Selecting the wrong shutter speed can result in blurry photos or motion blur.
The other day I was at a local park looking for birds to photograph, and accidentally I changed the ISO setting from Auto to ISO 125. I didn’t notice the change at first because it was a sunny day, and this setting combined with Aperture Priority was giving me shutter speeds of around 1/60 to 1/125, so the pictures in the viewfinder looked well exposed to me. What I didn’t notice was that the pictures were not as sharp as they should have been.
When I’m shooting wildlife, I use Aperture Priority and Auto ISO, and I set the minimum shutter speed to 1/500. This shutter speed helps ensure that my 100–400mm lens captures sharp images most of the time. It doesn’t matter that both my lens and camera have image stabilization; I’m not using a tripod, and that introduces movement that can cause motion blur.
This mistake cost me a few pictures, which I deleted because they were not sharp enough. The moral of this real-life story is to check your settings at the start of your shoot—especially if you are getting paid for it.
The above picture could have been sharper if it were not for this error. You can notice the blur at the tips of the wings.
P.S. And people still think that a good camera and lens will always result in good pictures. But if you don’t know how to use those tools, they won’t result in good pictures at all.
