Paul, thanks A LOT for this video. Knowing physics and photography theory, I was really messed up (not to say bothered) that most video theory talks about the 180-degree rule and says that 60 fps is the enemy. *The golden rule should be: to achieve the most realistic motion blur, you must use 1/48~1/60 shutter speed.* This video is 2 years old, but it is still the only one that confirms my theory and finally made me feel like I wasn't crazy. I really don't like seeing the stepping frames on the 24p/30p timeline. Now I can rest in peace with 1/60 and 60 fps.
Really pleased it makes sense, they key is to think about shutter angle on the timeline and not at time of capture, then it all makes a bit more sense.
Normally, when I record events where there are parts in a sequence that I will play at 25p or in slow motion, I usually record at 100 shutter speed. But sometime, when I need more light to come in, I have lowered it to 50 shutter speed and have had no problems. Seeing this test I see that I can record at 50 shutter speed and have no problems. Thanks!
This is a great explanation and makes me want to break the 180 shutter rule immediately! I always want to shoot in 60p to have options for slomo but at 1/125th shutter it loses that "cinematic" feel. Until now, I never understood how people were able to achieve that "cinematic look" in both regular playback speeds and then ramp down to slomo while maintaining the same look and feel. So this is incredible, thank you so much
Thank you @@PaulJoy . I'm filming a WW1 Doco, and our reenactments will be shot @ 50P. Doing a test with the DZOFilm Catta ace Zoom Lens on the Panasonic S1 camera via Ninja V (4K Pro Res Raw).
The test went good. Also, I liked your video on the variable filter, as I have the same setup. I was unaware of the gamma shift. My daughter's jersey was yellow but appeared orange with the variable filter. Easy fix in Resolve, but it's good to know. Cheers for that, and I will purchase a couple of ND@@PaulJoy
The opening scene in Saving Private Ryan using 45 degree (1/192) and 90 degree (1/96) shutter. In an interview, Steven Spielberg said: "You can also see several explosions, and Janusz came up with the idea of shooting with the shutter open to 45 degrees or 90 degrees, which completely negated any blurring. Often, when you see an explosion with a 180-degree shutter it can be a thing of beauty, but a 45-degree shutter looks very frightening."
Epic video! I was sceptical at first, because I thought this video was gonna reject the 180 degree rule entirely. But you actually provided a very good insight. And you know. I actually tested this very thing and was breaking my head about why my 50p 1/100 footage looked bad when making clips that were partially normal speed and partially slowmotion. And now I understand why, and its so simple. Thanks!
Hi Paul. Really great explanation. I have used 50p at 1/50 for a long time when delivering at 50fps because for me, it has always looked more natural. (And smooth) I recently moved to 60fps to see how it looked on TV screens because some say that the TV screen scans at 60hz or 120hz and 60 is a better fit. There are two historical things in the video world that I struggle with. One is the insistence that 24/25 fps is the best frame rate to use. Whenever I use that frame rate, pans and things moving across the screen develop a judder that is pretty hard to watch on a large tv screen. No matter what shutter angle. Pans have to be painfully slow. Especially on modern, high contrast and bright TV’s which show it even more. HDR is a minefield in that respect. The other thing is this insistence on 180 degree shutter. We no longer have an ‘angle’ to think about and since the shutter speed dictates motion blur, it is quite misleading for videographers to state that 180 must be used at all times for motion blur. (Agreed that for slowing footage down, it is a good idea) but not playing back at the higher frame rate. What they often complain about is the fact that 50fps has no motion blur so they hate the look of it. In fact, it has the exact same motion blur if shot at 1/50 and is just smoother looking with less judder. Your shot of the mixer looks fantastic and I’m presuming that it was shot at 25fps. No judder on the mixer unit! I wish I knew the secret, but my 25fps footage always looks ‘historical’ to me!!
Thanks for the excellent comment Ian. You're right, frame-rate and motion blur experience is a very subjective thing. I'm definitely in the camp of preferring the classic 24/25p look over a more realistic and fluid 50p but theres no reason at all why everyone needs to agree what looks best. Regarding the panning judder / strobing, yes even the latest high end flat screens for Sony and LG still struggle with that, it's quite often the TV's inability to display it as shot over the inability to capture smooth footage. As you say that's one of the many things we have to consider in our shooting. Thanks again, P
I will always far prefer 60fps at 1/60 for most content out there, seeing 24fps content on RUclips (specially with vloggers) just look extremely jittery and choppy and it just doesnt look great.
Yes, I tend to use 50 or 60fps as well. Mainly for smoothness on TV. I’m actually not that keen on a ‘cinematic’ look in any case for family videos. Always makes me think of the 16fps projector days when we used film stock. It looked ‘cinematic’ but not realistic so for me, they look kind of ‘historic’ and way in the past, just because of the look of them. Some like the way that it takes you away from reality, but I don’t feel that it works so well with family stuff.
@@iancraig yeah, vlogs, gaming, wildlife, sports and practically anything that isn't "cinematic stuff" like weddings or films per say, 60fps is so much better and practical
That’s very interesting and relevant to me: I am often recording a local football (Soccer) team and I use 50p on the A Cam as it’s on sticks with a video head and, with all that panning, 50p is noticeably better than 25p. Most of the footage is played back at 50p with occasional bursts of (slo mo) 25p. I just carried out a quick test of me shadow boxing in the hallway and yes the 1/50 shutter speed does look better - when played back (at 50p) - than the 1/100 shutter speed however; when played back at 50% speed then the 1/100 shutter speed looks clearer and more clinical whereas the 1/50 shutter speed looks more ethereal (which doesn’t offend me) and, since I plan to play most of the footage at full speed then it makes sense to record at 360 degrees shutter angle (1/50). I shall give it a try this Sunday!
Remember when all we had to remember was loading the tape, winding up the cine camera and pressing the trigger to capture a few seconds of film footage that always seemed underexposed in the shade or overexposed in the sunlight with a tint that couldn't be corrected?😂 We've come a long way over the last 45 years. That was a Great Video, explaining Shutter Rates. Your demonstration/example was Spot On! Well Done! Cheers!
Thank you so much for talking about it. As an engineer I've been trying to prove people that if they stick to this rule even changing the fps within the same project and then put their footage in a 25fps timeline with the frame sampling option (not frame blending, as this is yet another story) they would mix the footage with very different amounts of motion blur... And there is no consistency whatsoever in keeping the consistent shutter angle
Incredibly rigorous demonstration of an extremely subtle issue about shutter speed and frame rate - and I would even go so far as to say that, because the motion blur at 1/48 sec (1/50 sec) when PLAYED BACK at 24 (or 25) fps respectively looks best (imho), ANYTHING shot at speeds faster than 50/60p should be shot at 360 degree shutter angle (in other words, anything shot at speeds equal to or faster than 50/60 fps should be exposed for the ENTIRE DURATION of frame exposure, and the 180 degree rule dropped altogether). THIS should be the new rule of thumb! Thanks so much for getting me on a train of thought which has led me to this brilliant conclusion (Q.E.D.)!
Thanks for the long comment and consideration. Your approach makes a lot of sense. I would say that like anything else with shooting video every shot requires consideration. Choosing a level of motion blur is like choosing a depth of field, you make the choice depending on what your producing.
This morning, I was editing some landscape videos shot under very windy conditions, and despite the gimbal, the footage was a bit shaky. I was regretting to have shot at 24fps knowing that at 50 (or 60) I could have slowed it down and thus have stabilized it. I though about it and came to the same conclusion as yours … and found your video !! Perfect ! The only flaw (tell me if I’m wrong) is that every frame shot will have half of its original data. On my camera , the video bitrate is 130 Mb/s. So the more pictures I take in 1 sec, the less data they will record (as they have to share the 130 Mb) . Anyway, our cameras are so crisp that the difference is not visible ( one must have an eagle eye to see the difference between 1080p & 4k on standard footage !) . Great video indeed 👍🏼
That’s true although with xavc-s I wouldn’t expect it to make much difference. Xavc-I maybe, although it’s still a variable bitrate so I’m not sure. Try shooting a 30 second clip in 25p and another in 50p and compare the file sizes!
@@PaulJoy Hi. You're right, I did some tests this afternoon to compare 25fps/50; 50fps/50; 50/100 and even 50 fps/80 (so almost just in between 50 for motion bluer & 100 for a crisper image when moving). 80 avoided some visible blur when in slow mo but was still giving an excellent motion blur and may be a nice compromise (The test camera is a DJI Pocket 3 that I fixed on my motorcycle, so have a stable image and motion blur is quite a challenge, but the gimbal helps a lot). And when I checked the footage, average variable bitrate is between 80 Mb/s and 110 Mbs depending on the shots, so below the Max 130 of the camera. So no real loss of quality. I have to experiment still a bit, but I may go for a permanent 50fps/50 (or 80) to have an option of slowmo to stabilize in post . Thanks again. Philippe
Dear Sir, Thank you so much for this video. A few years ago I was shooting a project for Virgin Trains. During the weeklong shoot we were traveling from London to Manchester and back and then to Leeds multiple times. I wanted to capture the view of the English countryside with the landscape in the foreground wizzing by contrasting the parallax movement of the countryside against the sky. It took the whole week of traveling to get the location right and the shooting settings. I experimented with many different shutter angles until I realized that unless I shot with a 360 degree shutter, the movement of the foreground shrubbery would strobe or stutter and be extremely choppy and distracting, --almost like a pulldown error when converting footage but worse. I've tried to explain this to multiple people but they are insistent. It is very relieving to know that I am not the only one to notice this. I will look back on my archive and see if I still have those tests and perhaps I can put up a video of the results to help fight this dogmatic falsehood!
Hi there. Thanks loads for sharing your experience, while many people like there to be 'rules' for camera settings there are none that are always the correct solution.
In order to really understand the 180° shutter angle theory with all your heart, it is not enough to just watch 1 explanatory video. You have to watch a lot of videos from experts and listen to them carefully. Your video here is such a valuable contribution to a better understanding of this topic. Thanks for that and best regards from Germany! Dirk
THIS. I’ve been developing this understanding for some time and you articulated it perfectly. Each time my mind went, “and what about…?” you immediately shifted to answer the question I had. Think about the underlying theory rather than following dogmatic “rules.” Well done!
Wow, very informative video. I never realised that shooting at double of 50p or 60p you actually loosing the smooth motion blur. Your explanation with examples makes perfect sense. Thank you!
Yup, this one takes a while but once you get it it can be a great way of shooting for normal speed and slowmo shots without compromising the normal speed playback.
Great video! I thought about this recently that 360° angle could be better at 50p for a 25p timeline/delivery to go between regular speed and slow mo without that 90° angle look at regular speed but was never quite sure as I only shoot but don't edit the footage and don't know if its going to be used at normal speed or slowmo, so this video is pretty reassuring for me that 50p 360° angle footage on a 25p timeline looks at the same as 25p 180° angle footage. Great to know too that the slowed down 50p 360° angle footage doesn’t look too different than the slowed down 180° angle footage. Thanks!
This is very useful and thank you for the video. For the 50P with 360 degree, it is smooth when play in 25P with 180 degree line in normal speed because of the "double counts", however, when play in half speed, there are too much motion blur, normally slow moving object would not generate that much motion blur. Of course, this is an arguable point, very subject. Don't get me wrong, it is a very useful video and I learnt a lot from your videos. Thank you!
I remember years back I was watching Dexter and they would often pop into slow motion mid shot. I began to notice that every time the shutter angle looked like 90 it meant they were about to pop into slow motion.
That is brilliant. Thank you. Never thought of 360 degree or ) degree shutter. I always shot things twice at different frame rates then in post chose what I needed to slow down. Which took a lot longer.
I KNEW there was something off about using the 180 rule with slowmo! I've been tinkering with shutter speed for weeks. Even finally bought some ND filters. This was the final piece of information I needed. Thank you!
