The photography workbench · 04
A fraction of a second.
A different story.
Freeze the ride. Let the water flow.
Explore what happens while the shutter is open.
Loading the photographic scenes…
AI-generated photographic scenes · simulated exposures · all in your browser
A little time, a lot of difference
The shutter decides
how much motion stays.
A short slice of time.
At 1/1000 second, a moving subject has little time to travel across the frame. Leave the shutter open longer and you record more of its path. The speed needed to freeze it depends on how fast it moves across your image.
Two ways to make a blur.
Subject movement blurs the cyclist, water or fan blades. Camera shake affects the whole scene, including the background. Try stopping the subject and switching to handheld to see the difference.
More time also means more light.
With other settings fixed, a longer exposure collects more light. Here, brightness is held constant to isolate motion. On a camera, you may need to adjust aperture, ISO or an ND filter to keep a similar exposure.
How the simulation works & its limits
Each preview blends samples from across its exposure interval. The two images share the same midpoint, subject speed and camera movement. The fast reference is always 1/1000 second; your exposure ranges from 1/8000 second to 2 seconds. “Pause scene” holds the moment still for comparison while keeping the selected motion within each exposure.
The cyclist moves at 180 preview pixels per second, the water texture at 240, and the fan at two revolutions per second at 1×. Subject travel is measured on the original 720-pixel-wide preview; it is not a real-world speed or a prediction for a particular camera. Camera shake is a repeatable illustrative movement, with no lens, stabilization or handheld safety threshold implied.
The photographic artwork and fictional cyclist are AI-generated. The rider and bicycle translate as one flat layer; pedaling and wheel rotation are not animated separately. A masked fan disc rotates inside its stationary housing, and a repeated water texture flows within the waterfall. These are compositing approximations, not real camera captures or reconstructed 3D motion.
For smooth interaction, the renderer uses a limited number of temporal samples and blends display colors rather than linear light. Long trails and repeated patterns are approximations. Depth of field, rolling shutter, flash, sensor noise, exposure brightness and water physics are not modeled. The scene animation is a preview, not a real-time capture timer.
Further reading: Nikon’s guide to shutter speed and Physically Based Rendering on shutter time and motion blur.
Now play with what’s in focus.
Compare aperture, lenses and sensor sizes in the bokeh simulator.