Shutter speed is how quickly the shutter opens and closes. The longer the shutter speed the more light is let in meaning the shorter the shutter speed the less light is let in. A fast shutter speed (1\2000) will freeze things without much motion - giving you a sharp picture however a longer shutter speed (1\3) will have a blurry effect as the picture is taken mid way through the motion. The shutter speed is measured in seconds. The bigger the denominator the faster the speed (1/1000 is much faster than 1/30) When using a long shutter speed a tripod is needed this is because the camera lense is open for a longer period of time therefore the camera can wobble resulting in a blurry picture. A fast shutter speed would be used when capturing a bird flying because it would result in a crisp picture but using a slow shutter speed would make the picture appear blurry which isn't the goal. However a slow shutter speed would work well on a busy roads as the camera captures the light from car headlights giving a blurred trail of lights against a still road.
~ My Pictures ~
Below are pictures that I have taken - they show a fast and slow shutter speed for a fast shutter speed I used F - 4.5 1\4000 As I needed a very fast shutter speed when taking pictures of the water balloon popping because if not i wouldn't of been able to capture it the way I did. This is because fast motions like this require a fast shutter speed.
for a slow shutter speed i used F- 4.5 1\3 - 1/10
Fast Shutter Speed
The 2nd and 3rd pictures showing water falling are improved by having the sky as a neutral background so that the camera is focus on the water rather than the background unlike the third picture. The water is also in focus but the 2nd picture is not fully in focus.
These pictures could of been improved by asking my partner to move away or zooming and focusing on the falling water.
I was able to improve my pictures by bringing in props. On this day I brought in dye and retried the picture. Picture number 1 shows my first try but the other collection of pictures were improved by having someone else pour the dye in so I was able to catch the dye falling and also the background improved the overall theme of my picture.
Slow Shutter Speed
For a slow shutter speed all of these pictures where taken on 1/3 because the shutter speed was slow and the cars were moving this meant the the picture showed the cars to be blurry.
For this series of pictures we blacked out the classroom to make a blur of lights
To improve these pictures we made the classroom darker as it made the light more florescent and looked more professional The shutter speeds were : 2"5 , 3"2, 5"