Very interesting indeed 😊 I've been shooting a lot of aftermovies for festival lately and I think I'll adopt this 360 too. Especially because in most of what I do, this dreamy look in slowmo can actually be a plus! Thank you 🙏✨
@@andrewj22 I think I see your point here and I think you are right in the case you describe. But I think in most cases, timelines and exports are set in 24 (*25) or 30p. And that changes the result because if you shoot 60p at 180°, you get this certain amount or motion blur for each picture as you said, but by exporting it in a 30p timeline, you divide the number of frames you have by 2. 30/60 frames are deleted ( or *hidden), so you end up with 30 frames that are still exposed at 1/120 But if you shoot this 60p clip at 360°, then when played on a 30p timeline you get the correct motion blur or 1/60s, and when slown down at 50%, you get an excessive motion blur BUT it is less appearing because thr movement is also slower. From my understanding, shooting 360° is a gresat tool for a very specific situation: When you shoot something without knowing if you will slow it down or not. AND most probably, you will keep it normal speed. Shooting 360 AT HIGHER FRAMRATE, give you extra frames in case you will slow it down, but gives you the correct motion blur if you don't slow it down. Very good for things that are unpredictable, like event or reportage, run and gun shooting 😁✨
@@TaoCovillault Thanks for your reply here. I"m afraid I have had to hide @Andrew J's comments on the channel because he has been spamming multiple comments on the video with the same reply. I welcome discussion about this topic and would love to have the discussion to try and explain where I think he had misunderstood the video but posting accusations on lots of other peoples comments is not the way to do it.
This is crazy! I might try 4K@120fps at 1/125s shutter speed and test it out! It actually looks great either way (normal/slow motion) here with the 50fps at 1/50s. Amazing tip and it can get very handy for low light situations as well!
I often use 1/100th for 100fps when shooting for slowmo and it looks great for things like real estate videos. Let me know how you get on. One thing to bear in mind is that anything over 50/60p doesn’t work well for playing back at normal speed.
@@PaulJoy Not many people can even see 100/120fps since most screens are capped at 50/60hz, and even then RUclips only shows 60fps max, the thing is, you cant go any lower than 1/120 at 120fps so if you decide to use it on say, 30 or especially 24fps, it just looks jittery and unnatural if you're not slowing down so i really wouldnt recommend shooting 120fps for a 30/24fps timeline unless you're slowing it down. 60fps on 30fps timeline works since not only is it divisible, you can still use a relatively slow shutter speed (like 1/60) so it looks ok and natural, you cant do that with 120fps since its 1/120, i guess you can use it for 30fps or 60fps timeline since its not only divisible but high shutter speeds dont look too bad unlike at 24, but it would be a hassle for little reason, worse low light and most cameras wont look that good at 120fps compared to 24/30 or even 60 on some, sure you can slow it down even more but... most of the times you really only need half speed. If you're shooting something and dont know yet when and if you're slowing it down, shoot 50/60fps at 360 (1/50 1/60) and export it at 25/30fps and should look correct both normal and slow motion (of course you can also export at 50/60fps if that's your liking, 60fps at 1/60 looks way better than 1/120 when played back at normal speed and that FPS). 100/120fps (or higher for that matter) really only shoot it if you're planning to slow it down in post and avoid importing 120fps to lower fps timeline (like 24fps) at normal speed for no reason (sure it could work for 30/60fps but is it really worth it?). Or unless you want to shoot 120fps and export it at 120fps then sure, by all means and i would agree that shooting that at 1/120 should look more natural (but remember that RUclips and most social media for that matter, only shows 60fps max, so i dont think there's a good reason to export beyond 60fps, unless we were talking about Gaming then sure, more FPS the better)
@@giganooz you mean Frame Blending? Don't recommend it since it kinda starts to look blurry or like it's interlaced. You can drop a 120fps clip into 24 since it's technically divisible, it just can't go lower than 1/120 shutter speed so it always looks sharp and jittery.
Thank you for this. I know it’s a fairly old video now, but I keep coming back to it. I have also played around a lot with shutter speeds and watched a lot of old cowboy movies (for instance), freeze framing the action. What really surprised me was just how much blur these old movies show, to the point where in many still frames, the whole picture was totally motion blurred. This made me think more about shutter angle because it looks to me as though the old cinema stuff might well have been using a slower shutter, judging from the amount of blur. The other thing that no one seems to talk about is the black gap between each frame. The movie would be in 24 fps with each frame shown for 1/48th sec with a 1/48th second gap to move the film. Therefore, the 180 rule is actually 100% of the shown picture time, not 50% I still feel that the amount of blur in say, John Wayne films is more than 180 degrees! So I played around with 360 degree shutter since we have no black frames so that the blur matched the distance a subject traveled in the same amount of time as a frame. Results weren’t as blurry or smeared and many might think. Handheld, a shutter at 1/25th is a bit too slow but on a tripod, fine. I quite liked it and often, when using a low frame rate, I now use a 270 degree shutter to make movement appear smoother. For 60fps, I use 1/60th and imo, it does look nicer. However, we all seem to ignore that black frame that should appear as it does in film projection. Not sure what exactly happens with modern digital movies, but I do see terrible judder in most movies shown in the cinema. Perhaps less care taken over camera movement these days, but I am extremely sensitive to it and find it really annoying. Thanks for an interesting video. As I said earlier…. I keep coming back to it!
Hi there, thanks so much for this comment, I’d not given any thought to how much of the 24 fps was dedicated to the mechanics of pulling the film down on old cinema cameras and projectors before. I’ll have to have a play with that one!
I Guess 48fps with every other frame being black. This stops what is called, ‘persistence of vision’. What this means is that the motion blur stretches across 1/48th second, followed by 1/48th second black. The brain then inserts what it thinks the motion should be, giving smoother movement. It’s an optical illusion. My TV inserts black frames and it starts to look a little more ‘movie like’ when it’s on. So you get 1/48th of motion blur and 1/48th of brain insertion which (I guess) might insert the same amount for you, giving (kind of) 48fps at 360 degrees and this was originally a measurement used to calculate the best frame rate/smoothness/cost. Unfortunately not in movies possible because film needed the black frame to change the picture which suggests that perhaps we should be videoing at 50 or 60fps with 360 degree shutter! I have never been totally convinced by 24fps. When I was younger, I used film at 16fps and it always looked like poor home movie to me. Even then in the 60’s. 24fps just about works but imo, with a mostly still camera. Some movies are ghastly I think. We all seem to be hanging on to that frame rate, but the medium that we now use has drastically changed but we seem to ignore it. Especially with fast displays that don’t allow for persistence of vision. It’s a funny old topic, but one that has interested me for a long time because of this (quite often) total acceptance of 24fps, even on 60hz screens. It’s kind of become a burned in rule, like the 180 degree rule that more often than not, I break. In fact, at slow frame rates, I prefer a 270 degree shutter or even more. This is a topic that isn’t really discussed much on RUclips. It’s always assumed that 24fps is the one that is ‘best’ without really analysing why it’s the best. I think when it’s done well, it looks fantastic, but there are many, many examples of poor camera control at 24fps and that slow frame rate makes it appear actually worse in some cases. I think faster frame rates are more forgiving of poor camera control but 24 needs more attention to detail and how you move the camera.
I find the explanation confusing in terms of what combo of settings look smooth and what does not. Your different examples all look pretty smooth to me. My takeaway from the video is that the popular 180 degree shutter angle which gives natural blur of the motion pictures, in post production, should be calculated from the editing timeline frame rate and camera shutter speed. Not really from the camera frame rate. Thus the 360 degree shutter technique is useful when shooting 50p for editing on a 25p timeline. It also allows you to achieve 180 degree shutter by applying half speed slow motion (50p -> 25p) which is a bonus. Very useful information. Thank you!
I totally agreed. I shot a lot of 50p videos on mirrorless camera with 1/50 for my private social media and for broadcasting work. For 1/100 the motion looks totally jitter, look too digital/like from smartphone (motion is all too sharp like there is has no motion blur), and not looking smooth, especially compare to 180° setting in Sony FX9 or Sony PDW camera. After editing session all shots from 50p with 1/50 which rendered to 1080i 25p looks similar to 180° from Broadcasting Camera. I think 180° Shutter Angle is not always a must to apply in digital era, only that we have to find the look we want and avoid the flicker from light source, that's all.
Thanks for letting me know. Yes when I look at 50/100 footage on a 25p timeline it reminds me of those old hand cranked camera movies of ye olden days!
I've been blowing my mind on frame rates not just the shutter rule but whether 24,30,60 or 25,50 to use. Dealing with aircraft cabin lighting and strobing, flickering etc I've freally struglled. Whilst you dont cover fps uses in this vide you cleared my head regarding shutter rule. Nicely explained.
So basically when shooting in 60p or 120p you can just set the shutter number to match the fps. That's cool because the Sony FX3 doesn't do shutter angle, and if you're switching between 30p and 60p you don't even have to touch the shutter. Added bonus is there will be more light coming in too.
Great video Paul, I was thinking of doing this lately as it would make speed ramping and playing back higher frame rates at their normal speed and not conforming them to the timeline fps, look more natural and cinematic.
60fps at 1/60 is like a perfect hybrid tbh for RUclips, Slow motion still looks good and better than just 24/30fps (heck, you can say it makes stuff look like they're moving faster than they really are), and in normal speed, if exported at 60fps, it looks far more natural thanks to motion blur (against 1/120 or higher), so you're getting ultra smooth footage and still normal blur, and if anything, you can export it at 30fps and look like normal 30fps 180, just that you can always slow it down. (for PAL, replace 60 to 50, 30 to 25) Also, its better for low light since more light comes in
Brilliant and the slider test with the mixer is just perfect. Honestly shocked your channel doesn't have like a million subscribers. Just a matter of time. I wish 48 fps was more commonly available on cameras as it would be perfect for frame dropping to 24 fps (and, of course, shooting a 360 degree shutter!)
No problem. I think you’re referencing my comment about the 180 degree rule having nothing to do with shutter angle / speed? If so then what o meant by that was that the term “180 degree rule” was traditionally applied to a rule about camera position and not “crossing the line” when filming people talking to each other so as not to confuse a viewer. 180 degree shutter is also a common standard but the term 180 degree rule was often used to describe that as well when it’s not really what that term referred too. It’s pedantic I know which is why I just dropped it in as a fun comment :)
Right, I get what you're saying and fair enough, but simply for discussion sake, this is something I would never implement, mostly because of the type of work I do. I finish all my projects in 24p. I feel it looks the best and most natural. Unless I really want to go for a specific look for a scene, I stick to the 180 rule for everything, as I feel it looks the most pleasing to watch. When filming slow mo in 60/120/240 (sticking to 180 rule) I always slow it down to 24 so it matches everything else for the look and feel. I don't mix and and match frame rates and shoot everything with an idea of what I'm going to use it for. I think it's good to shoot with intention and to be specific about your settings, your shots, scenes and the entire project. This is very much my view on filmmaking and what you say certainly works and can be helpful for specific kinds of work and video shooting. I very rarely comment on youtube so just wanted to put my two cents in. 👊
Thanks for your thoughts. I totally agree with you and would set per shot if I know up front how the clip will be used. Where this is useful is when shooting 50/60 not knowing which clips will be normal speed or slowmo.
This is incredibly useful. I haven't used slow mo in any of my videos and I came across this video in my research. I shoot racing cars, so getting slow mo right is going to be crucial. Thanks so much.
Glad it was useful, just bear in mind that this is all about no compromising footage played back at normal speed, you do get additional motion blur in slow-mo so you'll need to decide if that works okay for the cars.
Alright I am one of the 300+ people having to comment on this incredible piece of information. I shoot real estate video and if I understand correctly I can shoot at 59.95fps (60) here in Canada and now use 1/60 shutter instead of 1/125 allowing me DOUBLE THE LIGHT COLLECTION but still with the option of slowing things down by 50-60%??? I usually edit on a 23.975fps timeline. If so this is absolutely mind blowing and changes everything for me. As a real estate videographer I either slow things down or ramp speed up all the time but the 1/60 shutter (double the light) is what blows my mind and still being able to slow down... If I shoot this way can I still use my 59.975 clips at normal (100%) speed should I need to? Sometimes I will use fast paced audio track which more or less need to be left at normal speed or even sped up (I am shooting at 59.975fps on a 23.975fpstimeline) Thank you so very much for this information! This is incredibly useful!
Yes you can, and yes I shoot some interior videos and you normally need all the light you can get! Best advice is to try it out somewhere like your own home and see if the level of motion blur with 1/60 shutter is acceptable to you for your slow motion shots.
