The Complete Guide to Mastering Shutter Speed for Landscape Photography

Mastering shutter speed is a key part of mastering exposure in photography.

This shutter speed determines how much light is allowed to reach the sensor.

Shutter speed is one of the three components of the exposure triangle, and it is essential to understand in order to properly expose your photos. 

It also lets you control the amount of motion blur that is visible in an image. 

In this article, you will learn everything you need to know in order to master shutter speed and capture amazing landscape photos.

Mastering shutter speed is a key part of mastering exposure in photography.

This shutter speed determines how much light is allowed to reach the sensor.

Shutter speed is one of the three components of the exposure triangle, and it is essential to understand in order to properly expose your photos. 

It also lets you control the amount of motion blur that is visible in an image. 

In this article, you will learn everything you need to know in order to master shutter speed and capture amazing landscape photos.

What is a Camera Shutter?

A camera shutter is a mechanism built into a camera which controls the amount of time that light is allowed to enter the camera's lens and reach the camera's sensor. 

It is a physical barrier that opens and closes to allow light to pass through, thereby controlling the length of time the sensor is exposed. 

When the shutter is closed, no light can access the camera’s image sensor.

When it is open, the sensor is exposed to light and an image is formed. 

The camera shutter is triggered when the user presses the shutter button on the camera. 

When the button is pressed, the camera shutter opens and closes quickly, allowing a brief moment of light to enter the lens and reach the sensor. 

As you will learn in this article, the speed at which the shutter opens and closes significantly affects how the final image will look.

What is Shutter Speed and How Does it Affect Photographs?

The shutter speed is the length of time the camera shutter is open and it is measured in seconds and fractions of a second. 

For example, a shutter speed of ½ of a second means the shutter is open for ½ of a second.

Shutter speed controls how long your camera’s image sensor is exposed to light.

Shutter speed affects two important aspects of an image:

1. Exposure

The longer the shutter is open, the more light is allowed in, and the brighter the photo will be.

The opposite is also true - the shorter the shutter is open, the less light is allowed in, and the darker the photo will be. 

2. Motion

The faster the shutter speed, the sharper and more detailed the motion is captured. 

The slower the shutter speed, the blurrier and less detailed the motion is captured.

Too slow of a shutter speed can overexpose the photo, making it too bright and potentially blurry if the camera isn’t held still enough.  

Too fast of a shutter speed can underexpose the photo, making it too dark but potentially sharper.

What is Motion Blur in Photography?

Motion blur is a type of blurring or streaking seen in an image taken with a relatively slow shutter speed.

When the shutter is open, it is more apparent in an image when either the camera moves or the subject moves, or both.

This occurs because a single exposure doesn’t capture a single instant in time, rather, it captures light over a period of time (the time that the shutter is open).

When an object in the composition moves while the shutter is open, it will appear blurred because the sensor captures all of this movement in a single a single image. 

Sometimes this effect is desirable from an artistic standpoint because it can convey a sense of movement or passage of time to a still image. 

If you want tack-sharp images with no motion blur, use a faster shutter speed and/or a tripod to keep your camera extremely still.

If you want to add motion blur to a photo, use a slower shutter speed and/or hand hold your camera.

Pro tip: you can take multiple exposures of a composition at different shutter speeds and blend them together using post processing techniques. This technique will allow you to keep most of your image sharp, while introducing motion blur into certain elements (like water or clouds).

Capturing motion with shutter speed

The shutter speed you choose will reflect the amount of motion you want to capture from your subject. 

Motion blur can be intentionally introduced into a photo by manipulating the shutter speed, but landscape photographers usually try to minimize it in most shooting situations.

For example, on a windy day when the trees and flowers are moving wildly, you will likely want to opt for a very fast shutter speed to avoid blurring.

However, there are some situations in which capturing motion can make an image more aesthetically pleasing. 

For example, it is common for landscape photographers to slow down shutter speed when shooting rivers, waterfalls, and lakes in order to create a “smoothed out” silky look to the water (as shown in the above image).

