Digital Photography: Shutter Speed Number

Shutter speed can be a bit difficult for many digital photographers to wrap their heads around. Most photographers that shot with film understand it much easier because you bought a roll of film that was based on one film speed like 400.

You kinda had to know what your shooting situation called for before you even chose your film! This was something that really became second nature.

With digital it’s much more complicated because you now have the option of changing the ISO at any given time. No worries though. Understanding shutter speed is pretty simple once you learn what the numbers actually mean.

So let’s break it down.

Your shutter speed will be indicated on the shutter speed dial or in the view finder of your camera. Most likely it’s represented by a whole number such as 60,125, 250, etc. The larger the numbers the faster your shutter speed.

The numbers are actually representative of fractions of a second. 60 is 1/60th of a second. 125 is 1/125th of a second. And so on and so on.

If your camera is new you’ll notice that your camera offers shutter speeds that are in between the “full stop” range. Those are there to help you fine tune your exposure and give you more flexibility with the camera. The same rules apply. 80 is still 1/80th of a second.

This typical range of shutter speed (above 60) is typically fast enough for hand holding and is often used in brighter situations like this image below shot at 1/200 of a second.

You may notice as the numbers get smaller they’ll suddenly turn into inches? ex. 1″, 2″, 4″ etc. The numbers followed by quotation marks are not actually inches! These numbers are representative of full seconds. 1″ is 1 second as 4″ is 4 seconds.
Often you’ll find landscape photographers using full second stops with small apertures at sunset or sunrise like the photograph below shot using a 1 second exposure.

Now we arrive to the the b or B. This is called the bulb setting. This is used for really long exposures that exceed what your camera can do by default. Typically a photographer will use this setting with a tripod and a shutter release cable to keep the camera from moving. Great for capturing stars at night like the photo below.

Remember that learning about shutter speeds and how to creatively use them may start with knowing the numbers but will excel with practice and patience!