Camera Basic – Shutter Speed
The shutter is what really makes a camera. In essence a camera is just a box that holds some film or a sensor with a hole in the end that opens and closes to let in light. This is evident from as far back as the camera obscura which helped artists essentially trace a picture of a person to resemble their likeness. Similar to that is the pin-hole camera, where a piece of film or printing paper is placed inside a camera and literally a pin-hole is punched in the other end which can be uncovered to take some surprisingly phenomenal photographs. Only slightly more complex from this is a typical 35mm camera. This can introduce aperture, which is actually dependent on the lens. It also gives the ability to adjust mechanically the time the shutter is open. The size of the opening through the lens dramatically decreases the amount of time that the shutter need be open in comparison to pin-hole cameras. Then with DSLRs (Digital Single Lens Reflex) cameras, the only thing that is really changed is instead of the shutter opening to a silver halide film plane, it opens to a light sensor of some kind. Today the typical is the CMOS sensor, which is beyond the scope of this post to explain.
Shutter speed generally adjusts from 1/8000 of a second to as long as you want it open, Read the rest of this entry »
