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Shooting Modes II —– Shutter Priority Mode

February 5, 2009

Most of you would prefer to shoot in an automatic mode; in which the camera checks the available light and self adjusts the shutter speed and aperture for producing the correct exposure. In case you want to set the shutter speed yourself then lookout for an S button as the shutter mode is indicated by the S button on a camera. When you use a faster shutter speed, it stops and freezes the action. However a slower shutter speed can cause some intentional blur in the images. When the shutter speed is set the camera itself adjusts the aperture for obtaining the desired exposure; this can be categorised as a semi-automatic shooting mode.

For the light to strike the image sensor the shutter has to open for a certain amount of time the rest of the time light is kept out of the camera. A faster shutter speed lets little light to strike the sensor thus the image is considerably darker, while it is the reverse for slower shutter speeds.

Ideally aperture and shutter, both perform the same function of letting in the light on the image sensor to be recorded on the image.  Aperture and Shutter are inversely proportional to each other; i.e. in case the aperture is small (lets in less light) then you need to have a slower shutter speed for proper exposure. However you can get creative and combine a larger aperture with a slower shutter speed. Though both of them perform the same function they vary vastly when it comes to the impact they produce on the image quality. The aperture determines the depth of field of a photo while the shutter determines the sharpness of the image.

Slower shutter speeds are best suited when the camera is placed on a tripod. This is because the image can get blurred due to handshake. Ideally longer shutter speeds are used for taking shots at night or when the surrounding is dimly lit. Faster shutter speeds are widely used in sports photography or a car race etc. to quickly freeze the action.

Image shot with shutter speed of 1/25 sec Image shot with shutter speed of 1/1000 sec
In the above figure, as a slower shutter speed is used the water droplets have all been combined to give a cloudy effect. In the above figure, as a faster shutter speed is used the water droplets have all been shot distinctively to give a realistic effect.

These days almost all cameras include a shutter and aperture priority mode along with a program mode and an automatic mode. In the Program mode or manual mode you can set the aperture as well as the shutter as per your requirements. In case you want the correct combination or both then you can either select the automatic mode. In the semi-automatic mode, you can select either aperture or shutter and the camera will decide the other. Which mode you would like to go for is purely a matter of choice and convenience.

Written by digicam · Filed Under Article 

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