From the course: Photo Gear Weekly

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The shutter speed fallacy

The shutter speed fallacy

From the course: Photo Gear Weekly

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The shutter speed fallacy

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- As a photographer of course you know that one of the settings that affects the overall exposure for a photo is the shutter speed. And many digital cameras actually have a mechanical shutter. Essentially curtains that open and close to let in light, and then block the light from the sensor, so that you're only getting just the right amount of light during the exposure. The right duration for that exposure. But what many photographers don't realize is that in fact the shutter speed is always the same. Meaning that the shutter itself is moving at the same speed regardless of the shutter speed that you're using. So the term shutter speed is actually a little bit of a misnomer. Of course we can even hear that the shutter speed is different. So here I've got my camera set to a 1/4 of a second exposure. And we can hear the shutter opens and closes, and it happens relatively slowly. If I speed up that shutter speed to 1/3000 of a second, then the opening and closing are happening so quickly…

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