Hannah Morris
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You may find this relevant information helpful
The shutter speed
With digital SLR's (single lens reflexes) the aperture is located in the lens. The shutter is located within the camera body, infront of the film. You can see it when you take off the lens
and peer into the body, behind the mirror. Do not ever touch the mirror.
You can
also see it when we change film and open the camera back. With the film taken out you look
directly at the rubber shutter curtains (or the metal shutter leaves). Please do not ever
touch these either.
When you press the shutter release, the shutter curtains (or leaves) move very quickly from
right to left, or from top to bottom. Between the two curtains (or the leaves), an opening or a
slit will be left open, where the light passes onto the film.
The film will be sitting directly
behind the shutter.
The amount of time that the light is let in is variable. It can be very short: 1/2000 of a
second. It can also be rather long, as long as half a second: 1/2 s. That
amount of time is called the shutter speed. It will indicate the amount of time the shutter is left
open. The shutters speed numbers put in row make the shutter speed range.
shutter speed range. It will lokk like this:
1/4000 - 1/2000 - 1/1000 - 1/500 - 1/250 - 1/125 - 1/60 - 1/30 - 1/15 - 1/8 - 1/4 - 1/2 - 1
- 2s - 4s - 8s
You have to learn this by heart. To know what numbers we are looking at in the data
display.
shutter speed dial
Cameras with electronic shutter speeds will display values like 1/90.
This is good, but again is not very important right now.
What is important:
A - To know that the numbers form a directly proportional range derived from the shutter
speed. This has nothing to do with speed, but with the amount of time our film is left exposed to
light coming through our lens.
B - The amount of time is halved or doubled from one step to the next one.
C - Having a slower shutter speed doubles the time, twice the amount of light will be let in.
Having a faster shutter speed will then halve the time. And would let in half the amount of light.
Stop
The steps from one shutter speed to the other (faster or slower) is called a stop. This also goes
for the aperture: the steps from one opening to the other is called a stop.
The stop is the unit that we work by which counts in photography.
Opening one stop means that we open the lens opening from say f 8 to f 5.6. The f indicates
the apertures. So we double the amount of light that will be passing through the lens.
One stop faster will mean: from e.g. 1/30 s to 1/60 s. The amount of time that the light is let
through will be halved.
One stop slower will mean from 1/30 s to 1/15 s. The amount of time is therefore
doubled.
Sometimes for speed we will use the letter t ; so: t 1/30.
A stop always means half or double the amount. Of time or light.