Shutter Speed

As well as helping you to achieve correct exposure, the shutter speed of your camera also controls the way that movement is recorded.  fast shutter speeds will freeze movement, but slower speeds will record blur, which can be highly effective.  You also need to consider camera-shake, which is caused if you try to take a handheld picture with a shutter speed that is too slow, causing blur to be created when you don't want it.

Beating camera-shake

To combat camera-shake, the rule-of-thumb is to make sure that the shutter speed you use at least matches the focal length of the lens - so 1/60 sec for 50mm, 1/250 sec for 200mm and so on - though much depends on the steadiness of your hand as you take the picture.  You may find that you need to use faster shutter speed than is normally recommended to ensure a sharp picture, or, if you have a particular steady hand, that you can successfully handhold at slower speeds.

Freezing moving subjects

If you want to freeze a moving subject, there are three important factors that must be considered: how fast your subject is moving; how far away it is from the camera; and the direction it is travelling in relation to the camera.  If your subject is coming head-on, e.g., you can freeze it with a slower shutter speed than if it is moving across your path.  Similarly, a faster shutter speed will be required to freeze a subject that fills the frame than if it only occupies a small part of the total picture.  A shutter speed of 1/1000 sec or 1/2000 sec is fast enough to freeze most action subjects.  Unfortunately, however, light levels won't always allow you to use such high speed - even with your lens set to its maximum aperture - so you need to be aware of the minimum speeds required for certain subjects.  See the table below for a guide.