Video: Manual vs Automatic Camera Shutters

Explaining manual and automatic camera shutters; learn how to use camera lenses for manual and digital cameras in this free video on photography and camera ownership.

Video Transcript

A lot of cameras come equipped with automatic shutter speed controls. These can be very helpful for a beginning photographer or someone who doesn't want to take the time to deal with the nitty gritty controls of getting the right shutter. Again, I think there is more advantages to having a manually controlled shutter speed and just a manually controlled camera because the camera is just a simple tool and it's not always going to be able to determine what exactly is happening with the light and also it doesn't know exactly what you want to do with the light. You know, sometimes there will be a sharp beam of light coming into an image and you may want that light to be your subject so you're going to have a shutter that's fast enough that, that light is not blown out but everything else is dark. The converse of that, if you've got some subjects in a room with some bright highlights coming in and you don't want to focus as much on the highlights, you may need to set your shutter so that it's slow enough that you get the detail in your subjects that aren't as well lit and just understanding that the bright lights are going to be a little blown out. So basically you know, there are options to have it automatic, there are options to have it manual, there's cameras that do both automatic and manual but I stress the importance of understanding shutter speed on your own and controlling it on your own because you are going to have the most control of your images and your exposure.

Manual vs Automatic Camera Shutters

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