Shutter speed plays a huge role in creating a strong exposure. Since we know that it is possible to speed up and slow down our shutter speed, we need to know what happens when we do both. Okay so, in plain English, the faster the shutter moves, the darker the image will be. Makes sense right? Since the shutter is basically a door that you can open and close in a fraction of a second, it's logical that the longer our door is open, the more light will pass through therefore making our image brighter.
But what happens if it's too slow? Check this photo out..
One more important thing to mention, if you are shooting in low light without a tripod, it is important to make sure your shutter speed is no lower than 1/60. 1/60 is the safest low shutter speed for hand held shooting because the shutter moves fast enough to not account for small movements done in our hands or sways in our bodies. The shutter speed used in each frame is written on the right of the image. This is a demonstration of what is called Motion Blur. Since the fan blades are moving quickly, the camera needs a fast shutter speed in order to freeze it in one place. Otherwise, there will be blur in items that are moving. This motion blur affect can be desired in some situations and detrimental in others. One situation where this affect is desired is in car photography or any other situation when the photographer wants to show movement.
The above photo is a great example of a photographer wanting to showcase how fast this car is moving. The technique used in this photo involved lowering the shutter speed to probably around 1/40-1/80 and tracking the car while firing the camera. The process of tracking a moving object involves moving your camera with them in order to move at the same speed as the subject so that it freezes and everything else moves. If done properly, the results are pretty stunning as seen above, when when done improperly (moving either faster or slower than the subject) the whole image will have motion blur across it and will not look how intended.
Another situation when your shutter speed would be incredibly slow is during astro photography - or star photos. When taking pictures of the night sky, there are many ways to go about doing so. Some photographers have expensive star-tracking tripods that make finding specific astrological bodies easier, but they're not mandatory. For astro photography, you'll want a pretty small aperture, so that there is a minimal amount of depth of field. Other than that, you'll need to have a relatively high ISO to capture more light, but not so high that it fills your frame with digital noise. Once you have your desired aperture (probably around f8-f11), and are happy with your ISO (probably around ISO 800-1600), then you're only left with shutter speed to control your light. This is when a tripod comes in handy! Set a 2 second self timer on your camera with a shutter of somewhere around 1-5 seconds, then see what happens!
In most applications, our shutter speed is around 1/125-1/250. But with that being said, finding an exposure is often a matter of trial and error. For example, you could be shooting in the middle of the afternoon, when the light is brightest, and you would probably have a shutter speed of around 1/250, unless you want a shallow depth of field. Then, you'd have to open your aperture and speed up your shutter speed to counteract the excess light. There are so many ways to capture a fitting exposure for any photo, and changing the shutter speed is a vital aspect of exposure creation.
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