This is exactly what I've been thinking about. It doesn't matter if it's 25fps or 50fps, 1/50 shutter is 1/50 shutter in the end of the day. This whole rule, kinda looses it's point in digital. I'd rather shoot everything at 1/50, knowing that I can slow down the futage later or just frame skip if I want to play it real time.
Oh, already been here and liked it. Still nice to watch again and confirm my own findings, wish I could like twice :) And the video itself is very nicely done!
Fun Fact: The 180° Rule has nothing to do with shutter speed! The internet took a rule about camera positioning and somehow applied it to shutter angle.
The internet and especially YT is full of people who blindly follow Peter McKinnen, potato jet etc etc. ironically these guys just copy other people and then preach it to their followers.
Incorrect. For a shutter to stay open for a given angle of the circle, it must stay open for a given period of time. That is a physical law. Therefore angle and shutter speed have "something to do with each other". They have no choice. I know we live in a woke world but surely we're not trying to deny physics as well as everything else are we?
great video, I always shoot 360 degrees when shooting at 60p because you get the motion blur and smoother footage than 24/30p. I never really understand why people were so hard pressed on 180-degree shutter rule. A better way to think of it is that 1/50th of a second is the natural motion blur we perceive in real life. We also see at a much higher frame rate than 24p in real life so it just rational that we shoot documentary with 1/50th shutter regardless of the frame rate.
While it's true that approx 1/50th of a second feels like a natural amount of motion blur, that only really applies to native playback (aka, 24p on a 24p timeline, 50p on a 50p timeline, etc). Once we decide to playback in slow motion, then we're effectively breaking realism in order to allow us to watch something play out at an unnatural speed. To illustrate my point, even if it were technically possible to shoot 120p at 1/50th of a second, the resulting playback in slow motion would just look like a very slow moving blur. People tend to like to stick with the 180-degree rule, because it gives the slow motion footage that same amount of motion blur that feels natural to us at regular playback. But I agree that people tend to stick too rigidly to the 180-degree rule. There are pros and cons of each choice, and it's the job of the DP to decide what works best for the shot. It really should be called "the 180-degree shutter guideline". 😉
@@colinjudge1261 you are absolutely correct, people who shoot in 60p do so because they intended the footage to be slowed down, so they must shoot in 180 degree rule. This way the slow-motion footage has the correct blur instead of being too blurry. But for me, it was always the extra frame even if it's 1/50th of a second. This makes the footage feels smoother and more real. This is what I want when I shoot documentary-style. However, it goes to show you that it's better to understand why you are doing certain things than to follow it because that's what you have been taught. cheers
@@anhtran9111 Completely agree, this is why it's so underrated to understand the fundamentals. Beginners can fast-track their progress by listening to these general recommendations like Rule of Thirds, 180º Shutter Rule, Don't Cross The Line, etc. But without learning why these guidelines work, you can't spot the situations where these rules are better off ignored. That's the point where you have creative control, and where things get interesting!
I've been looking for this video for a long time. Bravo! So many other videos tout the 180 degree shutter angle without really getting it. Want more blur? Slow down the shutter. Intend to use footage at half speed? Double the shutter speed. Or don't! Just use the shutter speed for the blur you want. Leave shutter angle out of it. People don't get it and cameras don't work that way anymore anyhow.
Shutter angle is one of those things that people get a little religious about, but as you say it’s just another ingredient that you can add to taste as long as you understand what it will do to your final flavour :)
the problem with 360 for me at least, is that the additional motion blur you get from 60p having 1/60th makes the slowed down shoot not look as slow as if you just keep it at 180(you get that much needed detail that creates the slowed down effect).. i encourage people to be deliberate with what they are shooting and just take one second to think when you actually need a slow mo shot.
As I say in the video, it is a compromise but when you don't know which shots are going to be slowed down in post it gives you much better results than trying to use software options to slow down 25p footage.
I'll have to give this a try as I shoot 50p for most of the day incase there's anything I want to slow down in post, have always shot 180 but will definitely give this a go and see how it looks. Be good to have more light for the first dances too!
To add to my previous comment and after studying my test footage : this trick of 50(60) fps 360° rule is perfect as long as your camera is stable. Let me explain: if your camera is stable, every shot will have a clear and neat image except some blur of the moving subject inside. In slow motion I agree that the blur will be quite poetic and different that with 180° rule. But now , if your camera is not stable (I did my tests with a Pocket 3 on a motorcycle. Gimbal does great job, but it’s moving anyway), some pictures at 50(60) shutter may be shaky among a flow of good ones. (At 100/120 or above, a faster shutter will avoid that); it’s not a big deal when playing normal speed. But when you slowmo it, then the big blur is quite visible. So , from my experiment : YES I will now film at 50/50 to have this option of slowmo free of mind. But if I feel that my camera (my camera not my subject) may shake, I will increase a bit my shutter to avoid blurred image while still keeping a good motion blur.
Thanks for sharing you're findings, I agree that if theres a lot of camera shake additional motion blur could be a problem, plus, there's always going to be subjects / styles that need additional consideration re settings.
Hey Ben. It is a slight compromise for the half speed footage as it has more motion blur than 180° shutter would produce however that compromise is a lot smaller in my opinion than playing back 25p at 1/100th which is what it would be if you shot at 50/100 and then dropped half the frames for 25p (non slowmo) playback. The thing to remember about this is that I'm talking about the ability to drop half the frames and use 50/60p footage at normal speed on a 24/25/30 timeline.
the is GOOD! always shooting outside in hard conditions and external light or variable ND filter isn't always the best solutions so thanks to you now I have more tool to adjust the shutter speed/ light situation.
I don’t use this to adjust exposure, I fix my shutter at 1/50th so you may have misunderstood the point here. Shooting at 50/50 instead of 50/100 will actually increase exposure.
Fantastic video mate as someone just getting into videography, having comes from drones and action cams to now my first mirrorless, this video is a godsend. One question though, if i want to shoot in 120fps is there a frame rate i can use that would give me this same flexibility? To use the footage both at full speed or slowed down if i wanted? Cheers.
I have always shot all my videos in 50p with a shutter speed of 50 :D Whenever I looked at 50p footage with 100shutter I always thought it looked to jumpy.
I can't agree more. The rule of 180° shutter angle was created in times, when you would produce movies with having 24fps in mind to meet film cinema standards. So if you recorded something in 48fps then, you would use it for 2x slow motion, not for watching it in 48fps. We have more possibilities of using different frame rates in different ways in theese times, so that theory needs to be updated.
Actually, shooting at 2 x speed for sow down in post I would normally still aim for 180° shutter. The point of this video is if you're shooting at 2 x speed and plan to play back at 1 x speed then 180° would give you 90° shutter. Whether anyone prefers the look of ons shutter angle or another is down to creative choice, but it's worth understanding that something shot at 180° shutter may not end up being 180° shutter of you alter the playback speed.
Very informative. It puzzles me that EVERYBODY talks about, the necessity of ND filters and the 180 shutter-rule. Can’t you get as good as a motion blur in post (like Davinci Studio)? One would be more flexible and wouldn’t have the hassle with the NDs all the time. Hardly anybody talks about the negatives/restrictions of using an ND filter like, color-casting, vignetting, having to use a higher ISO sometimes, not being able to use polarizers with a variable ND filter which is usually less of a quality anyway, bad stabilizing results, etc. If the motion blur is only done in post, without NDs, how good and easy is the result of a proper motion blur and quality?
I don't use Resolve so I'm not aware of how well it performs in that regard. Certainly if it has the ability to correctly apply motion blur to specific objects in the frame then that could be useful.
This answered my question I've been searching for! I've been filming a documentary type film at 60p and using it on a 30p timeline, simply for the smoothness of certain clips being played back slow motion. I noticed the normal speed playback was somewhat jittery looking and I suspected the 180 degree shutter speed being the issue.
There is a video out there that explains this in more detail. I can’t quite recall who done the video, but I think it was Caleb from DSLR Video Shooter. This is true, but not entirely. You have to remember that half the frames will be dropped. So as the image is moving from one frame to the next, half the frames are dropped to reduce it from 50 down to 25, and then the NLE will use frame blending to make sure they flow. The issue is, which frames are dropped. If you move from frame to frame, sometimes the jump from one to the next is jittery because they don’t actually follow each other because there used to be a frame in between. The information that was lost is almost unnoticeable, but sometimes enough to cause the jitters.
@@danfarmer_photo Thats not true for FCPX, I'm not sure about other NLE's. In FCPX there is no frame blending when halving the framerate, it simply only plays back alternate frames. This should be true whenever exactly halving the framerate however if you go from say 60p to 25p then frame blending or frame skipping would be required.
I do more or less the same. My timeline is usually 30 fps and for realtime footage I film in 30 fps (with 1/50 sec - so not exactly 180 degrees, but close). When I might want slow motion, I film in 60 fps with 1/60 shutter (as long as artificial lights don't flicker, then I am forced to 1/100). For the same reason as you. When I play it back realtime, I have 180 degree shutter. And when I play it slow mo, it is 360 degree shutter, but I actually prefer this smoother, creamier look with slow motion anyways.
Great video, confirmed a hunch I had! Tired of shooting for slow mo sticking religiously to 180 shutter rule, and then the footage just doesnt look good at normal speed. Cheers!
@@PaulJoy Update - it doesnt work actually! The footage shot at 1/50 in 50 fps is still much jerkier when played back normal speed than 25 fps at 1/50. You'd think the shutter was at 1/100 anyway and other filmmakers have also pointed out that keeping the shutter at 1/50 wont look like it does at 25fps when you record at 50fps and export to 25fps timeline!
@@jamiequinlanWhich NLE are you using? Maybe the way the footage is interpreted in FCP is different to other NLE’s. If a frame is exposed for 1/50th of a second at 50fps then it should be identical to a frame exposed 1/50th at 25fps. If you’re seeing a jerky playback it could be the way the NLE is trying to interpret the footage. Have you tried exporting it?
@@PaulJoy Im using Premiere Pro. Even interpreting footage to conform and then speeding up 2x to get normal speed, you can see it's much jerkier and less cinematic (same when exported as on timeline). I really think something in this theory doesnt quite add up - but I'm not a technical guy so not sure what..! Thanks for the advice
@@jamiequinlan Well it's not really a theory as I use it and it works for me as shown in the examples in this video. I don't use Premiere Pro though so I can only think there might be a difference in the NLE. You shouldn't need to conform the footage and speed it up, just dropping a 50 fps clip on a 25 fps timeline should do the job. Can you confirm that you're shooting true 50 fps and using a true 25p timeline? If there's any difference in the clip and timeline such as one using NTSC and the other using PAL settings then that would certainly cause it to not be smooth.
Hi there. The slider is a Zacuto Stealth with a motor kit. It’s really old now and the tech has moved on a lot but I rarely use it these days so haven’t bothered changing it.
This is SO GREAT! PERFECT! Question.....what if you shoot at 60 fps, but instead of 1/60, you go 1/120, such as, if it's a really bright day. I know you could change the iso, or aperture, but just wondering. .....or 60 fps and 1/180, basically multiples of 60, or whatever fps you shoot in.
It’s more a question of how the finished video is being delivered. If your finishing your video at 60fps then you could in theory shoot at 120fps with a 1/120th shutter and still be able to use the footage at 60fps with equivalent to 180 degree shutter angle, ie 60fps with 1/120th shutter.
Two things... 1. Very helpful video (apart from your misleading comment pinned at the top, to which I have replied). So thanks for doing it and explaining your views. I hope I didn't sound too harsh! 2. I am surprised to hear that slow motion playback is achieved by 'dropping frames'. That seems an inefficient way to achieve it. Surely it would make better sense to play all the frames in the original recording but just take longer to play them (time stretched). Record at 50p then simply playback ALL of those frames at 25p, obviously taking twice as long to do it. Am I missing something here? Thanks
What’s misleading, I’ll try to address it if I can. I think you’re misunderstanding the concept of the video. Frames are not dropped to create slow motion. If shooting at 50p for delivery on a 25p timeline the clip can be set to half speed giving 50% slowmo. What I’m talking about here is when you want to use that same clip and not use it as slowmo, that’s when half the frames are dropped. Does that help at all?
