5 creative uses of shutter speed in your videos

When shooting a video, a general rule is to set the shutter speed to be the double of the frame rate. However, there are scenarios in which breaking this rule is welcome. In this video, Jordy Vandeput of Cinecom shows you five creative effects you can pull off just by changing the shutter speed while filming.

For example, if your frame rate is 25 fps, the shutter speed should generally be 1/50, which will give you the most natural motion blur. But here are the situations when you don’t want a normal shutter speed, but you want to achieve some creative effects.

1. Adding drama to action films

If you use a faster shutter speed (around 1/200), it will make the footage look extra sharp. This trick is often used in action and war movies, and Saving Private Ryan is a good example. The faster shutter speed adds more drama to war, action or fight scenes.

2. Dizziness

The next example is the opposite of the previous one: slowing down the shutter speed. For example, if you shoot at 24fps, the shutter speed can be 1/8. This way you’ll get some motion blur in the footage and it’s a great trick to show dizziness. If your actor is supposed to be drunk or high in the shot, this is the trick to use.

 3. Fast action in slow motion

If your camera can shoot slo-mo at, for example, 180 fps, your shutter speed should be 1/360. However, if you’re shooting a fast action, you should use a bit faster shutter speed. With a normal shutter speed, the blurry details become really prominent in slow motion. You can avoid it and keep the footage crisp by increasing the shutter speed a bit. In Jordy’s case, it’s 180 fps and 1/500.

4.Timelapse

Jordy points to one of the mistakes people make when they start creating timelapse videos: they the camera roll and then just speed up the clip in post-production. But you change the clip’s frames per second when you speed it up. So, adjust your shutter speed so you get a natural motion blur when you speed up the clip.

5. Exposure

If you really must, you can adjust the shutter speed to achieve proper exposure. Sometimes you will not want to crank up the ISO too much in the dark, or you won’t have an ND filter in bright light. So, in a dark environment, you can go with a shutter speed of 1/30. If you’re outside and it’s bright, use a faster shutter speed instead of closing the aperture. If there’s not too much movement in your shot, you can go with these tricks.

[5 SHUTTER SPEED TIPS for VIDEO | Cinecom.net]