what if you shoot to objects at half the speed of light toward each other

Using this shutter speed chart and guide, you'll acquire to meliorate your photos for:

Long exposures
Activity shots
Outdoor photography
Nighttime sky photography

Take complete creative control over your images, with the step past pace techniques provided below.

Roll down & get started!

Shutter Speed Chart & Camera Technique Video
Shutter Speed & Exposure Time Basics
Exposure Stops & Shutter Speed
Instance Images & Creative Control
All-time Shutter Speed for Handheld Photos
Better Image Quality with Shutter Speed
Test & Compare Shutter Speeds
Choosing the Correct Shutter Speed

Shutter Speed Chart & Camera Technique Video

Shutter speed photography settings control 2 important factors inside an image:

Motion Blur: Case, smooth water produced by long shutter speeds or fast-moving objects frozen with abrupt focus, produced by short shutter speeds.
Prototype Brightness:Length of time light is exposed to the camera sensor, which determines the overall exposure.

This video covers my basic technique for using shutter speed to control specific parts of the prototype.

Lookout man it beginning to get an overview, then acquire to utilize the shutter speed nautical chart in the post-obit sections.

Shutter Speed & Exposure Fourth dimension Basics

To create an paradigm, low-cal passes through the lens aperture where it'due south exposed to the camera sensor.

The photographic camera sensor collects & records light information nearly the scene being photographed.

Shutter speed controls the length of fourth dimension the sensor is exposed to lite from the scene.

This is also a cistron in determining image brightness.

What is a Camera Shutter?

Recall of a photographic camera shutter equally a door, inside the camera body, that covers the camera sensor.

When the shutter (door) is closed, the sensor does not collect light information from the scene.
When the shutter (door) is open the sensor starts collecting light information from the scene.

When yous push the shutter button to take an epitome, the shutter opens and the sensor is exposed to light for the amount of time denoted by the shutter speed setting.

Technical Note: DSLR cameras have a physical shutter. Mirrorless cameras practice non. Other than this fact shutter speed works in the aforementioned manner for both.

Exposure Fourth dimension vs. Shutter Speed

Shutter speed controls the exposure time.

For example, a shutter speed of 2 seconds, exposes the paradigm sensor to light for 2 seconds.

This is known as a ii second exposure time.

Once this exposure time has elapsed, the shutter closes and the sensor is no longer exposed to low-cal.

What is Move Blur in Photography?

When dissimilar elements in the composition move during the exposure, such every bit:

water
stars & planets
copse
animals

Each pixel will show the boilerplate of the colour and calorie-free collected during the exposure time.

Using varying shutter speeds the photographer can add together "interestingness" to the photo past showing movement in a still moving picture.

The following images prove some examples of water.

Move Blur – i Second Shutter Speed

The following photograph shows a slight motion blur.

The water is much smoother with less particular.

You could increase the motion blur by lengthening the shutter speed.

No Move Mistiness – 1/1000 2nd Shutter Speed

The side by side photograph shows no motility blur.

The water looks as it would to your eye.

For every photograph, each pixel shows the boilerplate of the color and light it collects over the given shutter speed.

Motion blur is a function of shutter speed, focal length, and speed of the object moving through the composition.

Experimentation is key to learning how movement blur works.

In the post-obit sections, nosotros will hash out this topic in detail.

Exposure Stops & Shutter Speed

An exposure stop, or end for brusque, provides a universal scale to mensurate the increase and decrease in light, exposed to the image sensor, due to changes in shutter speed & f-cease.

For ISO, exposure stops provide the increase or decrease in indicate (calorie-free information) amplification, thus how much light is required to produce the optimal exposure.
Overall, stops provide an easy way for the photographer to increase or decrease image brightness or adjust specific f-stop, ISO, and shutter speed settings while balancing the exposure triangle.

Adjusting Shutter Speed Using Stops

Reference the shutter speed nautical chart, while reading the following section.

The Stops Column shows the departure in stops between varying shutter speeds.

The Shutter Speed Column shows different standard shutter speeds in i stop intervals.

Specific stops don't direct correlate to specific shutter speed values.
Stops allow you to hands compare the corporeality of lite captured by one shutter speed setting compared to another.

