What is Shutter Speed?

Shutter speed is defined as the amount of time the shutter of the lens is open when capturing the photograph. A fast shutter speed means the amount of time for the photograph to be taken is very small, therefore it is very sharp and there is no 'blur'. On the other end of the spectrum, a slow shutter speed means that the amount of time for the photograph to be taken is large therefore there is more 'blur'. 

Shutter speeds can be used to create photographs such as this...

Figure 1

Shutter speeds vary from 1/16000th of a second to several hours. The blur effect is achieved because while the the shutter is open a number of photographs are taken. The photographs are then built up and create the overall photograph. Therefore the slower the shutter speed the more photographs are taken therefore more of a blur effect( e.g. as in Figure 2) and the faster the shutter speed the more 'frozen' the photograph seems( e.g. Figure 3!)....

       

 Figure 2

Figure 3