Water water everywhere...: Photography Thursday: A Note About Shutter Speeds

In previous posts I've mentioned that the aperture (or f-stop) of your shots is a crucial element to getting good portrait photographs. In fact, I often recommend setting the camera to an aperture-priority mode if you can. But if you only did that and paid no attention to the shutter speed of your photos, you might find yourself with a lot of slightly blurry photos. This is especially true of kids, because even when they are sitting still...they aren't. So here are a few tips to remember about shutter speed.

When shooting portraits, even adults, try to keep the shutter speed under 125...that's 1/125th of a second. That should prevent even the slight blur of someone moving a hand slightly while they pose.
When shooting wandering kids, speed it up even more. If there is enough light I might set my shutter speed to 1/250th of a second. If there isn't enough light, bump the ISO higher to 400 or 800.
Soccer mom or dad? I used to think 250 was good enough when I was outside at my son's soccer games, but I heard a professional sports photog speak once and she shoots at a minimum of 500, sometimes up to 1000. So I cranked the speed to 500 and I was AMAZED at how much better my action shots were.
I shoot a lot of concerts, which are really tough because they are very low light, you can't use flash, and the musicians tend to move A LOT. This is where you really test the limits of your camera with high ISO, because if you don't you can't shoot at a minimum of 125.
Wanna freeze moving water, like in a fountain? That's a shutter speed of at least 500, sometimes even 1000. Check out the dolphin show I shot below.