This makes it easy to increment or decrease the image effulgence & balance the exposure triangle without guessing.

Lengthening the shutter speed, producing a longer exposure fourth dimension, allows the image sensor to collect more light information, producing a brighter image with increased motion blur.

This is known as stopping up.

Shortening the shutter speed, producing a shorter exposure time, forces the epitome sensor to collect less light information, producing a darker paradigm with less motion mistiness.

This is known equally stopping downwardly.

An Instance of Shutter Speed & Exposure Stops

Y'all tin track these changes using the shutter speed nautical chart while looking at the post-obit examples.

The images testify a one stop increment in shutter speed with no changes to ISO or f-stop.

As motion blur & shutter speed increases the water becomes less and less detailed, with increased smoothness.

Settings: ane/fifteen second, f/11, ISO50

As the images progress, stopping up in shutter speed, they get brighter with increased motility mistiness.

Settings: 1/8 2nd, f/11, ISO50

Notice, in each image, the water becomes more and more smooth.

Remember, f-finish & ISO are staying constant for this example.

Settings: one/4 second, f/11, ISO50

Settings: i/2 second, f/11, ISO50

To maintain abiding image brightness, while increasing or decreasing shutter speed, changes in ISO or f-end must be made by the same number of stops in the opposite management.

For example, a stop upwardly in shutter speed would require a stop downward in ISO, f-stop, or a combination of both, to maintain the aforementioned image brightness.

This is taught in my Exposure Triangle Photography Guide.

Shooting Case – Using Stops & Shutter Speed

Let's say you took an image with a shutter speed of iv seconds, f/viii, ISO100, and noticed it was too bright.

You thought to yourself, "If merely this image contained half the amount of low-cal it would be perfect.".

Y'all knew that a 1 stop subtract in shutter speed would reduce the calorie-free collected past one-half, creating the photo you lot wanted.
Instead of guessing at the best shutter speed, you referenced the chart & saw that a 1 stop decrease in shutter speed from iv seconds was 2 seconds.

Y'all selected this new shutter speed in your camera and pressed the shutter button.

There was no need to approximate at the ideal shutter speed or take test images!

Instance Images & Creative Control

Varying shutter speeds tin can be utilized to provide detail, dynamic movement, and desired image attributes in a photo.

An paradigm attribute is a specific visual effect obtained from different camera settings such as f-stop, ISO & shutter speed.

The photographer tin control prototype attributes by varying shutter speeds.

This is where creativity, do & foresight really come into play!

Download this helpful graphic which provides references for unlike shutter speeds & the results they provide.

Shutter Speed Image Attributes

The following shutter speed ranges are provided to aid you visualize varying exposure times & their corresponding epitome attributes.

Merely by testing each of these with your photographic camera setup volition y'all actually larn and understand the concepts.

The following images are unedited RAW files showing actual outcomes of varying shutter speeds without changes due to photograph editing.

Shutter Speed Range: 1/8000th – ane/1000th Second

All-time for fast-moving objects that need to be sharp, without motion blur.

Requires more calorie-free in the scene, wider f-stop, or higher ISO.

1/1000th 2d Shutter Speed – Backpacking in the Canyonlands of Utah

Shutter Speed Range: one/500th – 1/250th Second

Perfect for clouded or partly cloudy days.

Great for quickly moving objects, achieving sharp focus, without move blur, with less ambient lite in the scene.

1/250th Second Shutter Speed – Glacier Climbing in Iceland

Shutter Speed Range: 1/125th – 1/15th Second

Perfect for landscapes, with a tripod, in depression light, including sunrises and sunsets.

The epitome beneath shows the motility of crashing waves with motion blur.

Due to the shutter speed of 1/15th of a second, in the image below, water movement details are visible, producing a dynamic effect.

Shutter Speed Range: 1/8th – x Seconds

Long shutter speeds are used to create motility blur in landscape, street, and travel photography.

They as well piece of work well for capturing light trails behind vehicles, water movement, and cloud movement.

