Nisolow

Greetings all. I have just returned from a great trip to Alaska. For better or worse, I found myself taking lots of photos in good light but either from a moving vehicle (train, boat) or using a handheld nikon 75-300 at the 200-300 range. I shoot in manual mode and would prefer high iso grain to blur. My question is whether a high shutter speed of 1000 to 2500 leads to any image deterioration in and of itself. Is there a sweet spot for shutter speed on a camera body akin to the optimal aperture on a lens? Thanks! I have a nikon d5300 and several nikon lenses.

canon Lee

shooting in a moving vehicle you need to have a good panning technique as well as the proper shutter speed.

selmslie Loc: Fernandina Beach, FL, USA

If your shutter is working correctly you should be able to use the highest shutter speed so long as your ISO and aperture produce a normal exposure. On a sunny day at f/16 you might be able to set your shutter speed and ISO to the same value.

But on a crop sensor you probably should not go above f/11 (diffraction) and you will need more exposure as the light is dimmer - cloudy, high latitudes, early or late, etc..

aammatj Loc: Zebulon, NC / Roscoe, Ill

You might want to visit the DxO site and do a detailed analysis of your lens/camera combination to see where the sweet spot is with respect to ISO, chromatic aberation, etc. Tony Northrup just put out a video that shows how to do this and what to look for.

Cdouthitt Loc: Traverse City, MI

On bright days I often will be upwards of the max shutter speed of my camera (1/8000). I haven't noticed any issues...that said, I'm not really looking for them either.

Gene51 Loc: Yonkers, NY, now in LSD (LowerSlowerDelaware)

None whatsoever -

SteveR Loc: Michigan

Depends at what distance you're shooting.

Nisolow

Thanks for the replies. It is pretty much what I have been thinking. As long as the exposure is ok, the shutter speed shouldn't really matter.

DavidPine Loc: Fredericksburg, TX

Greetings. Everything about photography is about light, light and light. A good book to ready is Understanding Exposure, Release 3 by Bryan Peterson. Good luck and have fun.

SteveR Loc: Michigan

I've got it.....I'll have to go back and read it now!!!!

robert-photos Loc: Chicago

I noticed that you prefer high ISO settings which produce digital noise ("grain to blur" ).

High ISO also decreases dynamic range. Dynamic range can be simplistically defined as the ratio of the maximum and minimum luminance which can be captured in a single exposure.

With better (higher) dynamic range a photo will appear less "flat".

I am curious as to why you prefer using high ISO for landscape photography since most try to use the lowest ISO setting possible to reduce noise and maximize dynamic range.

I apologize for the hi-jack (it appears that your high shutter speed question has been answered by others...it doesn't matter)....unless you are syncing a flash or need to show motion blur.

Thanks in advance for your explanation.

SteveR Loc: Michigan

What do you consider to be high ISO? Sometimes you have to punch up the ISO in order to achieve high shutter speeds. Also, today's cameras CAN achieve significant dynamic range even at higher ISO. Is it as high as if a photo were taken a ISO 100? I'm sure it isn't. Is it acceptable? In most situations....yes.

The following photo of Lake Donner was taken when it was nearly dark. My footing was not good and the camera was handheld. ISO was 2000. Now, admittedly the photo is not as good as if it were shot in better light and lower ISO....but it's decent given the conditions.

(Download)

Apaflo Loc: Anchorage, Alaska

There are at least three different potential problems related to shutter speed when using a focal plane shutter.

The most obvious and well known is that above a set speed, that is different from one shutter to the next, the entire frame is not exposed at once, and therefore a flash of light (from a speedlight, lightening, spark or other source) will only expose the portion of the frame where the shutter is open.

Another effect happens when pulsed light, for example from mercury vapor lights powered by 60 Hz AC, are the main source of light. If the shutter speed is shorter than 1/120 of a second only a portion of the light pulse exposes the image. The intensity and the color of the light will change from one shot to the next.

An amusing effect is the relation of shutter travel to subject travel. And image of an airplane propeller or a car's wheel can produce a strange effect. Consider a wheel moving at a fast pace from left to right, while a shutter that is a thin slit exposes the wheel from top to bottom. The top of the wheel is exposed in one location, and as the wheel moves to the right the lower portions are exposed, with the bottom of the wheel being significantly to the right of the top. The round wheel now has an elliptical shape in the picture.

Hence it is not correct that there are no effects to how fast the shutter speed is set.

SteveR Loc: Michigan

Thanks Apaflo....according to what you've written.....the fast shutter speeds are the best!!!!

As Alexander Pope wrote in An Essay on Criticism, "A little learning is a dangerous thing."

Apaflo Loc: Anchorage, Alaska

No learning is vastly more dangerous. Read it again.

Nothing I wrote suggests faster is better. In all of the instances I cited that is the opposite from the truth. Of course there are other times, when faster is better. But that was not the point of discussion.