Learning about your shutter speed can make or break a photo. One sure way to learn the effects of shutter speed is to shoot on shutter priority once in awhile and get the idea of how pictures look at different shutter speeds.

Our shutter speed control the amount of ambient light that is let into our sensors. With this said and having this one tool in your photography belt you are going to already begin to shoot better pictures. The reason I say this is because you can control the amount of light, the amount of movement and the amount of blur that you put into the picture when you shoot.

The faster you take you shutter speed the less amount of light will hit your sensor. This is simply because as the shutter is moving fast the sensor is expose a short amount of time, leaving in less light. If you slow the shutter down and use a tripod to steady the camera, you will allow the sensor to be exposed longer and allow more light into your sensor.

If you want to stop fast moving action it would make sense that you want to have a fast shutter speed. Keep in mind that as you speed the shutter you begin to effect the light into the camera. I get a lot of questions about dark pictures when shooting at higher shutter speeds. And this is why this happens.

If you want to make something have motion, you would use a slow shutter speed. Remember when we slow the shutter we make that camera very hard to hand hold. This is why you would need a tripod to keep the camera steady. Slow shutter speeds make moving water look like it is flowing.

Using shutter speeds means that you are controlling light. If you remember this you will be able to control your exposure. To learn the effects of shutter speed, again I would say to shoot on “Shutter Priority”.

Most of all to learn how to shoot your camera you need to shoot your camera. If it is in it’s bag until you need it, you will never get the hang of photography.