Typical rules for using shutter speeds in photography
When first starting out in photography one of the most asked questions is “What is the best shutter speed to use?”
Generally speaking, using the standard rule of thumb is to make the shutter speed equal to your focal length when hand-holding your camera. For example, if you are shooting with a 200mm lens then you want to keep your shutter speed at 1/200 sec or above to avoid any blur occurring from camera shake.
To be on the safe side though, I’ve come up with a new rule to allow for non-full-frame sensor cameras…
Make sure you checkout my new in-depth article The Ultimate Guide to Shutter Speed in Photography for more tips and lots of examples of how shutter speed is used in photography.
Surfer ‘floating’ on wave – fast shutter speed
This action shot was photographed near Byron Bay in Australia. Here I used double for shutter speed compared to the focal length of the lens: I was using a 600mm lens therefore I used 1/1250 sec shutter speed to avoid any camera shake which can result in a blurred (soft) image.
Brent’s Shutter Speed Rule: Use double the shutter speed compared to the focal length of your lens.
In this case, if you are photographing with a 100mm lens you would use a shutter speed of 1/200th of a second.
- 1/2000 sec: Use to capture birds in flight
- 1/1000 sec: Good for photographing sports action
- 1/500 sec: Capture your kids playing or freezing the motion of a moving car
- 1/250 sec: Anytime you have people moving, jumping and dancing, this will help stop the action.
- 1/125 sec: For portraits, this is a good rule of thumb in order to avoid blurred images
- 1/100 sec: Keeping your camera above this speed helps to avoid any camera shake
- 1/60 sec: Once you start using 1/60 or less it’s time to get out and use the tripod
- 1/20 sec: You can use this speed to blur water or people walking
- 1-3 seconds: Creating blur and smoothing out moving water and waterfalls
- 21-30 seconds: This is where you can start in order to capture the night sky with stars
- 10 minutes: To create star trails this is the baseline exposure time.
Bird photography (long lens = fast shutter speed
To photograph this Lilac Breasted Roller in Africa I used a long telephoto 500mm lens lens and because I was hand-holding my lens I used “Brent’s shutter speed rule” which is double the focal length of my lens which equals 1/1000 sec shutter speed.
By using my rule when hand holding a longer lens I overcome any camera shake and ensure that my image is tack-sharp!
Experimenting with shutter speed – how slow can I go?
In this video you’ll see how changing your shutter speed will affect your subject and surrounding elements. I’m photographing my model in a small waterfall kicking and splashing the water.
You’ll notice how the shutter speed changes the look of the water droplets. Slower shutter speeds will also blur the model’s movement.
The Ultimate Guide to Shutter Speed in Photography
Related Articles
Did you enjoy this article? Check out these related articles, too:
- The Ultimate Guide to Shutter Speed in Photography
Shutter Speed and Photography: Everything You’ve Ever Wanted to Know - Shutter Speed Mistakes And How To Avoid Them
How to avoid common shutter speed mistakes in your photography - Catch the Wave with Shutter Speed
How to use shutter speed to make water more appealing and exciting by capturing movement.
How to use shutter speed to make water more appealing and exciting by capturing movement.
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Please leave me a comment below – I’d love to know what you think. Brent
Thanks for this ,I’m a beginner here in(Africa) Nigeria ,I’m learning a lot .thanks brent
I apologise if this is a bit of a noddy question. I’m dusting off my Olympus OM10 35mm. The ISO will be fixed by the film and I will therefore be shooting in aperture priority mode. Will the shutter speed rule above also apply In my case?
Hi Marty. No shutter speed rule does not apply to fixed ISO (film) because the ISO needs to increase to compensate for less light coming into your camera at a higher shutter speed, especially once your aperture is wide open and can’t let any more light in. Does this make sense? Brent
Hi, Thanks for this. Good Article. Have always wondered if the requirement is for the shutter speed to be greater / double than the focal length of the lens or the focal length I am shooting at. So If I am using the 18-200mm lens and shooting hand held in a low light situation, if I am currently shooting wide at 18mm, do I still need the shutter speed to be 1/200 or more to avoid blur or anything above 1/18 should be good? So the question is ; is it the focal length of the lens, or the length that I am shooting at? Hope the question makes sense.
The focal length you are shooting at – so if you’re shoot wide angle on your zoom lens then you’ll need a slower shutter speed than if you’re shooting zoomed-in (telephoto length). Brent
Hey, this is kind of late, but how do you compensate for faster shutter speeds? Since a higher speed takes in less light, all of my images are darker- so much so that even ramping up ISO and using an f/3.5 aperture still result in dark, murky images. I’m using a Nikkor AF-S 18-55mm VR lens on a D3100. Thanks!
Great question Trevor. I keep my ISO in auto so that it does ramp up when my shutter speed speeds up to compensate for less light and depending on where you cap your highest ISO it will go up very high (12800 ISO sometimes). With the newer camera’s the higher ISO does not create un-usable images due to noise as some of the older models used to do. There is a tradeoff, very fast shutter speed (sharp image, no camera shake and subject frozen) but then you’ll have to deal with noise in a high ISO which can be reduced in post processing software. A blurry image can not. Hope this helps. Brent
This is very interesting, but I’m wondering if I can use a slower shutter speed with a telephoto lens, and if so, how?
Yes you can but it’s difficult (and can be fun too). Checkout this image of the surfer here https://brentmailphotography.com/creativity-inspiration/playful-lens.html Brent
THIS IS A NICE BRIEF KNOWLEDGE ON CAMERA SHUTTER SPEED BUT WOULD LIKE IT IF YOU COULD GIVE MORE RULES FOR BEGINNERS TO GET ENOUGH ASSESS AND UNDERSTANDING ABOUT THE CAMERA AND IT OPERATION AND ALSO IT GENERAL USE. BECAUSE ITS MY DREAM TO BECOME A RE-KNOWN PHOTOGRAPHER