Written Assignment: Creative Shooting

A camera's shutter speed control the exposure of the lens and also it's aperture. Manipulating this tool allows for a broad range of creativity, conveying motions, freezing actions, and much more. Shutter speed controls the amount of light that is exposed in the image, making an average of light over a particular time frame rather than just a moment of time. With adjustment to the the shutter speed, one can control what objects in the picture can be focused on and what objects are blurred. To have a faster shutter, more light is needed, to have a lower shutter speed, less light is needed. But achieving your desired amount of blur is difficult, but three main points to consider: speed, direction of motion, and magnification. Speed of the object is one of the most important factors since faster moving objects appear more blurred than regularly moving objects. Direction of motion is the movement of the object either laterally or vertically, meaning that objects that are moving towards/away from the camera wouldn't be as blurry as objects moving from side to side. Magnification also has to be considered since the larger the object the less focused it will be in the picture, and the more blurred it will turn out, but is the most controlled out of all the factors. One common technique in utilizing shutter speed is panning. In panning, the photographer follows the moving subject with a slow shutter speed so that the moving subject becomes focused, as opposed to the opposite (having focus on the stationary subject) which blurs the moving subject. With the use of fast shutter speeds, objects that move in fast rates, like water or falling objects, are captured at a moments time, freezing the frame so that every aspect of the image is captured. Knowing how to use shutter speed is a helpful tool in creativity in photography, allowing for appropriate motion and fluidity in your image.