Some thoughts on shutter speed selection for beginners

[OzzieTraveller]

G'day all

I often see notes here & elsewhere asking "what sort of shutter speed do I need for ....? "

I have made up this sketch hopefully to help people
[image note ... for some reason at the moment, the image does not want to display full size - please click on it to wake it up ]



ps: if you want a full-size copy, please PM me
Regards, Phil

[Nikkie]

Gee thanks Phil this is great well done and easy to follow chart thanks again I ll try some of these for sure using this as a guide thanks again

[colinbm]

Great work Phil, Thanks.
Now what aperture will I use with that one & will ISO 100 or 400 be better
Col

[ozstrap]

nice chart~
easy to understand for beginner like me

[graemelee]

Yes great aid.cheers

[luepit]

Great summary. thanks.

[Lucky23]

Thanks mate. Got it saved and i'm sure i'll be referring to it in the future.

Cheers,

[CookCleanCraft]

Great chart! I'm still getting my head around shutter speed (along with a lot of other things ). A nice extra touch would be to put on when you need to use a tripod/stabilising device.

[gennadyk]

awesome! very helpful.. thx

[Christus86]

wow - that's really helpful - thanks!

[BecdS]

Thanks a tonne for this, Phil! I'm not quite up there in the post count yet and so I can't PM yet. Could you please send it to me? It would help me a tonne!

[ving]

nice charty warty!

[Danielle10]

Aren't you good!
Thanks for that

[jdbb]

What a great idea - makes it easy to understand. Thanks.

John

[colinbm]

Great chart! I'm still getting my head around shutter speed (along with a lot of other things ). A nice extra touch would be to put on when you need to use a tripod/stabilising device.

About 1/60 of a second is the change over from hand-hold & tripod held
Col

[nightbringer]

Great flowchart! I'll definitely have to print this out and keep it somewhere prominent.

[AdamR]

Thats a nice simple idea. I have shot for years and years and still to this day though have not found a use for shutterspeed mode. But I like how this gives a picture of where you need to be. Control of aperture to get to the desired number would also be a good learning tool. ie. Find the appropriate aperture and ISO combo to get the desired shutterspeed.

I think the 1/60th is the crossover to tripod is misleading in some aspects although as a general rule I suppose its okay. To me I would recommend to use a tripod in any situation where you have the choice. Obviously with candid shooting its not there, but even if I had shutter speeds up over 1/500th I would still use one for landscapes.

Anyways my way of saying these are good guides, but learning comes through experimenting and all rules have exceptions.

[OzzieTraveller]

G'day all

Thanks all for the feedback for this posting
cc- Re the "1/60th sec postings ..." - way back in the mid-1960s when I got into SLR use and longer than 'normal' lenses I quickly realised that 1/60 was inadequate as a minimum speed ... and yet that speed was often quoted in literature. I experimented at the time and found a method that worked - wrote to the old 'camera' magazine suggesting the following formula:-

>> "the minimum shutter speed for hand holding should roughly equal the mm of the lens in use - and for a big zoom lens, the mm's to be considered are the mm's of the maximum focal length"

The letter was edited and published with several others on the subject - and the theory has since become folk lore with many claiming its 'invention'

Regards, Phil

[CarlR]

Of course, VR becomes another factor complicating rules of thumb.

[ricktas]

Thanks a tonne for this, Phil! I'm not quite up there in the post count yet and so I can't PM yet. Could you please send it to me? It would help me a tonne!

Yes you can. PM's work after a lot less posts than you have.