Compared to the prototype above, the following two images show water movement with increased motion blur but decreased overall detail in the h2o.
They excel at moving the viewer's eyes through the composition with image attributes that would non take existed at shorter shutter speeds.

This method works well for showing motion in a subtle & calm manner.

Cool colors, as shown below, and taught in the Colour Theory Photography Guide, too produce calming furnishings on the overall mood.

ane/two 2nd Shutter Speed – Twilight in Kauai, Hawaii

1 Second Shutter Speed – Exploring the Waterfalls of Oregon

Shutter Speed Range: 15 Seconds – ii Minutes

These slow shutter speeds are used for long exposure low low-cal conditions including, milky way, star trail, and northern lights photography.

They likewise work well for long exposure photography of moving objects producing a motion blur event in clouds and h2o.

fifteen Second Shutter Speed – Level eight Aurora Activity in Republic of iceland

25 2d Shutter Speed – The Milky Way Over Crater Lake

All-time Shutter Speed for Handheld Photos

If the camera moves due to "mitt shake" information technology will ruin your photos.

This hand move produces very light motion blur causing out of focus images.

For the sharpest images, a tripod is recommended.

If you can't use a tripod, then this trick works very well.

Max Handheld Shutter Speed = 1 / Focal Length

If you were shooting at 50mm focal length, you lot would want a shutter speed of 1/50th or faster.

Anything longer than 1/50th-second shutter speed would yield a blurry image.

This is an approximation, but it works well.

Amend Image Quality with Shutter Speed

As more low-cal data is nerveless by the image sensor, over the allotted exposure time, more detail & data are displayed in the final image, resulting in less image noise.

At that place is a maximum corporeality of light information each pixel can collect, known as full well chapters.

When this value is exceeded, too much lite is collected, and the pixel becomes "clipped", as well known as, "overexposed", or "blown out".

If this happens, the pixel becomes pure white and you tin can never recover the particular that information technology collected from the scene.

As the camera sensor collects more light, the paradigm quality increases, given that none of the pixels are "diddled out".

In nature, some things are very close to pure white, such as straight sunlight.
If a few pixels become "clipped" it's not a big deal.

The ideal exposure is achieved when each pixel collects as much calorie-free as possible, without whatsoever pixels "blowing out", or becoming pure white.

The technique is called Expose to the Right (ETTR).

This video details the exact procedure.

Here are some examples of different exposures & their histograms.

Expose to the Right Example Images

When I process the prototype above, I'll darken it downward to match what I actually saw while out shooting.

Using ETTR / Betrayal to the Right, the photographer can capture extra data from the night parts of the scene than they could take with a standard exposure.

Without slightly overexposing the highlights, I would have lost data in the dark parts of the image, as shown in the following histogram.

The next photo shows the RAW file in a higher place, with a 1 stop postal service-processing decrease.

This is what I actually saw when out shooting, only I accept style more than dark item in my RAW file.

Expose to the Right RAW File Darkened in Post Processing

Exam & Compare Shutter Speeds

Taking your photographic camera outside and experimenting is the but fashion to really understand the best shutter speeds for every shot.

Here is what I would recommend.

Step one: Select a single limerick, and go out all of your other settings the same, except shutter speed.

Shooting a stream or moving water is great for this.

Prior to taking the image, have a mental guess at the epitome attribute a specific shutter speed may produce for a specific shooting scenario.

Stride 2: Accept v-x unlike images of the same limerick, using different shutter speeds, and see what happens.

Step 3: Echo steps 1-three for varying shooting scenarios, subject speed, and lighting conditions.

Step four: Review your images on the computer.

Zoom in at 100% and run across the difference in each of the photos.

Take notes on what happened so y'all tin can easily think.

Choosing the Correct Shutter Speed

The question, "What Shutter Speed Practise I Use?", leads downwards the path of dependence, without an bodily understanding of the topic.

Instead, try request yourself:

What image attributes exercise I want to produce?
What shutter speed is required to produce it?

These questions atomic number 82 downwards the path of independence and problem-solving.

This is where true learning takes identify.

All of the information above provides the foundation for selecting the all-time camera settings using the Photography Exposure Triangle.

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Source: https://www.davemorrowphotography.com/shutter-speed-chart