FS7: Low Frame Rate Shutter

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digitalinnovations

Well-known member
Quick question: when shooting low frame rates (10-15fps) for a time lapse does everyone here maintain the 180 degree shutter or do you increase that to minimize motion blur? Typically I have just let the camera roll at the typical FPS and sped it up in post but I was considering lowering the frame rate to give myself not only more record time but also to cut down on the file size since I will just speed it up anyway. I thought by upping the shutter (say 1/50-60 on 12fps) it may make the footage a bit more "crisp" and cut down on the blur caused either by the movement of the motion control rig or what's in the frame. Thoughts?
 
I guess depends on you visual aesthetic - thin shutter angle gives jerky stop motion look - fat angle gives dreamy smooth.

I will often go with 360 for TL
 
10 fps isn't a timelapse, it's under cranked.

For timelapse shoot at 1 frame every second or every five seconds or more. It's easier to use 'speed' mode on the shutter. To maintan correct motion blur use the same shutter speed as you use shooting in your base rate. If you want additional blur which often looks great then further slow your shutter.
 
digitalinnovations said:
Quick question: when shooting low frame rates (10-15fps) for a time lapse does everyone here maintain the 180 degree shutter or do you increase that to minimize motion blur? Typically I have just let the camera roll at the typical FPS and sped it up in post but I was considering lowering the frame rate to give myself not only more record time but also to cut down on the file size since I will just speed it up anyway. I thought by upping the shutter (say 1/50-60 on 12fps) it may make the footage a bit more "crisp" and cut down on the blur caused either by the movement of the motion control rig or what's in the frame. Thoughts?
Click to expand...

As has been mentioned.....this is kind of the opposite of what usually looks good. When shooting
time lapse, if you have a high shutter speed, it is far to 'jerky/stuttery' for my liking. Kind of like a
'stop motion' piece I guess. I much, much, MUCH prefer doing the opposite and 'dragging' my shutter
speed. With a 'non DSLR' camera, like the FS7, the best way to do this is shooting 1fps and setting
your shutter speed to 1 second and using a lot of ND.....this creates the 'dreamy' look.....think car tail light
'streaks'. However, you can't do this with a motion control rig, because obviously, as the motion control
rig moves the camera, the shutter will be open......instant blur on everything. Of course, the way this
is done then, is to use a DSLR on the motion control rig with an intervalometer.....'shoot, move, shoot'.
You can program it, so it will move between frames....so maybe you are shooting 1 frame every 5 seconds
and 'dragging' the shutter. It will stop moving for the 1 frame that the DSLR shoots.....and then it will pick
up moving again for the next 4 seconds....at which point it will freeze for the DSLR to take another frame.
 
No reason not to do it with a motion control rig - a proper MC rig should just move smoothly - not fire and move - we have 'camera movement blur' of this nature when using for example a steadicam at real speed.

Also DSLR timelapse is IMO not a good as 'video' timelapse (motion wise) unless one can get 180 or greater shutter.
 
Sorry Sam, you're wrong on every point you've made here. Fire and move is what you want with TL. And there's nothing wrong with normal shutter speeds when shooting TL-it's a choice. Also, dslrs are an excellent choice for TL-much more flexibility than a video camera.
 
Yep having shot timelapses on DSLRs, Reds, Sony video cameras and mirrorless jobbies I'd say it's where DSLRs shine still.

Any moving timelapses in this compilation vid of mine were all done 'fire and move'. The blur is what joins it all up.

https://vimeo.com/172469595
 
Liam Hall said:
Sorry Sam, you're wrong on every point you've made here. Fire and move is what you want with TL. And there's nothing wrong with normal shutter speeds when shooting TL-it's a choice. Also, dslrs are an excellent choice for TL-much more flexibility than a video camera.
Click to expand...

Clearly DSLR have resolution/raw - great.

As for the actual motion Im not 'wrong' I may have a different visual aesthetic to your desire but that is not 'wrong'

Streaks? Stop Motion? Somewhere in between. Its an aesthetic choice.

For example a 2 month building project with a frame an hour would become mush at 180 shutter, 1FPS cars at night can look wonderful. Or clouds.

S
 
My general rule of thumb is 3sec exposures for nice pillowy rolling clouds. 5sec intervals with a breeze and 10sec intervals if it is still. That's the gold right there :)
 
morgan_moore said:
Locals to me Lobster Pictures consider themselfves experts at TL. They have some proper rigs. But personally I find a lot of their work totally janky and eye popping to watch.

Yuk..

Click to expand...

Christ that is awful.

Here's construction-based timelapse video I shot.


EDIT: You can definitely tell which interviews we were given setup time for and which were 5mins to shoot in a white-walled portacabin!
 
You have some very nice shots in there. Hard to tell re timelapse because they wasn't really much.

Those Lobster people should be struck off the timelapser's register. Their work is atrocious. I say this as someone who has done a ton of construction timelapse in the past.
 
Actually what they do is a challenge. Mainly weather, power, security.. and basically it is a remote monitoring tool for the site manager, not art.

==

The perfect shot of a demolition would be a time ramp.. trad timelapse of the setup slows down to 1000FPS as the big chimney falls.

So the best way of doing it is to run your Phantom at 1000FPS 180 shutter for 3 months to give you options in post :)

S
 
What they do isn't a challenge at all. There's off the shelf solutions for that at just about every price level you could want.

As a man stood by a railway bridge being built up north overnight in the pissing rain and cold doing timelapses last week I can confirm that wasn't art either.
 
morgan_moore said:
As for the actual motion Im not 'wrong' I may have a different visual aesthetic to your desire but that is not 'wrong'
Click to expand...

Yes, you are wrong. Well, mostly wrong. You normally want the camera to be still when it takes the image. Particularly, if it is a long exposure.

morgan_moore said:
Streaks? Stop Motion? Somewhere in between. Its an aesthetic choice.
Click to expand...

That's a choice of shutter speed, as I mentioned earlier.

morgan_moore said:
For example a 2 month building project with a frame an hour would become mush at 180 shutter, 1FPS cars at night can look wonderful. Or clouds.
Click to expand...

I didn't advocate using a 180 degree shutter, I said to use SPEED mode.
 
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If the camera is doing a move, one wants it to move during the exposure IMO.

There may be exceptions such as 1/2 hour exposures.

SPEED , Angle - just words. Most of us find 180 pleasing unless we are trying to save Private Ryan.

S
 
Sam, you're not following what I'm talking about or at least we are talking at cross purposes. It doesn't matter...
 
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