Photo By Emilie .: House of Smiths

The most common reason for blurry images is a slow shutter speed. If you shoot in automatic mode or aperture priority then your camera will often select a shutter speed that is too slow, hence a blurry image.

Shutter speed is the speed that the shutter opens, lets in the image and then closes. Shutter speed manages two elements of your photo: the amount of light in your image and the amount of motion captured in your image.

When the shutter speed is on a lower/slower setting the shutter is open a longer amount of time letting in more light. The slower the shutter speed the longer the shutter is open and the more light that is let in to create your image. When the shutter speed is on a higher/faster setting the shutter is open less time letting in less light. The faster the shutter speed the less time the shutter is open and the darker your image.

When the shutter speed is on a lower/slower setting the shutter is open a longer amount of time capturing all the motion found in your scene. The slower the shutter speed the longer the shutter is open and the more motion that is captured in your image. The lower/slower the shutter the blurrier the image. When the shutter speed is on a higher/faster setting the shutter is open less time capturing a smaller amount of "time" in our scene, stopping any motion that is happening. The faster the shutter speed the less time the shutter is open and the less motion is captures. The higher/faster the shutter the sharper your image.

I never shoot a portrait of a person less than a 250 shutter speed. However, as you can see from the example above 250 is fast & doesn't allow a ton of light. An image shot inside at 250 shutter speed tends to be a bit dark. So what do you do???