What is shutter speed?

In photography, shutter speed or exposure time is the length of time when the digital sensor inside the camera is exposed to light, also when a camera’s shutter is open when taking a photograph. A longer shutter speed will allow more light into the picture, which is better for dark subjects or places and short shutter speeds let in minimal amount of light however can capture fast paced moving subjects.

This simple diagram clearly shows  how shutter speed works using a tripod. A fast shutter speed, for example 1/500 in this case is able to capture the man running in high quality detail. Whereas the slower shutter speed of 1/2 of a second cannot capture the man running quick enough therefore leaves a motion blur within the photo.

Clearly in the image above there is a clear difference when using different lengths of shutter speeds. I believe that the longer shutter speed photographs are extremely unique and can produce very interesting images like the water in the image above which looks silky. Following this, I intend to experiment shutter speed by using mainly slow shutter speeds to create these unrealistic and unique pictures.

Below are some basic images in which I took around school exploring shutter speed.