Shutter Speed

How do I take photos of fast things?

monks

You can go two ways to capture movement. Firstly, if you can, set your camera on ‘shutter priority’ – generally ‘S’, ‘T’, or ‘Tv’ – depending on your camera. Then you have two options:

  • to ‘freeze’ the moving subject you should select a ‘fast’ shutter speed like 1/250th sec – 1/4000th sec
  • to introduce some ‘creative blur’ I’ve found that the ‘magic’ areas of creative blur occur with shutter speeds like 1/30th sec down to about 1/10th sec –  any slower and your image may start to look too blurry and look a mess!

It’s trial & error really – the shot of the Tibetan Monks above was shot on a 1/15th sec. More risky to get a good shot but well worth it

Graham