OK. Yes thank you. I see my misunderstanding now. In order to 'squeeze' a 50p clip into a 25p timeline at normal speed it must drop half the frames (presumably alternate ones?) Thanks for sticking with me. I will watch your video again. The misleading part (I think) is about something else. In a comment you said that shutter angle has "nothing to do with" shutter speed, but my point was that of course it must because the time the shutter is open will directly affect the angle covered during rotation. Each is a function of the other. Anyway, thanks for explaining the dropped frames issue. I used to think that it didn't really matter being able to set angles directly in the camera because you can use the shutter speed to get more or less the angle you need, then someone helpfully pointed out to me that in his camera he can set the angle and the shutter speed will change to whatever is necessary to maintain that angle whenever the recording frame rate is changed. If I had a pound for every time I've setup for slow motion shot only to find that I forgot to check my shutter speed from the previous frame rate and therefore no longer had the angle of the original speed......
This is a great video and compares the shutter speeds well, but I noticed that the video upload is played at 25fps, so you can't really see how the motion blur would look in those 50p videos at normal speed.
The video is about using 50p footage on a 25p timeline. If shooting for a 50 fps delivery then what I talk about here wouldn’t apply unless your shooting at 100 fps :)
The whole video is based on the assumption that resampling higher frame rate to lower can be only done by skipping some frames (e.g. every sedond for 60 to 30 fps). But just as the algorithms for resampling images to lower resolution are way smarter than "just drop the extra pixels", resampling video frame rate can be done in more sophisticated way than simply skipping frames. If you do that, combining multiple frames into one will result in the motion blur needed as a workaround when playing at 24/25/30 fps. Because that's exactly what it is: the motion blur is not aesthetically pleasing per se. It's just a trick masking the fact that 24-30 fps is not sufficient to create an illusion of smooth movement. These rates are just a historical compromise, not something set in stone. Just as we no longer shoot black and white (unless for artistic purpose) and shoot at much higher resolutions than we used to, we should finally abandon also the dogma that 24 or 25 fps is somehow The Only Correct Frame Rate and that anyone wanting higher is a heretic. It's also important to note that as soon as you switch to 60 or even 120 fps, you do not really need to adhere to the "180° rule" so strictly any more because then you get smoother motion even for higher shutter speeds. That's because the insufficient frame rate is the problem, not high shutter speed.
Yes, it’s totally based on our historical experience of watching film and how doing so makes us feel as viewers. Whilst many shoot at 60 or 120 frames per second not many will create a project that plays back at those frame rates, not because it’s not technically possible but because the result looks more realistic and less like what we perceive as being cinematic.
I do the same .. I bought a DJI pocket ... I shoot almost everything at 48 frames and 1/50th of a second... Basically 360 degrees open. This gives me two products in one file. My editor will toss out every other frame if I use it on a 24p timeline. Giving me 24fps 180degrees shutter. If I use it and retime to use everything frame I get double speed and still the look of a 180 degree shutter because it's been slowed.
My cheap camcorder only shoots 50fps at full resolution for some stupid reason, and I thought this meant that I would need 1/100 shutter, even though reducing frame rate in post to 25 fps. But you are saying that I can keep my shutter at 1/50 as if shooting at 25fps? That’s fantastic news! Because I need the extra exposure :)
What shutter speed should be used for native 50p/60p playback (not slowed down, and no frames dropped), a 50p/60p timeline with the final video rendered at 50/60p?
Video shot at 50/60 fps to be played back at that same speed would generally be shot with 1/100 or 1/120 shutter accordingly, ie 180° shutter. Of course you could shoot 100 fps at 1/100 or 120 fps at 1/120 if your camera is capable of doing so and then the method shown in this video would still apply allowing you to use some shots at 50% playback speed without compromising the shots played back at 50/60.
I shoot any footage that I might want to slow down a bit in post at 60P - with a shutter of 1/120... If I use the footage at 'normal' speed I simply add motion blur (I use Resolve) to recreate the 1/50th shutter 'feel'. It is much easier to add blur (essentially degrading the image) than try to recreate missing unknown detail/sharpness if you try to go the other way!
I've not spent much time in resolve but that sounds like a useful feature. I'd imagine the problem with that though is that if you end up using only 10% of the footage as slowmo then you'll need to apply a motion blur filter on 90% of your shots which I'd imagine takes quite a bit of processing power. Without trying it it's hard to know how accurate that blur is compared to natural motion blur but thanks for the comment, I'll check it out.
Honestly, I think it has more to do with how natural motion looks at different shutter speeds (and that changes for the speed of the motion too) I think you could shoot 1/50 of a second up to 240hz and it'd be fine, as long as the speed of motion in real life matches the speed of motion in playback. You can shoot 1/500th of a second if the motion is slow enough. Thus, it has more to do with the fact that most moving objects seem smooth at 1/50th of a second than they do at higher speeds. That is, 1/50th of a second is closer to the natural motion blur our eyes see .
I think our eyes actually see a lot more motion blur than we expect to see in a video. This makes sense as our eyes don't have a shutter so when you think about it we see in the equivalent of 360° shutter! Try looking forward and moving your hand in front of your face and it's super blurred even at slow speeds. I guess you could just blink really quickly :) Thanks for your thoughts on this Samuel.
@@PaulJoy oh yes, I don't think we can replicate it entirely... But there there are other factors at play once you get to 360 degrees (or more theoretically) I wonder if it's better to think like photographers who set a shutter based on effect... Just stop and say if you want natural blur on motion, it's 1/50. For example, if you shoot at 1/125 on a 60fps timeline and watch it on a 60hz monitor, I think it would look weird there too, even though playback is higher. In that regards, I'd be interested to see what 1/60 looks like, even though that's technically 360
Also Paul, standards like PAL really don’t apply to online content which is best shot and viewed at 30/60 fps because most viewers are viewing on a 60hz display now. 24/25 doesn’t display correctly on a 60hz display.
It’s certainly become less relevant in terms of delivery. Where it is still useful is for matching frame rates with local lighting frequency. Again with LED’s it’s becoming less so and personally I’d prefer just to dial in the framerate required from a full list rather than being limited by region.
Thank you for the video, makes absolute sense! What are your thoughts on 25vs30 (50vs60). Motion blur vs smooth playing on PC screens. Would love to see a video on that issue.
30 will be smoother than 25 but which one you use should be led by what you're delivering. For filmic content I prefer 25 but if going for more true to life look and feel then 30 could help.
Here's what I'm thinking about: If you set 50 fps at 1/50 then the one second would be filled exactly. But is that also the case in reality? Doesn't the camera need more than one second to produce 50 frames at 1/50 ? I am thinking of the time the camera needs to read out the sensor and refocus each time. If the camera took more , it would no longer be able to produce 50 frames, but less. If I stay at 1/100 at 50 fps, I can be sure that the camera will really produce the 50 frames in a second.
Hi Chris. I get what your saying but cameras have been capable of shooting 360 degree shutter for many years now. I really don't know how they work, that's way above my pay grade :) The camera doesn't focus between frames as far as i know, I would imagine it will be doing that constantly at higher frequency than the frame-rate.
Thanks for the info - followed 100% through the vid but I believe that in the 6min mark the terms half speed and normal speed are confusing. I assume that it translates to 25fps timeline of an original 50fps @360 angle is halved @180 angle. This is your point right? By presenting two times 50fps with 50 shutter speed and mentioning half and full speed will confuse the audience. At least i had to see it 2-3 times to understand your point.
My reference to normal and half speed is exactly that. A 50fps clip placed on a 25p timeline without making any change to its playback speed is normal speed, however if it’s set to 50% speed it’s playing back at half speed. I hope that helps.
Thank you Paul I've just inscribed my self to your channel, For myself I think that a 360° will be better for the interior shooting with natural light or low light I have a Sony a6600 with a 18-105 @ F4 and with 25fps @ 1/25-1/30sec i have a ISO of 200-1000; when i set 25fps @ 1/50sec the video on Full HD res is still looking ok but the iso are generally from 400 to 8000 iso. Honestly on My 15" inch PC I can rarely see the grain unless I don't want to look for it, but it seems to me that the pictures are a little more soft than when shoot under iso 1000. I have noticed that with 25fps @ 1/30sec i need less a gimbal than when I shoot 25fps @1/50sec at least in this few tries. Thanks again Max
Hi Max, thanks for the sub. In terms of shutter angle when shooting 25p, yes you can get away with 360 degree shutter and I do this myself sometimes but you just need to bare in mind how much movement is happening in the scene because the additional motion blur can start to look unnatural. This video was really aimed at shooting 50p for 25p delivery in which case using 360 shutter angle and dropping half the frames still results in the same amount of motion blur as shooting 25p with 180 shutter angle. Thanks again.
I have no idea. I just made a compilation of bunch of vacation videos and I remember the Shutterspeed being between 320 and 80 When shooting 4k Slog/Cinetone on a A6700.
180° Shutter is a common setting it's not a critical choice in all cases and I know a few people that expose using shutter speed and are perfectly happy with the results. I also know people who are religious about 180° shutter so it really comes own to your own preference.
Thank you for this deep investigation! I am kinda getting the idea, but not fully. What to do with 120fps if I possibly can play it at a normal speed (30fps timeline)? Which shutter speed to use? Thank you in advance for the answer!
Hi there. The problem with 120fps is each frame can only be exposed for a maximum of 1/120th of a second so it’s impossible to get the equivalent of 180 degree shutter at 30fps which would be 1/60th of a second. The slowest shutter you can achieve is 1/120th per frame, so if you place that clip on a 30fps timeline each frame will still have 1/120th which will be equivalent to 90 degree shutter.
This is the most significant video ever done on this topic! Hats off to you and thank you for looking out for us filmmakers!
Glad it was useful, thanks for letting me know.
Paul, thanks A LOT for this video. Knowing physics and photography theory, I was really messed up (not to say bothered) that most video theory talks about the 180-degree rule and says that 60 fps is the enemy.
*The golden rule should be: to achieve the most realistic motion blur, you must use 1/48~1/60 shutter speed.* This video is 2 years old, but it is still the only one that confirms my theory and finally made me feel like I wasn't crazy.
I really don't like seeing the stepping frames on the 24p/30p timeline. Now I can rest in peace with 1/60 and 60 fps.
Really pleased it makes sense, they key is to think about shutter angle on the timeline and not at time of capture, then it all makes a bit more sense.
Normally, when I record events where there are parts in a sequence that I will play at 25p or in slow motion, I usually record at 100 shutter speed. But sometime, when I need more light to come in, I have lowered it to 50 shutter speed and have had no problems. Seeing this test I see that I can record at 50 shutter speed and have no problems. Thanks!
Ah yes, I did mean to mention that advantage of having an extra stop for low light but forgot all about it! Thanks for the reminder.
This is a great explanation and makes me want to break the 180 shutter rule immediately! I always want to shoot in 60p to have options for slomo but at 1/125th shutter it loses that "cinematic" feel. Until now, I never understood how people were able to achieve that "cinematic look" in both regular playback speeds and then ramp down to slomo while maintaining the same look and feel. So this is incredible, thank you so much
Excellent, hope it works well for you :)
Thank you @@PaulJoy . I'm filming a WW1 Doco, and our reenactments will be shot @ 50P. Doing a test with the DZOFilm Catta ace Zoom Lens on the Panasonic S1 camera via Ninja V (4K Pro Res Raw).
@@sampsonpictures Sounds exciting, let me know how the test goes.
The test went good. Also, I liked your video on the variable filter, as I have the same setup. I was unaware of the gamma shift. My daughter's jersey was yellow but appeared orange with the variable filter. Easy fix in Resolve, but it's good to know. Cheers for that, and I will purchase a couple of ND@@PaulJoy
The opening scene in Saving Private Ryan using 45 degree (1/192) and 90 degree (1/96) shutter.
In an interview, Steven Spielberg said:
"You can also see several explosions, and Janusz came up with the idea of shooting with the shutter open to 45 degrees or 90 degrees, which completely negated any blurring. Often, when you see an explosion with a 180-degree shutter it can be a thing of beauty, but a 45-degree shutter looks very frightening."
Epic video! I was sceptical at first, because I thought this video was gonna reject the 180 degree rule entirely. But you actually provided a very good insight.
And you know. I actually tested this very thing and was breaking my head about why my 50p 1/100 footage looked bad when making clips that were partially normal speed and partially slowmotion. And now I understand why, and its so simple. Thanks!
Great stuff, glad you liked it.
