Shutter Priority Mode - Better Photos... Now!

If you want to freeze fast action or keep camera shake from appearing in your photos, you'll need to choose a shutter speed that's appropriate for your situation. Almost all DSLRs have a shutter priority mode (usually called S or TV) that you can use to choose a specific shutter speed. Your camera will then remain fixed at that shutter speed and adjust the aperture accordingly to give you a proper exposure.

Why would you want to fix your shutter speed and have a variable aperture instead of the other way around? If you're shooting a sporting event, you'll typically want to shoot with a shutter speed of at least 1/500 of a second. This will ensure you freeze the action, catching every single drop of sweat and blade of grass in mid-air. If, instead of freezing the action you want to introduce some motion into your photos, you can slow down the shutter speed. If you're photographing dancers and you want them to be slightly blurry as they move across the dance floor, you can set your shutter to 1/15 of a second or so and have a more artistic photograph that conveys the motion of dance.

No matter what you are photographing, having a constant shutter speed will help you achieve more control and a more consistent feel to your photos. Your camera does all of the hard work, calculating exposures, while you can focus on getting the shot. Just imagine an outdoor sporting event with players moving in and out of bright sun and shadow and you'll start to appreciate how difficult it would be to shoot in manual mode and constantly adjust your settings for good exposures.

One other great reason to fix your shutter speed is so that you do not use such a low shutter speed that you get camera shake in your photos. The rule of thumb is to not use a shutter speed any lower than 1/(your lens' focal length). This means that if you have a 50mm lens, you should not shoot with a shutter speed any lower than 1/50 of a second. If you shoot with a slower shutter speed you're likely to get blurry photos from camera shake, which is your inability to hold the camera steady. It's less noticeable with wider lenses, so with an 18mm lens you can usually get away with a shutter speed as low as 1/18 of a second (or whatever your camera's closest setting is). By shooting in shutter priority mode, you can ensure that your photos will be free of camera shake!

The next time you're shooting images that include motion, try shooting in shutter priority mode. Whether you want to freeze the action, get creative with motion or just make sure you have sharp photos, shutter priority mode gives you control to get the shots you want.

This image was shot at 1/2000 of a second in order to
freeze the liquid in mid-air.

This image was shot with a 5 second exposure in order to get
the entire action of striking the match.

Read all of my DSLR tips here.