The amount of light reaching the film (in a film camera) or CCD (in a digital camera) is known as the exposure and this is controlled by two major items on a camera - the aperture and shutter speed. The aperture is a variable tiny hole in front of the lens that adjusts to let more or less light through as is required and the shutter speed is a cover over the film or CCD that controls the amount of time that the light takes to reach the film.

As well as their practical uses, both can be used creatively in photography to enhance pictures and take pictures from average, to professional magazine standard pictures and in this article we will be focusing more at shutter speeds. The shutter speeds of cameras can go from very long exposures of over 30 seconds to unbelievably fast speeds of anything as short as 1/8000sec.

All cameras from the most basic point-and-shoot disposable camera to the latest highly sophisticated digital camera have various shutter speeds. The most basic compact models may have a fixed speed and obviously there is nothing you can do with these, however slightly more advanced film or digital cameras have adjustable shutter speeds, but the speed is controlled automatically and you have no override. And then we go into the more sophisticated cameras such as the digital cameras and SLRs. With these specifics cameras, you get an automatic feature built in, however you will also find a number of adjustable setting, and when you start experimenting with these settings, the fun really starts.

By amending the shutter speed you can control the movement of your subject. A fast shutter speed will enable a freezing effect of the subject and a slow shutter speed will make your subject look incredibly blurred in your pictures. You can also combine flash with a slower then normal speed to get movement and blur all in the same shot.

If you have no control over automatic exposure in your film camera then do not panic as there are solutions. One is to use the slowest film you can find. In print film this is ISO100 but you can safely override the speed to ISO25 to fool the camera into increasing the exposure by two stops. The other solution is to buy stickers and place these over the cassette before you load it. You can get slide film in speeds down to ISO50. Again you can override this and set ISO25, but remember if opting for this technique to tell the processing lad to adjust accordingly.

The other heavily used alternative is to place a neutral density filter over the lens. This is a grey filter which reduces the light exposure without reducing the quality of the picture.

If you still own a film camera, then perhaps it is time to invest in a digital camera. In the long one, a digital camera will be less hassle and most of the cameras in the market today come equipped with various shutter speeds which can improve any picture opportunity in dramatic fashion.