This technique can make the photo appear more dynamic and add an extra element of interest to the composition.

At which shutter speeds do you need a tripod?

In most cases, you will need a tripod at shutter speeds at least 1 second and slower.

However, the real answer is: it depends.

You may find that even with faster shutter speeds, you can’t hold your camera still enough to minimize motion blur.

A tripod will help you get sharper images regardless of the shutter speed you choose.

I use a tripod about 99% of the time when shooting landscape photographs.

This is mainly because it minimizes camera shake and helps ensure that I can capture the sharpest image possible. 

How to prevent motion blur when hand holding your camera

As rule or thumb, when you are hand holding your camera while shooting, you want your shutter speed to be:

handheld shutter = 1/focal length

For example, if you are shooting at 100mm, you want your shutter speed to be 1/100 or faster to prevent motion blur.

This formula will ensure that your photos are sharp if you have to shoot handheld and can’t use a tripod.

Is motion blur a good or bad thing?

Motion blur is neither a good or bad thing to see in an image. 

Whether you want motion blur in an image is a creative decision that you will make as an artist. 

Some images you will want tack-sharp, and many photographers go to great lengths to prevent motion blur (by using heavy tripods and special camera settings like shutter timers and mirror up mode). 

In others, you may want to intentionally introduce motion blur for a creative effect (like with rivers and lakes).

If, however, you are trying to get a tack-sharp photo but the final result shows movement (either due to the camera or subject moving), then motion blur may be considered a technical error.

Measuring Shutter Speed

Shutter speed is measured in fractions of a second, usually in increments of 1/2, 1/4, 1/8, 1/15, 1/30, 1/60, 1/125, 1/250, 1/500, and so on (see chart below). 

The smaller the shutter speed number (i.e. the bigger the denominator of the fraction), the faster the shutter speed will be.

The higher the number, the slower the shutter speed will be. Shutter speeds above 1 second are considered slow shutter speeds. 

The longest shutter speed available on most cameras is 30 seconds. You typically would never need a shutter speed this long unless you are doing astrophotography.

The fastest shutter speed on modern cameras is usually 1/4000 or sometimes up to 1/8000

The exact shutter speed you need to use will depend on the situation and what you personally determine to be a proper exposure. 

For example, if you’re photographing in the middle of the day during bright sunshine, you’ll want to use a faster shutter speed. 

On the other hand, if you’re photographing in low light, such as during sunrise and sunset or at night, you’ll want to use a slower shutter speed.

Keep in mind that the shutter speed you choose will also depend on the f-stop and ISO you have chosen as part of balancing the exposure triangle. 

Shutter speed and the exposure triangle

Shutter speed is one of the three variables of the exposure triangle - a concept that is critical to understand as a photographer.

The exposure triangle is a model that explains the relationship between aperture, ISO, and shutter speed, and how this relationship affects the exposure of an image. 

All three variables of the exposure triangle control the exposure of a photograph.

While I won’t go into too much depth about the exposure triangle here, we I’ll briefly go over how shutter speed fits into the triangle and how aperture and ISO affect your shutter speed choice.

Shutter speed and aperture

The larger the aperture you choose (i.e. the larger your f-stop), the more light you will allow to pass through the lens and expose the image. 

To maintain a constant exposure of an image when your camera is set to a fixed ISO:

• When you open the aperture to let more light in, you will need to compensate by speeding up the shutter speed.
• When you close down the aperture by decreasing your f-stop, you will need to compensate by slowing down the shutter speed.

Shutter speed and ISO

The higher you set the ISO to, the more sensitive the image sensor becomes to light.

Increasing ISO increases the exposure of an image.

To maintain a constant exposure of an image when your camera is set to a fixed aperture (f-stop):

• When you decrease the ISO, you will need to compensate by speeding up the shutter speed.
• When you increase ISO, you will need to compensate by slowing down the shutter speed.
  