Hi Paul. Really great explanation. I have used 50p at 1/50 for a long time when delivering at 50fps because for me, it has always looked more natural. (And smooth) I recently moved to 60fps to see how it looked on TV screens because some say that the TV screen scans at 60hz or 120hz and 60 is a better fit.
There are two historical things in the video world that I struggle with. One is the insistence that 24/25 fps is the best frame rate to use. Whenever I use that frame rate, pans and things moving across the screen develop a judder that is pretty hard to watch on a large tv screen. No matter what shutter angle. Pans have to be painfully slow. Especially on modern, high contrast and bright TV’s which show it even more. HDR is a minefield in that respect.
The other thing is this insistence on 180 degree shutter. We no longer have an ‘angle’ to think about and since the shutter speed dictates motion blur, it is quite misleading for videographers to state that 180 must be used at all times for motion blur. (Agreed that for slowing footage down, it is a good idea) but not playing back at the higher frame rate.
What they often complain about is the fact that 50fps has no motion blur so they hate the look of it. In fact, it has the exact same motion blur if shot at 1/50 and is just smoother looking with less judder.
Your shot of the mixer looks fantastic and I’m presuming that it was shot at 25fps. No judder on the mixer unit! I wish I knew the secret, but my 25fps footage always looks ‘historical’ to me!!
Thanks for the excellent comment Ian. You're right, frame-rate and motion blur experience is a very subjective thing. I'm definitely in the camp of preferring the classic 24/25p look over a more realistic and fluid 50p but theres no reason at all why everyone needs to agree what looks best.
Regarding the panning judder / strobing, yes even the latest high end flat screens for Sony and LG still struggle with that, it's quite often the TV's inability to display it as shot over the inability to capture smooth footage. As you say that's one of the many things we have to consider in our shooting.
Thanks again, P
I will always far prefer 60fps at 1/60 for most content out there, seeing 24fps content on RUclips (specially with vloggers) just look extremely jittery and choppy and it just doesnt look great.
Yes, I tend to use 50 or 60fps as well. Mainly for smoothness on TV. I’m actually not that keen on a ‘cinematic’ look in any case for family videos. Always makes me think of the 16fps projector days when we used film stock. It looked ‘cinematic’ but not realistic so for me, they look kind of ‘historic’ and way in the past, just because of the look of them. Some like the way that it takes you away from reality, but I don’t feel that it works so well with family stuff.
@@iancraig yeah, vlogs, gaming, wildlife, sports and practically anything that isn't "cinematic stuff" like weddings or films per say, 60fps is so much better and practical
That’s very interesting and relevant to me: I am often recording a local football (Soccer) team and I use 50p on the A Cam as it’s on sticks with a video head and, with all that panning, 50p is noticeably better than 25p.
Most of the footage is played back at 50p with occasional bursts of (slo mo) 25p.
I just carried out a quick test of me shadow boxing in the hallway and yes the 1/50 shutter speed does look better - when played back (at 50p) - than the 1/100 shutter speed however; when played back at 50% speed then the 1/100 shutter speed looks clearer and more clinical whereas the 1/50 shutter speed looks more ethereal (which doesn’t offend me) and, since I plan to play most of the footage at full speed then it makes sense to record at 360 degrees shutter angle (1/50).
I shall give it a try this Sunday!
Sounds good, let me know how you get on. I’ve not worked on anything with a 50p playback but I can imagine it works well for sports.
Yep, depends a lot on the subject matter. High speed action where you want to have more detail, best to shoot at 180 degrees.
Remember when all we had to remember was loading the tape, winding up the cine camera and pressing the trigger to capture a few seconds of film footage that always seemed underexposed in the shade or overexposed in the sunlight with a tint that couldn't be corrected?😂
We've come a long way over the last 45 years.
That was a Great Video, explaining Shutter Rates. Your demonstration/example was Spot On!
Well Done! Cheers!
I remember loading tape but thankfully never had to wind up my cameras :) Thanks loads for the feedback.
Thank you so much for talking about it. As an engineer I've been trying to prove people that if they stick to this rule even changing the fps within the same project and then put their footage in a 25fps timeline with the frame sampling option (not frame blending, as this is yet another story) they would mix the footage with very different amounts of motion blur... And there is no consistency whatsoever in keeping the consistent shutter angle
Thanks, yes it’s always a subject that causes a lovely debate :)
Incredibly rigorous demonstration of an extremely subtle issue about shutter speed and frame rate - and I would even go so far as to say that, because the motion blur at 1/48 sec (1/50 sec) when PLAYED BACK at 24 (or 25) fps respectively looks best (imho), ANYTHING shot at speeds faster than 50/60p should be shot at 360 degree shutter angle (in other words, anything shot at speeds equal to or faster than 50/60 fps should be exposed for the ENTIRE DURATION of frame exposure, and the 180 degree rule dropped altogether). THIS should be the new rule of thumb! Thanks so much for getting me on a train of thought which has led me to this brilliant conclusion (Q.E.D.)!
Thanks for the long comment and consideration. Your approach makes a lot of sense. I would say that like anything else with shooting video every shot requires consideration. Choosing a level of motion blur is like choosing a depth of field, you make the choice depending on what your producing.
This morning, I was editing some landscape videos shot under very windy conditions, and despite the gimbal, the footage was a bit shaky. I was regretting to have shot at 24fps knowing that at 50 (or 60) I could have slowed it down and thus have stabilized it. I though about it and came to the same conclusion as yours … and found your video !! Perfect ! The only flaw (tell me if I’m wrong) is that every frame shot will have half of its original data. On my camera , the video bitrate is 130 Mb/s. So the more pictures I take in 1 sec, the less data they will record (as they have to share the 130 Mb) . Anyway, our cameras are so crisp that the difference is not visible ( one must have an eagle eye to see the difference between 1080p & 4k on standard footage !) . Great video indeed 👍🏼
That’s true although with xavc-s I wouldn’t expect it to make much difference. Xavc-I maybe, although it’s still a variable bitrate so I’m not sure. Try shooting a 30 second clip in 25p and another in 50p and compare the file sizes!
@@PaulJoy Hi. You're right, I did some tests this afternoon to compare 25fps/50; 50fps/50; 50/100 and even 50 fps/80 (so almost just in between 50 for motion bluer & 100 for a crisper image when moving). 80 avoided some visible blur when in slow mo but was still giving an excellent motion blur and may be a nice compromise (The test camera is a DJI Pocket 3 that I fixed on my motorcycle, so have a stable image and motion blur is quite a challenge, but the gimbal helps a lot). And when I checked the footage, average variable bitrate is between 80 Mb/s and 110 Mbs depending on the shots, so below the Max 130 of the camera. So no real loss of quality. I have to experiment still a bit, but I may go for a permanent 50fps/50 (or 80) to have an option of slowmo to stabilize in post . Thanks again. Philippe
Dear Sir, Thank you so much for this video. A few years ago I was shooting a project for Virgin Trains. During the weeklong shoot we were traveling from London to Manchester and back and then to Leeds multiple times. I wanted to capture the view of the English countryside with the landscape in the foreground wizzing by contrasting the parallax movement of the countryside against the sky. It took the whole week of traveling to get the location right and the shooting settings. I experimented with many different shutter angles until I realized that unless I shot with a 360 degree shutter, the movement of the foreground shrubbery would strobe or stutter and be extremely choppy and distracting, --almost like a pulldown error when converting footage but worse.
I've tried to explain this to multiple people but they are insistent. It is very relieving to know that I am not the only one to notice this. I will look back on my archive and see if I still have those tests and perhaps I can put up a video of the results to help fight this dogmatic falsehood!
Hi there. Thanks loads for sharing your experience, while many people like there to be 'rules' for camera settings there are none that are always the correct solution.
In order to really understand the 180° shutter angle theory with all your heart, it is not enough to just watch 1 explanatory video. You have to watch a lot of videos from experts and listen to them carefully. Your video here is such a valuable contribution to a better understanding of this topic. Thanks for that and best regards from Germany! Dirk
You're welcome Dirk, best regards to you too.
THIS. I’ve been developing this understanding for some time and you articulated it perfectly. Each time my mind went, “and what about…?” you immediately shifted to answer the question I had. Think about the underlying theory rather than following dogmatic “rules.” Well done!
Thanks for sharing your thoughts, as you say it’s often better to understand why rather than just following the rules.
Wow, very informative video. I never realised that shooting at double of 50p or 60p you actually loosing the smooth motion blur. Your explanation with examples makes perfect sense. Thank you!
Yup, this one takes a while but once you get it it can be a great way of shooting for normal speed and slowmo shots without compromising the normal speed playback.
Great video! I thought about this recently that 360° angle could be better at 50p for a 25p timeline/delivery to go between regular speed and slow mo without that 90° angle look at regular speed but was never quite sure as I only shoot but don't edit the footage and don't know if its going to be used at normal speed or slowmo, so this video is pretty reassuring for me that 50p 360° angle footage on a 25p timeline looks at the same as 25p 180° angle footage. Great to know too that the slowed down 50p 360° angle footage doesn’t look too different than the slowed down 180° angle footage. Thanks!
Glad it was useful, thanks for letting me know.
This is very useful and thank you for the video.
For the 50P with 360 degree, it is smooth when play in 25P with 180 degree line in normal speed because of the "double counts", however, when play in half speed, there are too much motion blur, normally slow moving object would not generate that much motion blur. Of course, this is an arguable point, very subject.
Don't get me wrong, it is a very useful video and I learnt a lot from your videos. Thank you!
Correct, the question comes down to whats more important for you, having 180° shutter angle on your regular speed footage or slow motion footage.
I remember years back I was watching Dexter and they would often pop into slow motion mid shot. I began to notice that every time the shutter angle looked like 90 it meant they were about to pop into slow motion.
Thats really interesting, thanks for the heads up.
That is brilliant. Thank you. Never thought of 360 degree or ) degree shutter. I always shot things twice at different frame rates then in post chose what I needed to slow down. Which took a lot longer.
I KNEW there was something off about using the 180 rule with slowmo! I've been tinkering with shutter speed for weeks. Even finally bought some ND filters. This was the final piece of information I needed. Thank you!
If you’re only using it for slow-mo then it generally works fine, the problem start when you try to play it back in normal speed.
Very interesting indeed 😊
I've been shooting a lot of aftermovies for festival lately and I think I'll adopt this 360 too.
Especially because in most of what I do, this dreamy look in slowmo can actually be a plus!
Thank you 🙏✨
But don’t tell anyone because you will upset the RUclips.
Same here! I shoot at 50p 360 bc of "lack of light" purposes and it made perfect sense to me, bc 1/50th shutterspeed is sufficient for slomo
@@andrewj22 I think I see your point here and I think you are right in the case you describe.
But I think in most cases, timelines and exports are set in 24 (*25) or 30p.
And that changes the result because if you shoot 60p at 180°, you get this certain amount or motion blur for each picture as you said, but by exporting it in a 30p timeline, you divide the number of frames you have by 2.
30/60 frames are deleted ( or *hidden), so you end up with 30 frames that are still exposed at 1/120
But if you shoot this 60p clip at 360°, then when played on a 30p timeline you get the correct motion blur or 1/60s, and when slown down at 50%, you get an excessive motion blur BUT it is less appearing because thr movement is also slower.
From my understanding, shooting 360° is a gresat tool for a very specific situation:
When you shoot something without knowing if you will slow it down or not.
AND most probably, you will keep it normal speed.
Shooting 360 AT HIGHER FRAMRATE, give you extra frames in case you will slow it down, but gives you the correct motion blur if you don't slow it down.
Very good for things that are unpredictable, like event or reportage, run and gun shooting 😁✨
@@TaoCovillault Thanks for your reply here. I"m afraid I have had to hide @Andrew J's comments on the channel because he has been spamming multiple comments on the video with the same reply. I welcome discussion about this topic and would love to have the discussion to try and explain where I think he had misunderstood the video but posting accusations on lots of other peoples comments is not the way to do it.
This is crazy! I might try 4K@120fps at 1/125s shutter speed and test it out! It actually looks great either way (normal/slow motion) here with the 50fps at 1/50s. Amazing tip and it can get very handy for low light situations as well!
I often use 1/100th for 100fps when shooting for slowmo and it looks great for things like real estate videos. Let me know how you get on. One thing to bear in mind is that anything over 50/60p doesn’t work well for playing back at normal speed.
