Photography- Shutter Speed

Shutter Speed is ‘the amount of time that the shutter is open'. I know that might not make any sense but let me break it down. 

Shutter speed is measured in seconds – or in most cases fractions of seconds. The bigger the denominator the faster the speed (for example, 1/1000 is much faster than 1/30). In most cases you’ll probably be using shutter speeds of 1/60th of a second or faster. This is because anything slower than this is very difficult to use without getting camera shake. Camera shake is when your camera is moving while the shutter is open and results in blur in your photos. If you’re using a slow shutter speed (anything slower than 1/60) you will need to either use a tripod or some some type of image stabilization. The book The Kodak Library of Creative Photography: Extend your Range, it says, " In photography, shutter speed or exposure time, is the length of time when the film or digital sensor inside the camera is exposed to light, also when a camera's shutter is open when taking a photograph"(Tresidder 62).


For my  photograph, I went for a slow shutter speed, which was why the hanging snowflake lights were blurry. In the background of the photograph, you can also notice how the rest of the background also has a faded effect sort of like the colors in the photograph are mixed. I thought that this was a cool effect that the shutter speed had.

What do you guys think? Let me know in the comments.

Tresidder, Jack, et al. The Kodak library of creative photography: extend your range. Kodak, 1985.