Shutter speed and exposure stops

Like aperture and ISO, the range of shutter speeds that a camera can be set so come in intervals known as exposure stops.

As a review, stop is a relative measurement of the amount of light exposing a photo. It refers to a doubling or halving of the amount of light that reaches the image sensor.

In other words:

Increasing by one stop means you double the amount of light exposing the photo.

Decreasing by one stop means you cut the amount of light exposing the photo in half.

In terms of shutter speed:

• when you increase your shutter speed by one stop (for example, from 1 to 2 seconds), you double the amount of time that the shutter is open. This doubles the amount of light collected by the image sensor and thus doubles your exposure.
• when you decrease your shutter speed by one stop (for example, from 1 to ½ second), you cut the amount of time that the shutter is open in half. This cuts the amount of light collected by the image sensor in half and thus halves that exposure of the image.

The standard range of shutter speeds on a camera relative to exposure stops is shown in the table below.

When you increase or decrease shutter speed, you will need to increase or decrease f-stop or ISO by the same number of stops in the opposite direction if you want to maintain a constant image exposure. 

For example, if you decrease your shutter speed by one stop, you will need to increase ISO or f-stop by one stop (or a combination of both by one stop) if you don’t want the brightness of the photo to change.

How to Choose the Right Shutter Speed for Landscape Photography

To help you learn how to choose the best shutter speed for an image, let me walk you through my workflow.

In the field, shutter speed is usually the last setting I adjust before taking a photo.

Unless I am shooting water and want to capture motion blur, or I am shooting on a windy day, the shutter speed usually doesn’t matter as long as I have balanced the exposure triangle to get a proper exposure.

I prioritize setting f-stop and ISO first because:

• I want to choose the best aperture by ensuring that my f-stop is small enough to get adequate depth of field, yet large enough to prevent diffraction. This is f/8 or f/11 most of the time.
• I want to keep my ISO as low as possible (ideally at my camera’s base ISO of 64) in order to reduce noise in the image as much as possible.

Once I set my f-stop and ISO, then I adjust my shutter speed to the appropriate speed that will balance the exposure.

The easiest way to move through this workflow is to set your camera to Aperture Priority mode, which is a camera setting that allows you to manually set the f-stop while the camera automatically sets the shutter speed.

In situations where my subject is moving (e.g. like a tree branch on a windy day) and I need to freeze motion by speeding up the shutter, I will increase the ISO. I rarely ever change the f-stop in this situation because I don’t want to lose depth of field or increase diffraction (note: if you absolutely need to widen your aperture, you can focus stack to increase depth of field)

In situations where I am shooting water and want to slow the shutter speed down to create the smoothed out water look, I need to manually set the shutter speed. In this case, I will set the camera to Shutter Priority mode, which lets you manually set the shutter speed and the camera will automatically set the f-stop. Again, if you can’t get adequate depth of field you can focus stack). 

Experiment with different shutter speeds to find the right one for your photo. Every situation is different, and the shutter speed that works for one scene will not necessarily work for another. 

Keep in mind that there is no “best” shutter speed setting for landscape photography. 

The shutter speed you choose for each photo will require you to decide:

• How much motion blur you want in a photo
• What you consider a proper exposure 

Then you will have to problem solve to figure out the best shutter speed setting based off of the other settings you have chosen (i.e. ISO and f-stop)

 It takes time and patience to problem solve your way to the correct shutter speed, so the key is to practice, practice, practice!

Conclusion

Shutter speed is an important setting in photography that controls how long the shutter remains open when taking a photo. 

Knowing how to adjust the shutter speed is essential for capturing amazing landscape photos. 

It’s important to find the balance between a fast and slow shutter speed to capture the detail and motion of the scene. 

With practice, you will become a master of setting shutter speed so that you can both properly expose your images and control motion blur. 

How do you determine the proper shutter speed for your images? Do you ever try to include motion blur in your photos? Send me an e-mail and let me know!