​What is a safety shutter

The basic requirement of a picture is that the picture should be clear. The easiest way to take a picture without shaking your hand is with a fast enough shutter, canvas prints but relatively fast shutter speeds can cause underexposure. So over time, the photographer came up with the theory of the slowest shutter release ever, known as the "safety shutter." Traditionally, the smple and general definition of a safe shutter is: shutter value is no less than 1/ lens focal length. If you use 50mm, the shutter value of 1/50 will be able to take a picture without shaking the hand.

Is it really that simple?

The definition of a safe shutter has been around for a while, and it worked for film, discount canvas but will it work in today's digital age? Before answering this question, a footnote must be set for the formula. The safety shutter is only suitable for people who know how to hold the camera correctly. It is used in normal shooting conditions (not walking while taking pictures, nor in special situations such as macro shooting) for taking 4R size photos on 135 film (i.e. Note that this is for a camera or lens that does not have an anti-shake feature. Depending on the anti-shake technology, the shutter speed can be set more slowly than the safety shutter speed.

Is the shutter safe?

Everyone has different levels of hand vibration, and if you're constantly snapping photos at a safe shutter speed, large photo you might want to retrain your hand handling skills. In addition, it is necessary to know that the vibration of a handheld camera is only the magnitude of the vibration, and the safety shutter refers to the picture you take with this shutter value "looks" without shaking, so the size of the output picture is also one of the keys. Today's SLR cameras often have tens of millions to tens of millions of pixels, and even when shot with a safe shutter, it is possible to see a slight vibration at 100 percent of the original size. If you're coming up with a poster or larger photo, the traditional safety shutter may not be enough. Interestingly, while we are pursuing cameras and lenses with high pixel and high-resolution images, 99 percent of the output media is photos uploaded on the Internet. Nowadays, most of the audience also uses mobile phones to view social media. For photos in mobile phone size, it is not easy for us to notice even if there is a slight hand shock. The answer to the question of "safety" of the safety shutter is somewhat paradoxical: with today's high-resolution cameras, the traditional safety shutter value has become unsafe, while at the same time, because most of the user output photos are small size, so in most cases "looks" and does not have a hand shake problem, which is actually quite safe.

Safety shutter limit

If you are shooting a moving subject, such as a sport, child, or pet, the safety shutter is no longer a reference value in order to get a clear picture. What you need is a faster shutter to solidify the subject. In addition, since the subject of macro shooting has been greatly enlarged, even a slight shake of the lens will clearly show up in the photo, so the safety shutter is not suitable for macro shooting.

Conclusion

A safe shutter is a reference value, and the actual situation will vary depending on the shooting environment and the person operating the camera. Today's photographic equipment resolution greatly improved, at the same time, the anti-hand shock technology is becoming more and more superb, so the safety shutter in today's actually still a reference significance. Why don't you experiment with your own, starting with a safe shutter value and shooting handheld at different focal lengths to get an accurate personalized safe shutter value?