amount of light coming in due to the prolonged shutter speed. That’s where a little device called Neutral Density Filters, or ND filters, comes in. Think of ND filters are sunglasses. They ‘darken’ the image by restricting the amount of light that can pass through into the lens. Subsequently, you can shoot long exposure photographs even on bright days without over exposing your photograph.
There are two kinds of ND filters, variable, and fixed. Variable ND filters are great because you can adjust and fine tune the additional f-stops on the fly. However, they have a limit, and you can always find a fixed ND filter that can go darker. Furthermore, you can always stack ND filters to get a darker image.
“There are always two people in every picture: the photographer and the viewer.” — Ansel Adams
I hope you have found this article helpful in covering one of the basics of photography! Stay tuned for the next article in this three part series; Aperture.
As usual, feel free to ask questions, leave comments, and even share my article. Till next time!
Techlense 
Have written a similar article two weeks ago. Would love to get your experienced feedback on mine, if you have time
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Hi pphi! Based on your blog, I’m not 100% if I can help as you seem much more experienced, but I’d certainly love to try!
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