Quick Tip: How Does Shutter Speed Affect Video?

"When talking about video, many people refer the “cinematic” or “videoish” looks. Cinematic is in. Everyone wants to make sure their videos look like they came from a Hollywood backlot. One of the most basic methods of changing the look is by controlling the shutter speed.

We all know the effects of shutter speed on stills, from long exposures more than eight seconds to 1/250th flash sync to 1/2000th action shooting. This flexibility isn’t available with video, however, as the slowest possible (though not necessarily available in-camera) speed is the reciprocal of the frame rate. So what should you be thinking about when adjusting your shutter speed? Here are five things to focus on:

1. 24 or 25 Frames per Second

If you’re shooting for that filmic look, you should ideally be shooting at 24 frames a second (or 23.976, as is often the case on HDSLRs). If you’re looking to shoot for TV, shoot at 25p (that is, 25fps, progressive scan) in PAL countries and 30p in NTSC countries. Usually regional firmware variants enforce this distinction anyway. Why does the frame rate matter? That takes us to point two:

The options available for frame rates on the Canon T3i. In this quick tip, I’m using 1080p24 and 720p60.

2. Shutter Angle and Shutter Speed

Shutter speed is also one of the aspects of the “film look.” If you’re aiming for cinematic, get used to thinking about shutter angle, and converting between that and shutter speed. Filmic images almost always use a 180° shutter angle, that is, half of the reciprocal of the frame rate. So a 180° shutter at 24p is 1/48 sec. The closest speed to this available on a DSLR is 1/50 sec.

Shutter angle originally was used with rotary shutters, but now must be translated to curtain shutters. 360° translates to a shutter speed of 1/the frame rate. 180° is 1/double the frame rate, and gets faster from there.

At 30p, it would be 1/60 sec. This look has been socially imprinted on us from decades of movies shot at 24 frames with a 180° shutter, and it’s a simple method of putting more apparent production value on-screen.

The other basic shutter angles are 360°, 90° and 45°. At 24p, these in theory would be 1/24 sec, 1/96 sec, and 1/192 sec. These of course aren’t precisely available on DLSRs, so you just have to use the closest one you can find."

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