Shooting rain at DVinfo.net

Justin Morgan · October 29th, 2003, 05:48 AM

What's a good shutter speed to use in order to best capture footage of rain? I'm using an XM2 and the footage is a close up using a static camera of feet passing through the shot in the rain. Ideally I want to keep the lens quite open to get a nice shallow depth of field.

I really want to try to minimise the amount of footage I have to shoot for this shot as my girlfriend is playing the role of the feet and she's sure to lose patience with being in the rain extremely quickly. So knowing what kind of shutter speed range to stay within will help a lot. Thanks

Norm Couture · October 29th, 2003, 07:52 AM

Justin,
Rainy days are usually dark, so you won't have a lot of lattitude with the shutter speed if you don't want to trigger the electronic gain.
To render the movement and the poundering of rain drops in a close-up, I would try 1/100 or 1/250 sec. Using standard 1/60 (or 1/50 PAL) would give a smoother texture but that's probably what you don't want.
A slightly faster than normal shutter speed will reveal each rain drop as a separate thing in movement, with more details around the splash effects, instead of silky blurry strings of water.
To emphasize the wet-look, don't use any polarising filter.

Don Donatello · October 29th, 2003, 11:11 AM

don't know about shutter speed
BUT filmmaking rule 101- 86 states avoid using girlfriend/boyfriend /spouse/partner in your own projects and NEVER use them for 2nd unit shots ...

this rule saves wear & tear on relationships ...

Justin Morgan · October 29th, 2003, 11:18 AM

Good advice (especially Don - tee hee) thanks.

So, to clarify, I should try and use a fairly slow shutter speed so that the rain shows up more clearly?

One thing I'm thinking of to help with available light (and to avoid having to wait around for rain) is to actually shoot on a fairly bright day. As it is a failrly tight close-up I think I'm going to be able to use artificial rain (from a watering can or something similar) - hopefully this will look realistic - anyone got any experience of doing this?

Don Donatello · October 29th, 2003, 11:36 AM

rain show up better when it is back/side lit.. even on many rainy days light still has a little direction to it ... if the shoot is C/U & day time try using car headlights as side or back light ..

if you are creating the rain then you have control of which way to shoot so try to get light source behind subject .... make sure that all background you see in view finder is wet ... make sure background does not have sun on it - look for a backkground that is in shade

you can have 2 -3 souces/layers for the water .
1) foreground this can be heavy rain
2) middle ground rain where subject is - this can be lighter rain then F/G or B/G
3) background rain can be heavy = equal or more them subject rain ...

shoot test before your shoot date ... you can test shutter speeds and how much rain/water you'll need ...

October 29th, 2003, 05:48 AM	#1
Justin Morgan Regular Crew Join Date: Jan 2002 Location: London Posts: 189	Shooting rain What's a good shutter speed to use in order to best capture footage of rain? I'm using an XM2 and the footage is a close up using a static camera of feet passing through the shot in the rain. Ideally I want to keep the lens quite open to get a nice shallow depth of field. I really want to try to minimise the amount of footage I have to shoot for this shot as my girlfriend is playing the role of the feet and she's sure to lose patience with being in the rain extremely quickly. So knowing what kind of shutter speed range to stay within will help a lot. Thanks

October 29th, 2003, 07:52 AM	#2
Norm Couture Regular Crew Join Date: Sep 2003 Location: Quebec, QC, Canada Posts: 123	Justin, Rainy days are usually dark, so you won't have a lot of lattitude with the shutter speed if you don't want to trigger the electronic gain. To render the movement and the poundering of rain drops in a close-up, I would try 1/100 or 1/250 sec. Using standard 1/60 (or 1/50 PAL) would give a smoother texture but that's probably what you don't want. A slightly faster than normal shutter speed will reveal each rain drop as a separate thing in movement, with more details around the splash effects, instead of silky blurry strings of water. To emphasize the wet-look, don't use any polarising filter. __________________ Norm :)

October 29th, 2003, 11:11 AM	#3
Don Donatello Hawaiian Shirt Mogul Join Date: Nov 2001 Location: northern cailfornia Posts: 1,261	don't know about shutter speed BUT filmmaking rule 101- 86 states avoid using girlfriend/boyfriend /spouse/partner in your own projects and NEVER use them for 2nd unit shots ... this rule saves wear & tear on relationships ...

October 29th, 2003, 11:18 AM	#4
Justin Morgan Regular Crew Join Date: Jan 2002 Location: London Posts: 189	Good advice (especially Don - tee hee) thanks. So, to clarify, I should try and use a fairly slow shutter speed so that the rain shows up more clearly? One thing I'm thinking of to help with available light (and to avoid having to wait around for rain) is to actually shoot on a fairly bright day. As it is a failrly tight close-up I think I'm going to be able to use artificial rain (from a watering can or something similar) - hopefully this will look realistic - anyone got any experience of doing this?

October 29th, 2003, 11:36 AM	#5
Don Donatello Hawaiian Shirt Mogul Join Date: Nov 2001 Location: northern cailfornia Posts: 1,261	rain show up better when it is back/side lit.. even on many rainy days light still has a little direction to it ... if the shoot is C/U & day time try using car headlights as side or back light .. if you are creating the rain then you have control of which way to shoot so try to get light source behind subject .... make sure that all background you see in view finder is wet ... make sure background does not have sun on it - look for a backkground that is in shade you can have 2 -3 souces/layers for the water . 1) foreground this can be heavy rain 2) middle ground rain where subject is - this can be lighter rain then F/G or B/G 3) background rain can be heavy = equal or more them subject rain ... shoot test before your shoot date ... you can test shutter speeds and how much rain/water you'll need ...