What is Shutter Speed?

Shutter speed refers to the duration for which the camera’s shutter remains open, determining the period during which the sensor is exposed to light. A longer exposure time allows more light to reach the sensor, resulting in a brighter image – controlling and adapting shutter speed is crucial for capturing either sharp images of moving things or exploring creative blurring in moving objects.

Examples of Slow Shutter Speed Images:

Using a slower shutter speed means more light hits the camera due to the shutter being open for longer, which can create these motion blurs when photographing fast movement (such as cars). These blurs can be intentional, but if unintentional the shutter speed should be increased to remove them. In these two examples a slow shutter speed was used when photographing cars which led to these blurs, making it seem like the cars are driving past at extremely high speeds.

Examples of Fast Shutter Speed Images:

Faster shutter speeds mean the shutter is open for smaller amounts of time which consequently limits the amount of light that can hit the camera – this reduces blurs and increases sharpness of an image, which is good for capturing sharp images of movement (such as athletes running). In these two examples a fast shutter speed was used to take sharp images of fast movement, such as the bird’s wings flapping or the shattered glass flying in all directions.

Key Figures of Fast Shutter Speed – Muybridge and Edgerton

Eadweard Muybridge is known for his groundbreaking photographic investigations into motion, which significantly contributed to the development and rise of cinema. He was commissioned to capture the movement of a horse in order to demonstrate that a horse’s hooves are elevated from the ground during a trot.

Muybridge is also famous for his work in chronophotography, where he studied how animals move from 1878 to 1886. He used several cameras to take pictures of animals at different stages of their movement. He also created the zoopraxiscope, a machine that projected painted moving images from glass discs, which came before the flexible film strips we use in movies today.

Harold Eugene Edgerton (April 6, 1903 – January 4, 1990) was an American scientist and researcher who taught electrical engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He is well-known for turning the stroboscope from a little-known lab tool into a widely used device. Additionally, he played a significant role in creating sonar technology and deep-sea photography. His inventions were used alongside Jacques Cousteau in efforts to find shipwrecks and even the Loch Ness Monster.

Key Figures of Slow Shutter Speed – Sugimoto and Woodman

Marcel Duchamp, a key figure in early 20th-century Cubism and Dadaism, had a significant impact on Sugimoto’s ideas about art and the concept of time. Sugimoto frequently uses large format cameras and long exposure techniques to photograph light as it acts in predictable yet controlled manners.

Francesca Woodman’s family would spend their summers at their farmhouse in the countryside close to Florence, Italy, where she took many of her photographs. The rich European culture and art greatly influenced her artistic growth. You can see the impact of surrealist artists like Man Ray and Claude Cahun in her work, especially in the themes and style she chose. She honed her ideas and skills while studying at the Rhode Island School of Design; her role as an innovator is really important, especially in the 1970s when photography was often seen as less valuable than painting and sculpture. She paved the way for future American artists, like Cindy Sherman and Nan Goldin, who used photography to delve into themes of identity.

My Shutter Speed Photoshoot, 24/09/24

Above is a photo I took inspired by Francesca Woodman – I have used a slow shutter speed on a passing car to achieve the ghostly and abstract atmosphere of her work, where the car is hardly recognisable and just a blur. I then edited it in Photoshop to make it black and white similar to Woodman’s work, and corrected the photo as it was slightly overexposed.

This is a similar photo I took, however I think this one wasn’t as great since you can still clearly recognise it is a car, so I think it hasn’t successfully captured the abstract feeling of Woodman’s work. I also didn’t have the camera mounted on a tripod in this photo which resulting in a lot of unintentional motion blur in the surroundings.

Class Photoshoot

Above are a few most successful images from the class photoshoot, using a low shutter speed to create an abstract and almost ghostly image (edited in Photoshop by me to be black and white). These are the four most successful pictures in my opinion since none of them were too over/underexposed and each one intentionally used a long exposure time to successfully capture the abstract atmosphere of images by photographers such as Francesca Woodman.