Photography Tips - Shutter Speed

Once you have a good understanding of what the shutter speed is and how to control your camera's shutter speed, you need some guidelines on what shutter speed is needed in different situations. Here are some photography tips for shutter speeds in specific situations. The speeds listed are the needed speeds to freeze the action under normal conditions. If you want to blur the action, decrease the shutter speed. To adjust for a very fast situation, increase the shutter speed.

Please remember that because there are so many different light fluctuations no one shutter speed works for the same situation. These shutter speeds are meant as starting points for you to work with. Remember that speeds of these situations changes as well. For example, a major league baseball player will throw much faster than a middle school baseball player.

Ice Skating

• Jumps - 1/250
• Open Spins - 1/350
• Tight Spins - 1/500

Softball

• Pitched Ball Parallel to Photographer - 1/1000 (1/500 for blur)
• Pitched Ball Coming at Photographer - 1/500
• Players Catching a Ball - 1/350
• Running Players - 1/350 (depending on angle to camera)
• Players Preparing to Throw a Ball - 1/350

Baseball

• Pitched Ball Parallel to Photographer - 1/1000 (1/500 for blur)
• Pitched Ball Coming at Photographer - 1/500
• Players Catching a Ball - 1/350
• Running Players - 1/500 (depending on angle to camera)
• Players Preparing to Throw a Ball - 1/350

Football

• Players Running Towards Photographer - 1/250
• Players Running Parallel to Photographer - 1/500
• Cheerleader Being Tossed - 1/250

Kids Running

• Towards the Camera - 1/180
• Parallel to the Camera - 1/250

People Jumping

• Unassisted - 1/350
• Trampoline or with Other Assist - 1/500

Golf

• Golf Balls Parallel to Photographer - 1/3200
• Golf Swing Parallel to Photographer - 1/2500

Water

• Waves - 1/350
• Splash from Thrown Object - 1/1500