How does this SHUTTER SPEED thing work

K

KROOKEDKROWN

Well-known member
Ok I have tried everything I know to figure out the best way to use the shutter speed but Im lost. Every time I use it I get a blurred image effect and then for some reason It takes a while to get rid of. So how does it work ?? I plan on shooting shorts and want to know the best shutter speed to give me a film look. Should I keep the camera in the same shutter speed all through the movie or change it when theres intense action, Im lost any help would get rid of this headache thank you all very much.
 
hmm. i am pretty confident that many cameras shoot at a 180 degree shutter which is i think 1/48th shutter on a video camera. However on the canon XH A1, i do find it to be slightly blurry, so i generally shoot at 1/60th. Going higher than that gives more of an effect. You also risk getting strobe in your shot.

You would use it for effect. Watch Bourne Ultimatum. They use both quick shutter and slow shutter to create great looks.

High shutter speeds are also great for doing slow motion by shooting at 60i, 30p or 24p and slowing movement down in your NLE. The quicker the shutter, the sharper the motion blur becomes ( you end up with basically none depending on the speed of the object moving in frame )

saving private ryan is another example. High shutter speeds, more so noticed on the beach scene, is used to create stress and heightened suspense.

Music video's are also known for their creative style and "look". This does not go for all, but many of them shoot with a shutter speed ranging from 1/120th to 1/1000th and up. But the higher the shutter, the more that light is required to get an exposed image. And vice versa for slow shutter. 1/12th and less.
Hope that helps a bit!
 
Previous post pretty much covers it.

I'll add something you might know already--

If you're shooting, for example, 60fps, then you're taking 60 pictures per second. This means that the theoretical maximum amount of time that each picture can 'expose' is 1/60th of a sec (as 1/60sec per picture, x 60 pictures = 1 sec).

Shooting for example 1/120th of a sec shutter (or any higher rate) is fine, what that means is that 60 times per second the shutter opens for 1/120th of a second. This means that half the time the shutter is open, half the time it's closed. Shooting 1/240th sec shutter means that the shutter is open one quarter of the time. Imagine opening and closing your eyes as something moves around the room-- the longer your eyes are open, the more 'movement' you 'see'. Movement during an exposure is motion blur. How many times you open your eyes/iris in a second, and how long your eyes are open 'each time you open them', are your 'framerate' and 'shutter rate'. If the shutter is only open for one quarter of the time, then objects only move as quarter as far (while it's open), therefore there's less motion blur. Shooting 1/24th shutter at 24p(f) means the shutter is open 1/24th of a sec per frame, which is quite a long time for objects to move about... thus a lot of blur. A film camera uses a spinning disc, if it has a "180 degree shutter" that means that half of the shutter is 'open'... meaning that it is exposing 'half' of the time. So a 24fps film camera with a 180 degree shutter is shooting 1/48th. A film camera shooting 1/200 sec is using a (24/200)*360 = 43.2 degree shutter. A film camera can't use a 360 degree shutter, as it needs some time to shift the film to the next frame in the gate between exposures. Digi cams CAN run a 360 degree shutter ('open all the time')

If you shoot at a shutter rate which is LOWER than your camera's framerate (ie. lower than 1/60th sec exposure for 60i, or lower than 1/24th shutter for 24fps), then it will frame accumulate (and frame double). This will give you that weird unnatural effect where everything goes smeary and slow. Never ever go below your shooting rate (shutter angle of >360) unless you want a stylistic effects and know exactly what you're doing.

This obviously means that in 24p(f) shooting you can shoot 1/24th sec without it looking 'weird', while 60i can only go to 1/60th sec, which is 1 1/3 stops slower ( log (60/24) base 2 ). This means you get more sensitivity with 24p(f), at the expense of motion blur, if your shutter is 'always open'.

hope that helps a bit
 
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wow, 1/250 is quite high hiro. Any reason in specific for using that over 1/48th or 1/60th since he wants to rneplicate the "film look"
 
Barry, this question sounds naive to even me, but is it possible that 1/48th could be create a different motion blur on the canon XH A1 than on the DVX? I find the canon creates more blur.
 
It should be absolutely identical...

You'll see a difference between CMOS and CCD due to the rolling shutter effect, but the DVX and XHA1 are both CCD so there shouldn't be any difference...
 
wow I didnt realize that the hvx had that much better of a picture. The red van is alot brighter with the hvx and actually the whole picture looks better.
 
That subject was played out extensively in that thread, we don't need to re-live it here please!

The only reason I posted that here was to examine the shutter speed/motion blur issue that PaPa asked.
 
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