I need some fresh advice about shutter speeds

filmtovideo

filmtovideo

Well-known member
I asked a similar question some months ago but still know some people who are
shooting 24 at 1/120 shutter speed and others who insist on 1/60.

The 1/120 people say that 1/60 is too strobey. Any ideas on new thoughts on this?

Thanks.
 
Andrew, thanks. I plan on continuing shooting as usual and usually change the
shutter speed to gain more light for lock-off shots with no motion like buildings
at sunset for example. That this D.P. was shooting at 1/120 as a "normal" setting
made me want to check. For your normal (particularly at 24p) shutter speed would
you ever have a motivation to use 1/120?

Horse Films, thanks; that's what i think.

Brandon, for regular movie scenes, dialogue, cars driving, maybe a fight, would you choose 1/60 or 1/120? I know all scenes are different but
short of analyzing a golf swing with a high shutter speed, what factors do use to decide? thanks.
 
I see a lot of "pro" 24p stuff that looks like it was shot with a shutter arond 1/24 to 1/30 and I think it looks AWFUL. For "regular" film-like motion I always go with 1/60 unless I'm going for a specific look.

1/120 will definitely be more strobing.... You see a similar look in a lot of music videos featuring the talent dancing. Higher than that and youre getting into Saving Private Ryan/Gladiator territory.
 
Dependant on the scene, yes and no. While shooting 24p, say for example during a fight scene, using a higher shutter speed (1/120, 1/250, etc) will yield a very real and vibrant look, something similar to a scene from SPR. As well, a higher shutter speed will give your footage a cleaner touch (which would aid in slow motion) as it takes each frame without the blur and motion strobing that would be introduced with a shutter of 1/24, 1/48 or similar.
 
a 180 degree shutter (which is the most common in film world) would be 1/48 sec shutter in video if you were shooting in 24P. I have shot 24p at 1/24 sec and it turned out fine - a very soft look in fact - however my subjects were not moving much in the frame at all.
 
I did some little tests between 1/24th and 1/48th.

More blur with 1/24th, of course. But, looking at it, not bad looking at all. And hardly noticeable since I'm when rendering for the web, anyway.

You can see the difference when directly comparing the two, but standing by itself?

And it certainly cuts down on the wattage of lights needed. :)
 
People keep wanting to shoot stuff without any light and then wonder why it looks like crap. I'd love to be able to shoot in the dark too but it's not gonna happen (or at least not with good results). Look at Miami Vice. They're using cameras specially designed to shoot in very low light and it still looks like crap.

The sad fact is that trying to brighten up your image is going to hurt it whether you use gain or change the shudder speed.

If you use anything but the standard 1/48 o (maybe) 1/60th, you're gonna end up with a lot of trails and it's not gonna look right. It suddenly becomes very obvious you are shooting on video and everyone's need of 24p is thrown out the window since the motion looks less filmish then if you'd just shot 30p (sad but true).

Same with gain. Everyone is whining that some cameras can boost the gain higher then the other. Boosting the gain at all is gonna give you a lot of noise. It's sad but true.
 
GenJerDan said:
I did some little tests between 1/24th and 1/48th.

More blur with 1/24th, of course. But, looking at it, not bad looking at all. And hardly noticeable since I'm when rendering for the web, anyway.

You can see the difference when directly comparing the two, but standing by itself?

And it certainly cuts down on the wattage of lights needed. :)
Click to expand...

I certainly can. Look at the blur and the motion trails on anything moving faster than a snail at 1/24th. You can even see them in movies like Collateral, where they obviously slowed the shutter speed to get more exposure in low light. If youre going for a film look, the motion trails kill it. I was running out of light in a shoot a few weeks ago and I used 1/24 on two shots that didnt have a lot of motion in them to compensate, and I still can see it and it still makes me hate those shots. :)
 
^
Exactly. 1/24th just doesn't look good. No longer looks like 24p even though it is. If you really want the film look then just get yourself more light. I've been told that on Varicam shoots, they often set the angle to 200 or 210 (not sure what shudder speed that corresponds to). This gives you a bit more light an doesn't seem to alter the motion too drastically. If you're desperate, you can try this on the HVX though i've heard some say it still looks a bit smooth while others say they actually find the motion MORE filmish. Going to 1/24 though just looks crappy.
 
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