@@PaulJoy Not many people can even see 100/120fps since most screens are capped at 50/60hz, and even then RUclips only shows 60fps max, the thing is, you cant go any lower than 1/120 at 120fps so if you decide to use it on say, 30 or especially 24fps, it just looks jittery and unnatural if you're not slowing down so i really wouldnt recommend shooting 120fps for a 30/24fps timeline unless you're slowing it down. 60fps on 30fps timeline works since not only is it divisible, you can still use a relatively slow shutter speed (like 1/60) so it looks ok and natural, you cant do that with 120fps since its 1/120, i guess you can use it for 30fps or 60fps timeline since its not only divisible but high shutter speeds dont look too bad unlike at 24, but it would be a hassle for little reason, worse low light and most cameras wont look that good at 120fps compared to 24/30 or even 60 on some, sure you can slow it down even more but... most of the times you really only need half speed.
If you're shooting something and dont know yet when and if you're slowing it down, shoot 50/60fps at 360 (1/50 1/60) and export it at 25/30fps and should look correct both normal and slow motion (of course you can also export at 50/60fps if that's your liking, 60fps at 1/60 looks way better than 1/120 when played back at normal speed and that FPS).
100/120fps (or higher for that matter) really only shoot it if you're planning to slow it down in post and avoid importing 120fps to lower fps timeline (like 24fps) at normal speed for no reason (sure it could work for 30/60fps but is it really worth it?). Or unless you want to shoot 120fps and export it at 120fps then sure, by all means and i would agree that shooting that at 1/120 should look more natural (but remember that RUclips and most social media for that matter, only shows 60fps max, so i dont think there's a good reason to export beyond 60fps, unless we were talking about Gaming then sure, more FPS the better)
WOW what a great experiment!! Gerald Undone also did one a while back incorporating frame rate and shutter speed!
@@SantiagoMonroy5 Couldn't you convert 1/120 at 120fps to 1/60 at 24fps by taking the average of 2 adjacent frames and using that?
@@giganooz you mean Frame Blending? Don't recommend it since it kinda starts to look blurry or like it's interlaced. You can drop a 120fps clip into 24 since it's technically divisible, it just can't go lower than 1/120 shutter speed so it always looks sharp and jittery.
Thank you for this. I know it’s a fairly old video now, but I keep coming back to it. I have also played around a lot with shutter speeds and watched a lot of old cowboy movies (for instance), freeze framing the action. What really surprised me was just how much blur these old movies show, to the point where in many still frames, the whole picture was totally motion blurred.
This made me think more about shutter angle because it looks to me as though the old cinema stuff might well have been using a slower shutter, judging from the amount of blur.
The other thing that no one seems to talk about is the black gap between each frame. The movie would be in 24 fps with each frame shown for 1/48th sec with a 1/48th second gap to move the film. Therefore, the 180 rule is actually 100% of the shown picture time, not 50%
I still feel that the amount of blur in say, John Wayne films is more than 180 degrees!
So I played around with 360 degree shutter since we have no black frames so that the blur matched the distance a subject traveled in the same amount of time as a frame.
Results weren’t as blurry or smeared and many might think. Handheld, a shutter at 1/25th is a bit too slow but on a tripod, fine. I quite liked it and often, when using a low frame rate, I now use a 270 degree shutter to make movement appear smoother.
For 60fps, I use 1/60th and imo, it does look nicer.
However, we all seem to ignore that black frame that should appear as it does in film projection. Not sure what exactly happens with modern digital movies, but I do see terrible judder in most movies shown in the cinema. Perhaps less care taken over camera movement these days, but I am extremely sensitive to it and find it really annoying.
Thanks for an interesting video. As I said earlier…. I keep coming back to it!
Hi there, thanks so much for this comment, I’d not given any thought to how much of the 24 fps was dedicated to the mechanics of pulling the film down on old cinema cameras and projectors before. I’ll have to have a play with that one!
I Guess 48fps with every other frame being black. This stops what is called, ‘persistence of vision’. What this means is that the motion blur stretches across 1/48th second, followed by 1/48th second black. The brain then inserts what it thinks the motion should be, giving smoother movement. It’s an optical illusion.
My TV inserts black frames and it starts to look a little more ‘movie like’ when it’s on.
So you get 1/48th of motion blur and 1/48th of brain insertion which (I guess) might insert the same amount for you, giving (kind of) 48fps at 360 degrees and this was originally a measurement used to calculate the best frame rate/smoothness/cost.
Unfortunately not in movies possible because film needed the black frame to change the picture which suggests that perhaps we should be videoing at 50 or 60fps with 360 degree shutter!
I have never been totally convinced by 24fps. When I was younger, I used film at 16fps and it always looked like poor home movie to me. Even then in the 60’s. 24fps just about works but imo, with a mostly still camera. Some movies are ghastly I think.
We all seem to be hanging on to that frame rate, but the medium that we now use has drastically changed but we seem to ignore it. Especially with fast displays that don’t allow for persistence of vision.
It’s a funny old topic, but one that has interested me for a long time because of this (quite often) total acceptance of 24fps, even on 60hz screens. It’s kind of become a burned in rule, like the 180 degree rule that more often than not, I break. In fact, at slow frame rates, I prefer a 270 degree shutter or even more.
This is a topic that isn’t really discussed much on RUclips. It’s always assumed that 24fps is the one that is ‘best’ without really analysing why it’s the best. I think when it’s done well, it looks fantastic, but there are many, many examples of poor camera control at 24fps and that slow frame rate makes it appear actually worse in some cases. I think faster frame rates are more forgiving of poor camera control but 24 needs more attention to detail and how you move the camera.
I find the explanation confusing in terms of what combo of settings look smooth and what does not. Your different examples all look pretty smooth to me. My takeaway from the video is that the popular 180 degree shutter angle which gives natural blur of the motion pictures, in post production, should be calculated from the editing timeline frame rate and camera shutter speed. Not really from the camera frame rate. Thus the 360 degree shutter technique is useful when shooting 50p for editing on a 25p timeline. It also allows you to achieve 180 degree shutter by applying half speed slow motion (50p -> 25p) which is a bonus. Very useful information. Thank you!
Yes sorry, it’s quite a tricky thing to explain, your summary is correct so I think you have it :)
I totally agreed. I shot a lot of 50p videos on mirrorless camera with 1/50 for my private social media and for broadcasting work. For 1/100 the motion looks totally jitter, look too digital/like from smartphone (motion is all too sharp like there is has no motion blur), and not looking smooth, especially compare to 180° setting in Sony FX9 or Sony PDW camera. After editing session all shots from 50p with 1/50 which rendered to 1080i 25p looks similar to 180° from Broadcasting Camera. I think 180° Shutter Angle is not always a must to apply in digital era, only that we have to find the look we want and avoid the flicker from light source, that's all.
Thanks for letting me know. Yes when I look at 50/100 footage on a 25p timeline it reminds me of those old hand cranked camera movies of ye olden days!
I've been blowing my mind on frame rates not just the shutter rule but whether 24,30,60 or 25,50 to use. Dealing with aircraft cabin lighting and strobing, flickering etc I've freally struglled. Whilst you dont cover fps uses in this vide you cleared my head regarding shutter rule. Nicely explained.
Pleased it helped, dealing with flicker can be nightmare, especially on cameras without variable shutter
So basically when shooting in 60p or 120p you can just set the shutter number to match the fps. That's cool because the Sony FX3 doesn't do shutter angle, and if you're switching between 30p and 60p you don't even have to touch the shutter. Added bonus is there will be more light coming in too.
Great video Paul, I was thinking of doing this lately as it would make speed ramping and playing back higher frame rates at their normal speed and not conforming them to the timeline fps, look more natural and cinematic.
I've not tried it for that but in theory it should give you more detail to work with. let me know how it works.
60fps at 1/60 is like a perfect hybrid tbh for RUclips, Slow motion still looks good and better than just 24/30fps (heck, you can say it makes stuff look like they're moving faster than they really are), and in normal speed, if exported at 60fps, it looks far more natural thanks to motion blur (against 1/120 or higher), so you're getting ultra smooth footage and still normal blur, and if anything, you can export it at 30fps and look like normal 30fps 180, just that you can always slow it down. (for PAL, replace 60 to 50, 30 to 25)
Also, its better for low light since more light comes in
Exactly!
Great explainer, cheers!
Finally what I was looking for. This man is a professional
Glad it helped :)
Brilliant and the slider test with the mixer is just perfect. Honestly shocked your channel doesn't have like a million subscribers. Just a matter of time. I wish 48 fps was more commonly available on cameras as it would be perfect for frame dropping to 24 fps (and, of course, shooting a 360 degree shutter!)
Thanks for the nice comment.
I have been doing the same thing now for a few years now and, have been very happy with the outcome. I'm shooting 60 1/60 on a 30p timeline.
No problem. I think you’re referencing my comment about the 180 degree rule having nothing to do with shutter angle / speed? If so then what o meant by that was that the term “180 degree rule” was traditionally applied to a rule about camera position and not “crossing the line” when filming people talking to each other so as not to confuse a viewer.
180 degree shutter is also a common standard but the term 180 degree rule was often used to describe that as well when it’s not really what that term referred too. It’s pedantic I know which is why I just dropped it in as a fun comment :)
This addresses the issue I had shooting on 50p but with 180 deg but at normal speed playback it looked jittery. Now I get it. Many thanks.
Great stuff.
This is an awesome explanation about shutter speed and framerate! Thank you so much for making a great video that truly helps everyone!
Thanks loads for letting me know, much appreciated.
Right, I get what you're saying and fair enough, but simply for discussion sake, this is something I would never implement, mostly because of the type of work I do. I finish all my projects in 24p. I feel it looks the best and most natural. Unless I really want to go for a specific look for a scene, I stick to the 180 rule for everything, as I feel it looks the most pleasing to watch. When filming slow mo in 60/120/240 (sticking to 180 rule) I always slow it down to 24 so it matches everything else for the look and feel. I don't mix and and match frame rates and shoot everything with an idea of what I'm going to use it for. I think it's good to shoot with intention and to be specific about your settings, your shots, scenes and the entire project. This is very much my view on filmmaking and what you say certainly works and can be helpful for specific kinds of work and video shooting. I very rarely comment on youtube so just wanted to put my two cents in.
👊
Thanks for your thoughts. I totally agree with you and would set per shot if I know up front how the clip will be used. Where this is useful is when shooting 50/60 not knowing which clips will be normal speed or slowmo.
This is incredibly useful. I haven't used slow mo in any of my videos and I came across this video in my research. I shoot racing cars, so getting slow mo right is going to be crucial. Thanks so much.
Glad it was useful, just bear in mind that this is all about no compromising footage played back at normal speed, you do get additional motion blur in slow-mo so you'll need to decide if that works okay for the cars.
Alright I am one of the 300+ people having to comment on this incredible piece of information. I shoot real estate video and if I understand correctly I can shoot at 59.95fps (60) here in Canada and now use 1/60 shutter instead of 1/125 allowing me DOUBLE THE LIGHT COLLECTION but still with the option of slowing things down by 50-60%??? I usually edit on a 23.975fps timeline.
If so this is absolutely mind blowing and changes everything for me. As a real estate videographer I either slow things down or ramp speed up all the time but the 1/60 shutter (double the light) is what blows my mind and still being able to slow down...
If I shoot this way can I still use my 59.975 clips at normal (100%) speed should I need to? Sometimes I will use fast paced audio track which more or less need to be left at normal speed or even sped up (I am shooting at 59.975fps on a 23.975fpstimeline)
Thank you so very much for this information! This is incredibly useful!
Yes you can, and yes I shoot some interior videos and you normally need all the light you can get! Best advice is to try it out somewhere like your own home and see if the level of motion blur with 1/60 shutter is acceptable to you for your slow motion shots.
@@PaulJoy Thanks a to. Subscribed!!
This is exactly what I've been thinking about. It doesn't matter if it's 25fps or 50fps, 1/50 shutter is 1/50 shutter in the end of the day. This whole rule, kinda looses it's point in digital. I'd rather shoot everything at 1/50, knowing that I can slow down the futage later or just frame skip if I want to play it real time.
Certainly digital gives us the ability to change the equivalent of shutter angle on the fly.
Oh, already been here and liked it. Still nice to watch again and confirm my own findings, wish I could like twice :) And the video itself is very nicely done!
