The SHUTTER SPEED MYTH - Filmmaking Basics 

From an artistic point of view, you can play with the shutter speed, but if you're filming indoors, with artificial light and electronic devices like screens, you need to set the shutter speed correctly. It's related to the power grid, 50hz Germany / 60hz USA, if you don't do that you have a flicker in the picture. I think this is an important point to remember when talking about shutter speed. Greetings from Switzerland

Thank you for this! This makes a lot of sense but everyone seems to talk about it like its an absolute rule.

Really great explanation. Sometimes breaking that rule gets you the effect you need. In some cases, frame grabs for stills later are a great point to using higher shutter speeds. And hadn't thought too much about the slo mo implication.great point!

Subscribed. Love nuanced content instead of this “do always x” just because that’s how you do it... instead of being aware of the context

Good video. There is a lot of incorrect information being pushed by "experts" online. One big problem I see a lot is that some people don't understand that 30 fps progressive doesn't have the same kind of motion look as 30 fps interlaced (which looks like 60fps because it has ~60 interlaced fields per second). So they'll incorrectly tell people to shoot at 30p to get a "realistic TV look". To be fair, nowadays there is TV content shot in 30p, but it doesn't give you the traditional motion look of live television, which captures and displays twice as many points in time and looks more like real life. I even saw one "expert" the other day explain in a video that 24p looks like real life and 60p looks unnatural, which is pretty much the opposite of the truth. 60p doesn't look "unnatural", it just doesn't look like a film, which can be jarring when you expect your video to look like a film (and can sometimes remind people of cheaper kinds of videos shot in 30i), but it actually looks more like real life than 24p. Of course, it's about time for interlaced video to be phased out; 60p has been pretty widely available for like 13 years now, and it ought to be the new standard for shooting non-filmic video, or even filmic video sometimes, if you plan on converting the frame rate to 24p in post (which would require certain special considerations regarding shutter speed and/or motion blur plugins, but is doable).

Nice one dude, great points here. Your explanation helped a bunch!

Thanks! I’m new to this and I am the type to go against “set in stone” rules. I knew my creative mind was picking up on some style uses for different speeds. I was like “the speeds are obviously there to play with!”

Love this Tom...absolute gem this info! Thanks..

Good stuff and I like the fact that you are daring enough to say what u say...I guess you can use different shutter speeds according to the look and feel you wanna achieve :)

This was so helpful. Thank you!

Thanks for that video. That answered some of my questions about shutter speed.

I often use high frame rates using 4k for pulling stills, if you get it right a camcorder is capable of producing amazing photographs that can easily be as good as a stills camera, and you don't miss that shot that you are looking for.

I needed to hear this. Thank you!

Needed to hear that... THANK you !

Excellent explanation, thanks!

Great vid!

good job tom...really very informational video

It’s true, people making tiktok videos gets millions of views without following any rule, it’s the content more important

Nice info Man! thank u so much!

RU-vid found me this video for drag-shutter effect. But thank god it did! Learnt a lot!

great advice! thanks!

Great! Thank You so much for the explanation, i also thought to use a higher shutterspeed on propose sometimes :)

I suspect that the actual problem this is all about is that whatever all the textbooks say, 24 or 25 fps is not enough to create the illusion of a smooth movement. It is just a historical compromise between what was feasible (and economic) and what would look nice. That is why fast moving subjects look "shaky" and the motion blur is masking that to make the video look (more) acceptable. When you switch to 50, 60 or even 120 fps, you do not need this crutch and moving subjects look better even with high shutter speeds. At 120 fps, you can use even 1/2000s (which is what you often get on a bright sunny day with f/2.8) and the movement still looks nice and smooth, even if the "shutter angle" is much smaller than with 1/50s at 25 fps (unless the movement is extremely fast). High frame rates may not be always available for presentation or publishing but then it depends on how smart the software resampling the video to slower frame rate is. If it just picks every second (fourth, fifth) frame, the result is just as problematic as if you were shooting with fast shutter speed at 25 fps from the start. If it is smarter, though, it can combine multiple frames together to give you that motion blur workaround for the slow frame rate. But as usual, it's easy to lose the information but you cannot create it from nothing; so it's IMHO better to shoot at higher frame rate and resample down when needed.

