Some thoughts on shutter speed selection for beginners

[Healz]

What a great help to all beginners.

[MarcusG]

Many thanks! Might print myself off a copy to keep with my gear.

[Allie]

Thanks for sharing that chart and very useful accompanying images - in the meantime I have bookmarked that page for the future.

[sid]

Very useful chart, though one must be knowing his camera and ISO capabilities to use shutter mode, I feel.

[achee]

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"

Ah, so you came up with that? Good on ya! I've always keep that rule of thumb in mind.

If anyone is struggling to understand what the above means... if you're shooting at 30mm, your shutter speed should be at least 1/30s. 200mm, 1/200s. This applies to handheld shooting, and it may differ depending on how steady you are.

Regarding VR / IS / OS / etc: They usually claim somewhere around 3-4 stops. If you should be shooting at 1/100s, 3 stops theoretically means you can shoot at 1/12s (divide 100 by 2 three times).

In practice, don't shoot at the 'lowest possible speed' unless you have to, in which case take more photos to increase your chances of getting a keeper.

[Katt]

Extremely helpful. I have printed it & packed in with my gear ready for an outing tomorrow night. Thanks again.

[kleinpark]

Thanks for the chart. Being a complete novice, this will help me alot

[asiona]

Hi OzzieTraveller


Thanks for the chart. I will print it out and have it with my camera all the time for reference. Hopefully i will add more info about aperture to make it more comprehensive when i am more familar with DSLR.

[Gecko Girl]

What a great resource! Thank you so much

[kroppkaka]

I am a beginner and this chart is of great help.
Thank you.

[Boomshanka]

That's a great guide. Sometimes I think I go way too fast or slow for what I'm trying to achieve by the looks of things.

[hongbongkid]

Thanks for the chart! Great for newbies!

[Fedgrub]

Great chart, thanks!

[Katt]

This is great Phil. I deliberately stay in AV because shutter speeds confuse me. This should help draw me out of my comfort zone.
Katt

[melmo78]

awesome chart thanks heaps for putting that together,its people like yourself that make this such a great place

[OzzieTraveller]

Thanks everybody for your +ve comments

A number of APers have PM'd me to request a PDF copy of the chart & most have received it okay
A problem I have is that I cannot [to my knowledge] attach a PDF to a PM message - so I need to ask for your email address to attach it to an email msg .... and some Apers who receive this request never get back to me ...

Q- mods?? is it possible to attach a PDF to a PM??

Regards, Phil

[gordolake]

Cheers nicely done

[ricktas]

Thanks everybody for your +ve comments

A number of APers have PM'd me to request a PDF copy of the chart & most have received it okay
A problem I have is that I cannot [to my knowledge] attach a PDF to a PM message - so I need to ask for your email address to attach it to an email msg .... and some Apers who receive this request never get back to me ...

Q- mods?? is it possible to attach a PDF to a PM??

Regards, Phil

The attach to PM option disappeared with the site software upgrade. It has been requested as something a lot of forum owners would like back in a future update.