Welcome back :)
Fun Fact: The 180° Rule has nothing to do with shutter speed! The internet took a rule about camera positioning and somehow applied it to shutter angle.
Don’t cross that line! … unless deliberately
The internet and especially YT is full of people who blindly follow Peter
McKinnen, potato jet etc etc. ironically these guys just copy other people and then preach it to their followers.
@@JeffBourke story of mankind.
Since a circle has only 360 degrees, and the shutter is 360 degrees open, that means there's no circle/shutter at all :)
Incorrect.
For a shutter to stay open for a given angle of the circle, it must stay open for a given period of time.
That is a physical law.
Therefore angle and shutter speed have "something to do with each other". They have no choice.
I know we live in a woke world but surely we're not trying to deny physics as well as everything else are we?
great video, I always shoot 360 degrees when shooting at 60p because you get the motion blur and smoother footage than 24/30p. I never really understand why people were so hard pressed on 180-degree shutter rule. A better way to think of it is that 1/50th of a second is the natural motion blur we perceive in real life. We also see at a much higher frame rate than 24p in real life so it just rational that we shoot documentary with 1/50th shutter regardless of the frame rate.
Surely real life shutter speed depends on how quickly you can blink? ;)
While it's true that approx 1/50th of a second feels like a natural amount of motion blur, that only really applies to native playback (aka, 24p on a 24p timeline, 50p on a 50p timeline, etc). Once we decide to playback in slow motion, then we're effectively breaking realism in order to allow us to watch something play out at an unnatural speed. To illustrate my point, even if it were technically possible to shoot 120p at 1/50th of a second, the resulting playback in slow motion would just look like a very slow moving blur. People tend to like to stick with the 180-degree rule, because it gives the slow motion footage that same amount of motion blur that feels natural to us at regular playback.
But I agree that people tend to stick too rigidly to the 180-degree rule. There are pros and cons of each choice, and it's the job of the DP to decide what works best for the shot. It really should be called "the 180-degree shutter guideline". 😉
@@colinjudge1261 you are absolutely correct, people who shoot in 60p do so because they intended the footage to be slowed down, so they must shoot in 180 degree rule. This way the slow-motion footage has the correct blur instead of being too blurry. But for me, it was always the extra frame even if it's 1/50th of a second. This makes the footage feels smoother and more real. This is what I want when I shoot documentary-style. However, it goes to show you that it's better to understand why you are doing certain things than to follow it because that's what you have been taught.
cheers
@@anhtran9111 Completely agree, this is why it's so underrated to understand the fundamentals. Beginners can fast-track their progress by listening to these general recommendations like Rule of Thirds, 180º Shutter Rule, Don't Cross The Line, etc. But without learning why these guidelines work, you can't spot the situations where these rules are better off ignored. That's the point where you have creative control, and where things get interesting!
I've been looking for this video for a long time. Bravo! So many other videos tout the 180 degree shutter angle without really getting it. Want more blur? Slow down the shutter. Intend to use footage at half speed? Double the shutter speed. Or don't! Just use the shutter speed for the blur you want. Leave shutter angle out of it. People don't get it and cameras don't work that way anymore anyhow.
Shutter angle is one of those things that people get a little religious about, but as you say it’s just another ingredient that you can add to taste as long as you understand what it will do to your final flavour :)
the problem with 360 for me at least, is that the additional motion blur you get from 60p having 1/60th makes the slowed down shoot not look as slow as if you just keep it at 180(you get that much needed detail that creates the slowed down effect).. i encourage people to be deliberate with what they are shooting and just take one second to think when you actually need a slow mo shot.
As I say in the video, it is a compromise but when you don't know which shots are going to be slowed down in post it gives you much better results than trying to use software options to slow down 25p footage.
I'll have to give this a try as I shoot 50p for most of the day incase there's anything I want to slow down in post, have always shot 180 but will definitely give this a go and see how it looks. Be good to have more light for the first dances too!
Cool, let me know how it works for you.
To add to my previous comment and after studying my test footage : this trick of 50(60) fps 360° rule is perfect as long as your camera is stable. Let me explain: if your camera is stable, every shot will have a clear and neat image except some blur of the moving subject inside. In slow motion I agree that the blur will be quite poetic and different that with 180° rule. But now , if your camera is not stable (I did my tests with a Pocket 3 on a motorcycle. Gimbal does great job, but it’s moving anyway), some pictures at 50(60) shutter may be shaky among a flow of good ones. (At 100/120 or above, a faster shutter will avoid that); it’s not a big deal when playing normal speed. But when you slowmo it, then the big blur is quite visible. So , from my experiment : YES I will now film at 50/50 to have this option of slowmo free of mind. But if I feel that my camera (my camera not my subject) may shake, I will increase a bit my shutter to avoid blurred image while still keeping a good motion blur.
Thanks for sharing you're findings, I agree that if theres a lot of camera shake additional motion blur could be a problem, plus, there's always going to be subjects / styles that need additional consideration re settings.
What the actual heck, Paul! How is 360 degree not the standard then because it has no down side....I think? This is amazing!
Hey Ben. It is a slight compromise for the half speed footage as it has more motion blur than 180° shutter would produce however that compromise is a lot smaller in my opinion than playing back 25p at 1/100th which is what it would be if you shot at 50/100 and then dropped half the frames for 25p (non slowmo) playback.
The thing to remember about this is that I'm talking about the ability to drop half the frames and use 50/60p footage at normal speed on a 24/25/30 timeline.
Great insight Paul. I've been experimenting with 60p at 270 degree SA recently for exposure purposes. This is excellent info! Thanks.
My pleasure, have fun.
incredible! This was my big issue with using clips 60p on timeline that is 30p! genius mind!
Glad it helped!
the is GOOD! always shooting outside in hard conditions and external light or variable ND filter isn't always the best solutions so thanks to you now I have more tool to adjust the shutter speed/ light situation.
I don’t use this to adjust exposure, I fix my shutter at 1/50th so you may have misunderstood the point here. Shooting at 50/50 instead of 50/100 will actually increase exposure.
This was a very well made video! I’ll link to this one in one of my videos where I am talking about this
Thanks for taking the time to share this information!
Glad it was helpful!
this makes a lot of sense because the default shutter speed for S&Q mode is 360 degree shutter.
I’m not sure if that’s always the case but interesting point!
Thank you so much for the useful explanations✌
Fantastic video mate as someone just getting into videography, having comes from drones and action cams to now my first mirrorless, this video is a godsend. One question though, if i want to shoot in 120fps is there a frame rate i can use that would give me this same flexibility? To use the footage both at full speed or slowed down if i wanted? Cheers.
Thanks. No not really for a 30p timeline as you’ll be limited to 1/120th of a second shutter.
Keep up the great videos Paul
Thanks
The exact answer to the question I was looking for.
Glad it helped, thanks for letting me know.
I have always shot all my videos in 50p with a shutter speed of 50 :D Whenever I looked at 50p footage with 100shutter I always thought it looked to jumpy.
Exactly, it's fine if you're going to slow all of it to half speed but that's not often the case in my experience.
I can't agree more. The rule of 180° shutter angle was created in times, when you would produce movies with having 24fps in mind to meet film cinema standards. So if you recorded something in 48fps then, you would use it for 2x slow motion, not for watching it in 48fps. We have more possibilities of using different frame rates in different ways in theese times, so that theory needs to be updated.
Actually, shooting at 2 x speed for sow down in post I would normally still aim for 180° shutter. The point of this video is if you're shooting at 2 x speed and plan to play back at 1 x speed then 180° would give you 90° shutter. Whether anyone prefers the look of ons shutter angle or another is down to creative choice, but it's worth understanding that something shot at 180° shutter may not end up being 180° shutter of you alter the playback speed.
Very informative. It puzzles me that EVERYBODY talks about, the necessity of ND filters and the 180 shutter-rule. Can’t you get as good as a motion blur in post (like Davinci Studio)? One would be more flexible and wouldn’t have the hassle with the NDs all the time. Hardly anybody talks about the negatives/restrictions of using an ND filter like, color-casting, vignetting, having to use a higher ISO sometimes, not being able to use polarizers with a variable ND filter which is usually less of a quality anyway, bad stabilizing results, etc.
If the motion blur is only done in post, without NDs, how good and easy is the result of a proper motion blur and quality?
I don't use Resolve so I'm not aware of how well it performs in that regard. Certainly if it has the ability to correctly apply motion blur to specific objects in the frame then that could be useful.
This shutter debate has come full-circle.
Pun intended? ;)
This answered my question I've been searching for! I've been filming a documentary type film at 60p and using it on a 30p timeline, simply for the smoothness of certain clips being played back slow motion. I noticed the normal speed playback was somewhat jittery looking and I suspected the 180 degree shutter speed being the issue.
Yup, thats exactly what I noticed too when I started shooting in 50p. Glad it helped Ryan.
There is a video out there that explains this in more detail. I can’t quite recall who done the video, but I think it was Caleb from DSLR Video Shooter. This is true, but not entirely. You have to remember that half the frames will be dropped. So as the image is moving from one frame to the next, half the frames are dropped to reduce it from 50 down to 25, and then the NLE will use frame blending to make sure they flow. The issue is, which frames are dropped. If you move from frame to frame, sometimes the jump from one to the next is jittery because they don’t actually follow each other because there used to be a frame in between. The information that was lost is almost unnoticeable, but sometimes enough to cause the jitters.
@@danfarmer_photo Thats not true for FCPX, I'm not sure about other NLE's. In FCPX there is no frame blending when halving the framerate, it simply only plays back alternate frames. This should be true whenever exactly halving the framerate however if you go from say 60p to 25p then frame blending or frame skipping would be required.
Very good video, gotta give this a try
I do more or less the same. My timeline is usually 30 fps and for realtime footage I film in 30 fps (with 1/50 sec - so not exactly 180 degrees, but close). When I might want slow motion, I film in 60 fps with 1/60 shutter (as long as artificial lights don't flicker, then I am forced to 1/100). For the same reason as you. When I play it back realtime, I have 180 degree shutter. And when I play it slow mo, it is 360 degree shutter, but I actually prefer this smoother, creamier look with slow motion anyways.
Exactly!
Great video, confirmed a hunch I had! Tired of shooting for slow mo sticking religiously to 180 shutter rule, and then the footage just doesnt look good at normal speed. Cheers!
Great, glad it works for you too.
@@PaulJoy Update - it doesnt work actually! The footage shot at 1/50 in 50 fps is still much jerkier when played back normal speed than 25 fps at 1/50. You'd think the shutter was at 1/100 anyway and other filmmakers have also pointed out that keeping the shutter at 1/50 wont look like it does at 25fps when you record at 50fps and export to 25fps timeline!
@@jamiequinlanWhich NLE are you using? Maybe the way the footage is interpreted in FCP is different to other NLE’s. If a frame is exposed for 1/50th of a second at 50fps then it should be identical to a frame exposed 1/50th at 25fps. If you’re seeing a jerky playback it could be the way the NLE is trying to interpret the footage. Have you tried exporting it?
@@PaulJoy Im using Premiere Pro. Even interpreting footage to conform and then speeding up 2x to get normal speed, you can see it's much jerkier and less cinematic (same when exported as on timeline). I really think something in this theory doesnt quite add up - but I'm not a technical guy so not sure what..! Thanks for the advice
@@jamiequinlan Well it's not really a theory as I use it and it works for me as shown in the examples in this video. I don't use Premiere Pro though so I can only think there might be a difference in the NLE. You shouldn't need to conform the footage and speed it up, just dropping a 50 fps clip on a 25 fps timeline should do the job. Can you confirm that you're shooting true 50 fps and using a true 25p timeline? If there's any difference in the clip and timeline such as one using NTSC and the other using PAL settings then that would certainly cause it to not be smooth.
HI, Just found your video, what sider are you using, looking for a motorised one. Thanks in advance
Hi there. The slider is a Zacuto Stealth with a motor kit. It’s really old now and the tech has moved on a lot but I rarely use it these days so haven’t bothered changing it.
Thanks for the fast reply.
This is SO GREAT! PERFECT! Question.....what if you shoot at 60 fps, but instead of 1/60, you go 1/120, such as, if it's a really bright day. I know you could change the iso, or aperture, but just wondering. .....or 60 fps and 1/180, basically multiples of 60, or whatever fps you shoot in.
