Shutter Speed Questions.. at DVinfo.net

Sean Seah · December 14th, 2006, 10:13 AM

May I know when do we crank up the shutter speeds? I read from a thread to simulate fast movement, we can increase the shutter speed. Is that true? I would think the lighting has to be real good to do that. Other than that, I have not tried changing the shutter speeds yet..

Richard Hunter · December 14th, 2006, 06:32 PM

Hi Sean. I normally use 1/50s a second, and only change it for particular reasons, such as:

1. Very low light conditions, where I might use 1/25s. I'll take the additional motion blur in return for more light.

2. Special effect shots e.g. a waterfall where I might use 1/12s to get blurry water.

3. Very high ambient light where even with ND filters, I cannot stop down the aperture to get the depth of field control I want. In that case I might set the shutter to 1/125s or 1/250s to reduce the amount of light and allow me to open up the lens. This is not ideal though, because the motion can get a bit choppy. Would be better to use additional ND filter.

4. Extreme slow motion. If I know I will be slowing down the shot to less than half speed, I will use 1/125s or 1/250s (with 50i frame rate) so that the slo-mo is not too blurry.

Others may have different opinions but this is what I do. I have to say though, that the vast majority of the time I just use 1/50s.

Richard

Sean Seah · December 17th, 2006, 05:51 AM

Ooh thaz nice info.. didnt think of those situations yet.. I did try out 1/25 for nite shots.. very curious to find out the effects on turning wheels with something faster than 1/50..

Chris Westerstrom · December 21st, 2006, 11:19 AM

I shot a surf vid in France in HD and it was pretty sunny most the time- It looks great in it's native HD but because there is alot of action I think I would adjust my shutter speed to 1/125 as opposed to 1/50. I might be off here but when I compressed it for youtube, the results were really choppy, I am wondering if I had shot it at 1/125 and reduced it to a lesser fps, if it might have been smoother.

Mark Utley · December 21st, 2006, 03:05 PM

I did tight follow (head to toe the whole time) for a hockey game last weekend and used 1/180 shutter and found it was too fast a shutter speed. I should've used 1/120. The faster shutter speed makes the players look like they're moving slower.

Weird thing is it looked pretty good on the LCD screen but not so great on the TV when I got home.

Sean Seah · December 23rd, 2006, 12:57 AM

The FX1 shows that the motion is slower when i go below 1/50.. as for faster, i cant tell!

Mikko Lopponen · December 23rd, 2006, 05:05 PM

I really like faster shutters, especially when using 50i (in the pal land). For movies a slower shutter is better because the framerate is an appalling 24.

December 14th, 2006, 10:13 AM	#1
Sean Seah Trustee Join Date: Sep 2005 Location: Singapore Posts: 1,498	Shutter Speed Questions.. May I know when do we crank up the shutter speeds? I read from a thread to simulate fast movement, we can increase the shutter speed. Is that true? I would think the lighting has to be real good to do that. Other than that, I have not tried changing the shutter speeds yet..

December 21st, 2006, 03:05 PM	#5
Mark Utley Major Player Join Date: Mar 2004 Location: Toronto, ON, Canada Posts: 479	I did tight follow (head to toe the whole time) for a hockey game last weekend and used 1/180 shutter and found it was too fast a shutter speed. I should've used 1/120. The faster shutter speed makes the players look like they're moving slower. Weird thing is it looked pretty good on the LCD screen but not so great on the TV when I got home. __________________ Mark Utley

December 14th, 2006, 06:32 PM	#2
Richard Hunter Trustee Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: Lipa City Batangas, Philippines Posts: 1,110	Hi Sean. I normally use 1/50s a second, and only change it for particular reasons, such as: 1. Very low light conditions, where I might use 1/25s. I'll take the additional motion blur in return for more light. 2. Special effect shots e.g. a waterfall where I might use 1/12s to get blurry water. 3. Very high ambient light where even with ND filters, I cannot stop down the aperture to get the depth of field control I want. In that case I might set the shutter to 1/125s or 1/250s to reduce the amount of light and allow me to open up the lens. This is not ideal though, because the motion can get a bit choppy. Would be better to use additional ND filter. 4. Extreme slow motion. If I know I will be slowing down the shot to less than half speed, I will use 1/125s or 1/250s (with 50i frame rate) so that the slo-mo is not too blurry. Others may have different opinions but this is what I do. I have to say though, that the vast majority of the time I just use 1/50s. Richard

December 17th, 2006, 05:51 AM	#3
Sean Seah Trustee Join Date: Sep 2005 Location: Singapore Posts: 1,498	Ooh thaz nice info.. didnt think of those situations yet.. I did try out 1/25 for nite shots.. very curious to find out the effects on turning wheels with something faster than 1/50..

December 21st, 2006, 11:19 AM	#4
Chris Westerstrom Major Player Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: Gothenburg, Sweden Posts: 259	I shot a surf vid in France in HD and it was pretty sunny most the time- It looks great in it's native HD but because there is alot of action I think I would adjust my shutter speed to 1/125 as opposed to 1/50. I might be off here but when I compressed it for youtube, the results were really choppy, I am wondering if I had shot it at 1/125 and reduced it to a lesser fps, if it might have been smoother.

December 23rd, 2006, 12:57 AM	#6
Sean Seah Trustee Join Date: Sep 2005 Location: Singapore Posts: 1,498	The FX1 shows that the motion is slower when i go below 1/50.. as for faster, i cant tell!

December 23rd, 2006, 05:05 PM	#7
Mikko Lopponen Major Player Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: Helsinki, Finland Posts: 393	I really like faster shutters, especially when using 50i (in the pal land). For movies a slower shutter is better because the framerate is an appalling 24.