Shutter speed: how to freeze motion or show it

Shutter speed decides whether movement looks frozen or blurred. Learn which speeds to use for people, sports, water, night scenes and handheld shooting.

Shutter speed is how long the sensor collects light, written in seconds or fractions of a second: 1/1000, 1/60, 2". It affects brightness, but its creative job is to control how motion appears.

Typical shutter speeds and what they are used for.

Freezing motion

To freeze action you need speed. A person walking is sharp at around 1/250. Kids running or a dog playing need 1/1000. Birds in flight and sports often need 1/2000 or faster. When in doubt, go faster and raise the ISO.

Showing motion

Slow speeds turn movement into blur on purpose. Waterfalls and waves look silky at 1/2 to 2 seconds. Car light trails on Paseo de Montejo need several seconds on a tripod. Panning, where you follow a moving subject with a slow speed around 1/30, keeps the subject sharp and streaks the background.

The handheld rule

A classic rule says your slowest handheld speed is about 1 divided by the focal length: 1/50 with a 50mm lens, 1/200 with a 200mm lens. In-body stabilization on cameras like the Sony a7R V and α6700 lets you go several stops slower, but stabilization only fixes your shake, not a moving subject.