Danke für die ausführliche Aufklärung. Tolles Video

Just discovered your channel! Subbed right away 😄

Nice Vid, thank you.

Thank you super helpful.

I completely agree. I normally use a much higher shutter speed. It's the look I want and sharpens my image. I don't always do it, but I do it alot. Awesome video and it's about time someone said it.

excellent love it

nice vid bro. question (im new to this) mid day trail walking/hiking what aperture setting would you recommend?

Great video. Im primarily a photographer who shoots some video and Ive been shooting video at 60p and slowing it down for YEARS in aperture priority because I had no clue what the 180 degree shutter rule even was. Shooting with a prime lens wide open at 1.8 lets say, with no ND filter, my shutter speeds would get up as high as 1/2000 and jump around while shooting. Ive never had any issues with it looking weird when slowing it down. I just did tests recently shooting 1.8 primes wide open in aperture priory with no ND and then shooting using the 180 degree shutter rule with an ND. I can't see any difference at all when the video is slowed down. This isn't the film days, modern cameras are plenty capable of this kinda stuff.

Bravo!!

You are so right! ND filters for run-n-gun work are a pain - use a higher shutter speed and add motion blur back in post... It is easy for Resolve to create very realistic motion blur from a too sharp image if needed (It is always easier to 'degrade' an image than to try to sharpen one that has too much blur to begin with...)

👍🏽 Thank you.

Facts bro.

What would you do if you have a camera that does not support 1/50 for 25 fps but only either 1/25 or 1/100? I usually record driving fast in cars from inside the car. I have found that too much shutter speed mess up the motion blur. Your thoughts? I prefer either 24 or 25 fps.

Hi Tom ! I'm filming fast moving jets with GH5 4K 60fps . Which is the best shutter speed for fast panning ! I want to avoid judder in my videos

If you are a professional working in advertising or film or you simply want your shots to convey the right feeling and emotion in the scene (it's usually the 180-degree rule, as our eyes see that way) then you definitely want to use the 1/50 shutter angle. If you are experimenting or testing things out, or you are simply someone who is in the learning process the sky is the limit.

On point! As always 🔥🤟🏽

I always use a slow shutter, I like Motion blur in all my videos shooting stills is a whole another box of cheese!

I think Matti knows this, he clearly is advising beginners on the rule.

Good good stuff! I was gonna get an ND filter for my sigm 18-35 f 1.8, but I don't think I need it anymore.

If you don’t care about a deep depth of field, you can just increase f-stop and leave the shutter at two times the frame rate for a natural motion blur.

Camera A is set at 24/60 but my B camera I want to set at 24/40 can I mix these two to make one film? I’m asking because camera B is banding at 24/60 but banding goes away at 24/40

Sir please reply, what fps & shutter speed you use in the video you show in between the video ?

I agree with you

Am I correct in assuming that at something like, say, 1/200 at 24 FPS the footage can still look very 'cinematic' and even have a believable enough degree of motion blur for that cinematic filmic look just from the low frame rate alone. I mean we have some kind of strobe effect simply from seeing less frames per second, I think that's more important for a film motion picture vibe than the shutter speed but maybe I'm in the minority.

Fitness Filming can i use high shutter speed ? THX for reply

So true! Christian Mate Grab also doesn't give a damn about the 180° rule and he said noone ever notices it on his videos.

Very good. So much dogma around this subject. It all depends on the final product.

Danke

So siehts aus! :)

I've been shooting interviews 25fps and 1/50 on sony fs5 but I've been disappointed in some of the video quality. I find way too much motion blur on some occasions. Will interviews still look natural at higher shutter speeds? 1/100 and beyond

Wow! I just subscribed...Excellent points, and I've also been noticing lately THAT RU-vid'S COMPRESSION is looking better when using a higher shutter speed (maybe because the low bitrate doesn't render the motion blur too well?)

Yep, I'm a tool. 24fps means use 48/50 shutter speed. It's what I saw on youtube....so that's what I've been doing. Will absolutely be trying out other shutter speeds, as I should have been already, for testing. I mean seriously....why not. Thanks

What if i use aperture priority and leave shutter speed and ISO on the Camera CPU ?

suppose a video is shot @ 120 fps with Ss of 240th of a second And it is played back after converting to 24 fps @ 1/48 Ss speed in Adobe premiere Will it gove same result or it will be a super slow motion video

But my friend as my humble filming experience If you shoot higher shutter speed for example: 24p 1/60 ISO will go higher and noise go higher 500 for example on the other hand if you shoot 24p with shutter 1/25 ISO will go lower than the pervious shutter settings .. so whats the best way ?

