Exposure time

Exposure time means how long light shines on something when a picture is taken. It's like when you take a picture with your camera or phone and you press a button, how long you hold the button down is the exposure time. When it's dark, you need to hold the button down for longer so that the camera can capture enough light to make the picture look bright enough. When it's really bright outside, the camera doesn't need to hold the button down for very long because there's already enough light.

It's important to have the right exposure time because if you hold the button down for too long, the picture might look too bright and "washed out". But if you don't hold the button down for long enough, the picture might be too dark and you won't be able to see everything clearly.

Photographers can play around with exposure time to create different effects in their pictures. For example, if they want to capture a really fast-moving object, like a race car or a bird in flight, they might set a really short exposure time so that the picture looks like it's frozen in time. Or, if they want to create a blurry effect, like in a dreamy landscape photo, they might set a longer exposure time so that the picture looks soft and a little fuzzy.