Ever need to take photographs of subjects that move very quickly, such as:

* Balls flying at a sporting event
* Animals moving in a zoo
* The subject that cannot stay still at all, kids?

If so, you'll probably be happy to know that most digital cameras come with a shutter priority mode, where you can adjust the shutter speed and let the camera take care of the rest. This way, photographs shouldn't result in a blur. Some cameras let you take photographs with a shutter speed of 1/2,000th of a second or quicker, which is even faster than little Johnny can squirm while having his picture taken!

Although super-fast shutter speeds are possible with most digital cameras, camera speed does come at a cost of lighting. The faster the photograph, the less amount of light enters the camera. Thus, photos taken at extremely fast speeds can turn out dark or completely unusable.

This is just one of the reasons why you see professional photographers using lots of extra lighting in their photographs. When you have lots of artificial light or natural sunlight, you can take crisper, cleaner photographs at ultra-high speeds. If your digital camera supports external flash units, these may be of help in some circumstances.

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