Mastering Shutter Speed and the Exposure Triangle: A Beginner’s Guide to Photography

The Exposure Triangle

Mastering Shutter Speed - A Beginners guide to Photography

Inside every camera, there’s a little door called the shutter that sits right in front of your sensor (or film if you're shooting old-school!). Unlike the aperture, which can open and close to different sizes, the shutter only has two options — it’s either open or closed.

When you’re not taking a photo, the shutter stays shut, blocking out any light. But the moment you press the shutter button, it opens up for a set amount of time to let light hit the sensor and create your image. This timing is what we call your shutter speed.

You control the shutter speed through your camera settings, and it’s measured either in fractions of a second (like 1/5000 of a second) or full seconds (like 2 seconds). Shutter speeds can be referred to as "fast" or "slow," depending on how long the shutter stays open. For example, a fast shutter speed like 1/5000 freezes action, while a slow shutter speed like 30 seconds can create amazing motion blur effects.

Want even more control? If you need your shutter open for minutes or even hours — perfect for things like night photography or star trails — you can use your camera’s Bulb mode (B). In Bulb mode, you manually keep the shutter open for as long as you want, usually with the help of a remote or cable release so you don't shake the camera.

Learning how to use shutter speed properly is a game-changer for beginner photographers. It’s one of the key parts of the Exposure Triangle — and mastering it can seriously level up your photography skills!

When you're shooting landscapes, you'll usually be working with slower shutter speeds. Most of the time, you'll also be using a low ISO setting (like ISO 100) and a smaller aperture. If you’ve read my blog on aperture, you’ll know I often find the sweet spot for landscape photography is around f/8 to f/11. This setup helps keep your image quality as high as possible — sharp, detailed, and low in noise.

One of the cool things about slower shutter speeds in landscapes is how they can blur any moving parts in your scene, like waterfalls, waves, or even clouds. This creates beautiful, dreamy effects that can really make your landscape photos stand out.

Just a heads-up: whenever your shutter speed drops below 1/30th of a second, it’s super important to use a tripod. Even a tiny bit of hand movement can cause your photo to look blurry — and nobody wants that after setting up the perfect shot! I also personally recommend using a cable release or remote shutter to fire your camera without touching it, so you get the sharpest image possible.

Pro Tip: Mastering a Slow Shutter Speed for landscape photography can take your photos from "nice" to "wow" — and it’s a skill that clients and followers really notice!

Fast Shutter Speeds: How to Freeze the Action

While slow shutter speeds create those cool, dreamy blur effects, fast shutter speeds do the exact opposite — they freeze motion. If you’re photographing something that’s moving quickly, like a soccer player sprinting down the field, a bird flying through the sky, or even your dog zooming around the backyard, you’ll want a fast shutter speed to catch that moment nice and sharp.

Fast shutter speeds are super important for sports photography, wildlife photography, and basically any time you want to lock a moving subject in place without any blur. Think of it like hitting the pause button on real life!

On most cameras, a fast shutter speed would be something like 1/500, 1/1000, or even faster — depending on how quick your subject is moving. The faster the action, the faster your shutter speed should be.

How This Fits into the Exposure Triangle:

Remember, in photography, everything connects back to the Exposure Triangle (above) — that's shutter speed, aperture, and ISO working together to create a properly exposed photo.

• If you crank up your shutter speed to freeze motion, you might need to open up your aperture (use a smaller f-number like f/2.8) or raise your ISO to make sure enough light hits the sensor.

• Balancing these settings is the key to nailing both the technical side of exposure and the creative look you're going for.

Mastering shutter speed is a huge step toward taking control of your camera and moving beyond "auto" mode — and trust me, once you get the hang of it, you’ll wonder how you ever lived without it!

Stick Around!

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