Digital Camera Shutter Speed

Photo is a Latin word meaning 'light' and graphy means 'recording'. When you take a photograph, you record that moment of light captured on a media interface. In traditional cameras this media is in the form of a photographic film. In digital cameras, light is allowed to fall on sensors (charge couple devices) which are sensitive to light. The amount of light that falls on the light sensor is called an exposure. A digital camera shutter allows the light to fall on its light sensors only when you take a photograph and that too, for a set period of time which is called the shutter speed. Following are three factors which contribute to the calculation of the duration of the exposure.

1. Aperture setting of the digital camera.
2. Light meter of the camera.
3. Amount of light available.

When you take a photograph, light enters the camera through an aperture hole and passes through the lens of the camera. Placed between the lens and the light sensors is the shutter which controls the amount of light falling on the light sensors. Digital cameras convert this light to digital signals which are stored and are used to display the images or photographs on the display screen. Each and every camera has a shutter, that acts as an exposure-controller. In digital cameras, a shutter is a mechanically or electronically controlled barrier.

How Does a Digital Camera Work?

Digital cameras and digital SLR's allow you to override the automatic shutter setting, manually. These cameras may allow you to set the shutter speed from 30 seconds up to 1/4000^th of a second. The shutter speed needed to photograph a moving object and a static object are different, and a photographer needs to adjust it accordingly. Your digital camera may have a 'B' setting, through which you can leave the camera's shutter open for as long as you want. You may want to do this in case you are photographing an object in pitch darkness. Whilst using the 'B' setting, you must take the precaution of setting the adjustable image noise reduction feature of your camera, to full. Some old model digital cameras, experience problems when the 'B' setting is used for very long exposure.

When you change the speed, you have to adjust the aperture hole accordingly. If you change the shutter speed of 15 seconds to 30 seconds, then it means that you are doubling the amount of light falling on the light sensors of the digital camera. If you are using the 'S' feature of your camera, then it allows you to set the shutter speed in such a way that you can automatically adjust the aperture hole to reduce the amount of light passing through the lens to compensate for the correct exposure, at the same time. For daylight digital photography the correct speed to be maintained is between 1/125^th to 1/1000^th of a second.

You may have seen a program on the television channel, which shows a recording of a bullet fired at an apple. We can see the bullet hitting the apple, piercing it, coming out on the other side, and then the impact making the apple explode. Well, a bullet travels at the speed of more than 1,200 feet per second, then how can one record such a fast-moving object? The camera used to record the sequence has a very high shutter speed and can record 10,000 pictures a second. Of course it is a digital camera. How about answering a question. If you are interested in wild photography want to photograph a hummingbird, then is the daylight shutter setting enough? No! The following show us a few hints to help accomplish the task. The hummingbird flaps its wings 400 times a second. You need a very fast shutter speed setting to photograph this bird in flight, else the photograph will appear blurred. Which digital camera and lens will you now use to photograph the hummingbird? Think about it and then go about your task, of course, you will have to refer to a few digital camera buying guides in order for you to understand which would be best suited for this task. Even then it's always better to go through a few catalogs and weigh out the options on each camera before going in for one.