I started shooting Sony A7C and I don't follow 180 rule most of time now because Catalyst browse works so well at higher shutter speed. I'm pretty happy with my footage and honestly and when I compared footage at different shutter speed, if there is not fast motion in shot, I can barely tell the difference between 180 rule and high shutter speed footage. The advantage of stable footage is way too much to ignore for motion blur for me. Moral is don't follow rules set in ancient history if you don't want to.

I don’t really care about slow motion. I’m just trying to get clear video of fast moving objects. How can you film these objects and not have them to blurry and have smooth clear video at the same time. My phone looks cleaner than my new R3???

The aesthetic your video is insane

Their is a limit based on FPS how slow you can go in shutter speed, fast shutter limit is based on your camera capabilities. I hope you understood, what am I saying. Now once you calculate how slow you can go, that gives you boundary on one side. So explain that part also.

180 degree rule is about camera movement in the scene not about shutter speed. But everybody make mistakes. Anyway, I like your video. Just keep going!

Damn he really called Matti out like that😆

Why can't we freeze frame using slow shutter speed

Holy shit my dude. Never came across an explanation such as this. You got a new subscriber. Thank You.

what about audio drift?

You have that Gestapo vibe over you and you just killed Matti :(

1000 like for you :D

I really want someone who really tell the truth about this 24p filmmaking production

Wife just decided to hand me my A1 and walk around naked for a few minutes as a birthday present. Do I a) use the 180 rule to capture the blur of her walk or b) use 1/500 shutter and turn all those frames to stills? 🤔

The 1/48 shutter speed propagandist misunderstood or had a low subjective opinion of what constitutes a film look. During Pre- Sony mirror less camera era, video with prosumer video cameras were bland, so "Film look" was achieved by different methods to mask the poorly exposed shots from a video camera. Now a days film look doesn't matter as everything depends on how you grade it as there is NO FILM to compare against. Again this frame rate and flicker - it matters only if you are living in a pre LED era.

I personally like the 1/120 24 fps look... So I use ND filter to get that perfect exposure

I'm a little worried about the shutter speed of 4000 in 4k with my zve10 Can it do any damages to shutter ? I mean something is moving 4 thousand times in one second that's why I'm worried about it

Your light is nice, your image snapping back and forth is way Way over used and detracts from the video viewing attention and very points you wanted to emphasize, it’s akin to camera operators who move the camera back and forth up and down while image action content has not moved at all. Don’t bring attention to the camera, camera should only follow action. Agreed there are some good points being made here. And if you are shooting at a fast fast frames per second to slow down your motion, you don’t want bury images from slow shutter speed, it looks unnatural, you want to see sharp images. This means then for the most part that the 180 rule applies to frame rates of 24,25,60 fps shooting . There is a just a standard CPL that if you want to shoot auto shutter speed you can use that in sun and reduce glare while improving color intensity, it won’t help much in haze and under clouds.

The smoothest, most natural video is 50fps at 1/50 (60fps at 1/60). Its the closest to what human eye can see. Every frame is continuation of the previous one.

Sorry Matty....

For 60p use shutter 60, not 120. Because playing in normal speed of 30p timeline - it gives shutter of 60 (because every second frame is dropt) But in slow mo it gives better motion blur. 🎉

You are also bookish. I hear these arguments from the DSLR owners. Those who own proper video camera they know 25fps with 1/50 speed will produce useless footage with lot of jitters and jagged movement around edges of the objects in the frame. So do you know or you do not know. You just talked.

Mach doch mal wieder ein video suf deutsch. Das fänd ich mal wieder richtig chillig

Im tired of jittery footage.

My God, U people have actors underneath hot lights in the middle of the desert while ur fumbeling around with sunglasses on ur camera. Turn off those lights already. Always complaining bout not enough light, then theres too much light and my camera needs sun protection

Please stop saying sunglasses for camera please RU-vidrs stop enough 😂

Wow, he even got the basics wrong.

Only talking talking talking talking talking .......show how it's ?