How Do Shutter Speed and Aperture Affect Your Photography Shots?

Photography today has been overrun with automation so much so that words such as shutter, aperture and the like have virtually become extinct. A lot of the equipment on the market hardly needs any expertise to use. For those who want to understand photography well, it is important to know how the major parts of the SLR based cameras work.

Professional photographers will not let cameras determine the exposure of photographs and instead they will adjust the shutter speed, aperture and lighting accordingly in order to determine the final exposure. Without making these adjustments, the camera usually just uses default settings that produce medium tone.

Shutter speed

The shutter is a sort of flap that is positioned within the body of the camera and which opens up, allowing light to reach either the film (analog cameras) or light sensors (digital cameras) from the lens. Shutter speed is hence the amount of time that the shutter takes to open and close. The time is usually measured in fractions of seconds; hence the values may appear as 1/500 or 500 to represent 500th of a second. Shutter speed has a great effect on the sharpness of the image and usually the higher the shutter speed, the sharper the image. To get a good final picture, the right amount of light has to reach the sensors or film and this is why a fast shutter speed will just allow the right amount of light to capture a moving object clearly. Shutter speed can also be used to create and effect on the final image for instance if you want to emphasize motion on a moving object you can set a lower shutter speed which will create a sort of blur that signifies movement.

Aperture

Aperture and light are all related and they can be synchronized accordingly to achieve the desired outcome. The aperture refers to a diaphragm-like opening within the photographic lens and determines how much light will be sent through the shutter when a shot is taken. It opens up in a circular manner and the aperture size refers to the measurement of this opening when shooting. It greatly determines the outcome of a picture by determining the depth of field and the quality of the final exposure. The aperture works much like the pupil of the human eye which regulates the initial amount of light that gets into the eyeball by either increasing or decreasing in diameter. This ultimately influences the quality of image that the viewer sees.

The key to a good photograph is how much light is passes through the camera and once you learn how to adjust the shutter speed, aperture and flash, you will be sure to capture great photographs.