Shutter Speeds with 60P

people debate a lot about what they like personally. if you shoot at somewhere between 1/200 and 1/500 youll get more motion blur which people tend to think looks more natural.

for 24p/30p, the 180 degree rule is standard and it says that the shutter speed should be twice what your frame rate is (so 1/48 and 1/60 respectively). for sports a lot of people like less motion blur so they will shoot at around 1/250 or so.

all these numbers are just rough estimates. there's not real right or wrong. its about going out and shooting and seeing what you like best personally

Relative to the "180 degree shutter" method, having your shutter at 1/200 - 1/500 will give you less motion blur and will look more rigid and artificial.


I use the 180 degree shutter method as a grounding, but I don't abide by it at all. To me these settings look the most like my mind's eye:

24p - 1/60
30p - 1/125 (assuming it will be conformed to 23.98fps)
60p - 1/125

Of course, it's all preference. The best thing you can do is experiment!


Also I should clarify that ghosting ≠ motion blur. People sometimes confuse the two because in FCP when you check the "motion blur" box, you get this disgusting ghosting effect that looks nothing like motion blue. Some people assume that this is what motion blur looks like, and upon hearing that a 1/125 shutter has more motion blue, they avoid it thinking it will give them ghosting. In fact, faster shutter speeds can give you ghosting effects, which is just one reason why I dislike them.

when you say you shoot a shutter speed of 1/125 at 60p, is that assuming your also conforming? If i am conforming 60p footage to 23.98 and usually will have about 170% speed, what should my shutter speed be so that I do not get motion blur? my problem is, if i avoid motion blur in slow motion, then when I speed up my conformed footage to full time, it gets choppy. so its a give in take.

Yes, I conform both 30p and 60p to 23.98fps. I don't know what shutter speed eliminates all motion blur, for I don't do it that way. And 60p with a high shutter will look bad at regular speed; that's just something you're going to have to live with. If you want regular speed, shoot 24p.

Yeah in regards to the first sentence, I mean relative to 1/2000 or whatever he was shooting at before

i would say to do a few test shots where you can play around with the different shutter speeds and compare them side by side on the comp and see what works best for you.

I lol at all these threads lately where kids shoot over 1/1000-1/4000 to get good ''SLOMO"

A lot of my older edits, like all of my clown school edits were 1/1000 or 1/2000 and honestly, i cant tell the difference between my shots that are 250. Landis, im not sure what you see, but i think you're being a little picky. I think that people are being a little sensitive with their shutter speeds and you kids need to stop arguing about it so much and just shoot.

yeah this is what i've been saying for a while.

at some point, a certain shutter speed (possibly 250, if what you say is true), is going to freeze motion. and skiing motion really isn't THAT fast anyway, so it's very possible that the motion could be frozen from anywhere from 250-500. at higher speeds than that, the motion is still going to be frozen. nothing is going to change, so it doesn't really even matter how fast you shoot. sure shooting that high doesn't make a whole lot of sense since you can get the same effect with a lower shutter speed and you're also making it harder on yourself lighting-wise, but other than that it doesn't matter much.

the only real difference at like 1/2000 is a slightly higher contrast, thats all.

hahaha this. Evan speaks the truth.

Of course I'm picky! That's how you learn! To be critical of everything. Mediocrity is devastating, and the "good enough" philosophy hurts me, even though sometimes I have to cave. But not if I have a choice.

Also I would hardly call any of this "arguing." Since nobody is chastising anybody in an effort to endorse their own opinion, this falls more along the lines of discussion.

I agree though, 1/2000 is way excessive and skiing isn't fast enough to justify such a speed. 1/300 is enough to give that effect.