What is the effect of a shutter speed that is too slow?

• A. The image is blurry due to motion
• B. The image becomes overexposed
• C. The image gains higher color saturation
• D. The image becomes noise-free

Answer: (A)

Shutter speed determines how long the sensor is exposed to light. If that exposure is too long, any movement in the scene or camera shake will smear across the image, creating motion blur. That blur is the most direct and obvious result of a too-slow shutter, which is why you’d see a moving subject or the scene itself look smeared rather than sharp. In forensic photography, this matters because details and measurements rely on crisp images.

Overexposure is a risk in bright light if the exposure is long and not compensated by aperture or ISO, but it’s not the defining effect of a slow shutter in typical conditions. Color saturation isn’t mainly affected by how long the shutter stays open, and long exposures can introduce noise rather than remove it.