It’s more a question of how the finished video is being delivered. If your finishing your video at 60fps then you could in theory shoot at 120fps with a 1/120th shutter and still be able to use the footage at 60fps with equivalent to 180 degree shutter angle, ie 60fps with 1/120th shutter.
Two things...
1. Very helpful video (apart from your misleading comment pinned at the top, to which I have replied). So thanks for doing it and explaining your views.
I hope I didn't sound too harsh!
2. I am surprised to hear that slow motion playback is achieved by 'dropping frames'. That seems an inefficient way to achieve it. Surely it would make better sense to play all the frames in the original recording but just take longer to play them (time stretched).
Record at 50p then simply playback ALL of those frames at 25p, obviously taking twice as long to do it.
Am I missing something here?
Thanks
What’s misleading, I’ll try to address it if I can. I think you’re misunderstanding the concept of the video. Frames are not dropped to create slow motion. If shooting at 50p for delivery on a 25p timeline the clip can be set to half speed giving 50% slowmo. What I’m talking about here is when you want to use that same clip and not use it as slowmo, that’s when half the frames are dropped. Does that help at all?
OK. Yes thank you. I see my misunderstanding now.
In order to 'squeeze' a 50p clip into a 25p timeline at normal speed it must drop half the frames (presumably alternate ones?)
Thanks for sticking with me. I will watch your video again.
The misleading part (I think) is about something else. In a comment you said that shutter angle has "nothing to do with" shutter speed, but my point was that of course it must because the time the shutter is open will directly affect the angle covered during rotation. Each is a function of the other.
Anyway, thanks for explaining the dropped frames issue.
I used to think that it didn't really matter being able to set angles directly in the camera because you can use the shutter speed to get more or less the angle you need, then someone helpfully pointed out to me that in his camera he can set the angle and the shutter speed will change to whatever is necessary to maintain that angle whenever the recording frame rate is changed.
If I had a pound for every time I've setup for slow motion shot only to find that I forgot to check my shutter speed from the previous frame rate and therefore no longer had the angle of the original speed......
This is a great video and compares the shutter speeds well, but I noticed that the video upload is played at 25fps, so you can't really see how the motion blur would look in those 50p videos at normal speed.
The video is about using 50p footage on a 25p timeline. If shooting for a 50 fps delivery then what I talk about here wouldn’t apply unless your shooting at 100 fps :)
Great tests and explanations here. Thank you
You are welcome!
I shoot almost everything w/a "360" shutter angle.
Nothing to lose and a Full Step of Light to Gain! 🤓
The whole video is based on the assumption that resampling higher frame rate to lower can be only done by skipping some frames (e.g. every sedond for 60 to 30 fps). But just as the algorithms for resampling images to lower resolution are way smarter than "just drop the extra pixels", resampling video frame rate can be done in more sophisticated way than simply skipping frames. If you do that, combining multiple frames into one will result in the motion blur needed as a workaround when playing at 24/25/30 fps.
Because that's exactly what it is: the motion blur is not aesthetically pleasing per se. It's just a trick masking the fact that 24-30 fps is not sufficient to create an illusion of smooth movement. These rates are just a historical compromise, not something set in stone. Just as we no longer shoot black and white (unless for artistic purpose) and shoot at much higher resolutions than we used to, we should finally abandon also the dogma that 24 or 25 fps is somehow The Only Correct Frame Rate and that anyone wanting higher is a heretic.
It's also important to note that as soon as you switch to 60 or even 120 fps, you do not really need to adhere to the "180° rule" so strictly any more because then you get smoother motion even for higher shutter speeds. That's because the insufficient frame rate is the problem, not high shutter speed.
Yes, it’s totally based on our historical experience of watching film and how doing so makes us feel as viewers.
Whilst many shoot at 60 or 120 frames per second not many will create a project that plays back at those frame rates, not because it’s not technically possible but because the result looks more realistic and less like what we perceive as being cinematic.
Amazing how you explain it to us
Thank you so much
Nice explanation Paul, thanks this definitely helped me.
Cool, thanks for letting me know.
I do the same .. I bought a DJI pocket ... I shoot almost everything at 48 frames and 1/50th of a second... Basically 360 degrees open.
This gives me two products in one file. My editor will toss out every other frame if I use it on a 24p timeline. Giving me 24fps 180degrees shutter.
If I use it and retime to use everything frame I get double speed and still the look of a 180 degree shutter because it's been slowed.
Exactly!
Great! This is the best explanation and description. Thanks 👍 subscription definitely
Welcome aboard!
I totally agree with you, I used my ceiling fan to compare various settings even before I watched ur vid, tqvm for the vid, liked fr me
Thanks loads, glad you liked the video.
My cheap camcorder only shoots 50fps at full resolution for some stupid reason, and I thought this meant that I would need 1/100 shutter, even though reducing frame rate in post to 25 fps. But you are saying that I can keep my shutter at 1/50 as if shooting at 25fps? That’s fantastic news! Because I need the extra exposure :)
Yes, that’s assuming your editor is using a 25fps timeline and drops the unused frames.
What shutter speed should be used for native 50p/60p playback (not slowed down, and no frames dropped), a 50p/60p timeline with the final video rendered at 50/60p?
Video shot at 50/60 fps to be played back at that same speed would generally be shot with 1/100 or 1/120 shutter accordingly, ie 180° shutter. Of course you could shoot 100 fps at 1/100 or 120 fps at 1/120 if your camera is capable of doing so and then the method shown in this video would still apply allowing you to use some shots at 50% playback speed without compromising the shots played back at 50/60.
Now that's a cinematography hack!
Would love to see captions enabled. All it takes is setting a language and it’s helpful for all kinds of people 😀
I though captions were enabled but I haven't really spent much time looking at them. I'll look in to that further, thanks for the heads up.
I shoot any footage that I might want to slow down a bit in post at 60P - with a shutter of 1/120... If I use the footage at 'normal' speed I simply add motion blur (I use Resolve) to recreate the 1/50th shutter 'feel'. It is much easier to add blur (essentially degrading the image) than try to recreate missing unknown detail/sharpness if you try to go the other way!
I've not spent much time in resolve but that sounds like a useful feature. I'd imagine the problem with that though is that if you end up using only 10% of the footage as slowmo then you'll need to apply a motion blur filter on 90% of your shots which I'd imagine takes quite a bit of processing power. Without trying it it's hard to know how accurate that blur is compared to natural motion blur but thanks for the comment, I'll check it out.
Thanks for this!
My pleasure!
Honestly, I think it has more to do with how natural motion looks at different shutter speeds (and that changes for the speed of the motion too)
I think you could shoot 1/50 of a second up to 240hz and it'd be fine, as long as the speed of motion in real life matches the speed of motion in playback.
You can shoot 1/500th of a second if the motion is slow enough. Thus, it has more to do with the fact that most moving objects seem smooth at 1/50th of a second than they do at higher speeds. That is, 1/50th of a second is closer to the natural motion blur our eyes see .
I think our eyes actually see a lot more motion blur than we expect to see in a video. This makes sense as our eyes don't have a shutter so when you think about it we see in the equivalent of 360° shutter! Try looking forward and moving your hand in front of your face and it's super blurred even at slow speeds.
I guess you could just blink really quickly :) Thanks for your thoughts on this Samuel.
@@PaulJoy oh yes, I don't think we can replicate it entirely... But there there are other factors at play once you get to 360 degrees (or more theoretically)
I wonder if it's better to think like photographers who set a shutter based on effect... Just stop and say if you want natural blur on motion, it's 1/50. For example, if you shoot at 1/125 on a 60fps timeline and watch it on a 60hz monitor, I think it would look weird there too, even though playback is higher. In that regards, I'd be interested to see what 1/60 looks like, even though that's technically 360
Brilliant video 👍
Thanks 👍
very well explained and very interesting ...!
Amazing video ! Thank you so much ! Video-life-changing tip !
Glad you enjoyed it!
I wish I saw this video years ago.. great video!!!
Glad it was helpful!
Also Paul, standards like PAL really don’t apply to online content which is best shot and viewed at 30/60 fps because most viewers are viewing on a 60hz display now. 24/25 doesn’t display correctly on a 60hz display.
It’s certainly become less relevant in terms of delivery. Where it is still useful is for matching frame rates with local lighting frequency.
Again with LED’s it’s becoming less so and personally I’d prefer just to dial in the framerate required from a full list rather than being limited by region.
Thank you for the video, makes absolute sense! What are your thoughts on 25vs30 (50vs60). Motion blur vs smooth playing on PC screens. Would love to see a video on that issue.
30 will be smoother than 25 but which one you use should be led by what you're delivering. For filmic content I prefer 25 but if going for more true to life look and feel then 30 could help.
Here's what I'm thinking about: If you set 50 fps at 1/50 then the one second would be filled exactly. But is that also the case in reality? Doesn't the camera need more than one second to produce 50 frames at 1/50 ? I am thinking of the time the camera needs to read out the sensor and refocus each time. If the camera took more , it would no longer be able to produce 50 frames, but less. If I stay at 1/100 at 50 fps, I can be sure that the camera will really produce the 50 frames in a second.
Hi Chris. I get what your saying but cameras have been capable of shooting 360 degree shutter for many years now. I really don't know how they work, that's way above my pay grade :)
The camera doesn't focus between frames as far as i know, I would imagine it will be doing that constantly at higher frequency than the frame-rate.
Thanks for the info - followed 100% through the vid but I believe that in the 6min mark the terms half speed and normal speed are confusing. I assume that it translates to 25fps timeline of an original 50fps @360 angle is halved @180 angle. This is your point right? By presenting two times 50fps with 50 shutter speed and mentioning half and full speed will confuse the audience. At least i had to see it 2-3 times to understand your point.
My reference to normal and half speed is exactly that. A 50fps clip placed on a 25p timeline without making any change to its playback speed is normal speed, however if it’s set to 50% speed it’s playing back at half speed. I hope that helps.
Thank you Paul I've just inscribed my self to your channel, For myself I think that a 360° will be better for the interior shooting with natural light or low light I have a Sony a6600 with a 18-105 @ F4 and with 25fps @ 1/25-1/30sec i have a ISO of 200-1000; when i set 25fps @ 1/50sec the video on Full HD res is still looking ok but the iso are generally from 400 to 8000 iso. Honestly on My 15" inch PC I can rarely see the grain unless I don't want to look for it, but it seems to me that the pictures are a little more soft than when shoot under iso 1000. I have noticed that with 25fps @ 1/30sec i need less a gimbal than when I shoot 25fps @1/50sec at least in this few tries. Thanks again Max
Hi Max, thanks for the sub. In terms of shutter angle when shooting 25p, yes you can get away with 360 degree shutter and I do this myself sometimes but you just need to bare in mind how much movement is happening in the scene because the additional motion blur can start to look unnatural. This video was really aimed at shooting 50p for 25p delivery in which case using 360 shutter angle and dropping half the frames still results in the same amount of motion blur as shooting 25p with 180 shutter angle.
Thanks again.
@@PaulJoy Thanks Again Paul :)
Thank you very much. I have an event on the ninth and that was the answer I was looking for. I'm using a black magic 6k
Cool, let me know if it works for you.
7:10 Yes! Thanks! This is what I'll have to do on my A7siii to get 25 fps on PAL mode. :) Thanks!
I have no idea. I just made a compilation of bunch of vacation videos and I remember the Shutterspeed being between 320 and 80 When shooting 4k Slog/Cinetone on a A6700.
180° Shutter is a common setting it's not a critical choice in all cases and I know a few people that expose using shutter speed and are perfectly happy with the results. I also know people who are religious about 180° shutter so it really comes own to your own preference.
Thank you very much for the great work. Thank you !!!
Thank you for this deep investigation! I am kinda getting the idea, but not fully. What to do with 120fps if I possibly can play it at a normal speed (30fps timeline)? Which shutter speed to use?
Thank you in advance for the answer!
Hi there. The problem with 120fps is each frame can only be exposed for a maximum of 1/120th of a second so it’s impossible to get the equivalent of 180 degree shutter at 30fps which would be 1/60th of a second.
The slowest shutter you can achieve is 1/120th per frame, so if you place that clip on a 30fps timeline each frame will still have 1/120th which will be equivalent to 90 degree shutter.
But i export 60fps at full speed, what angle should i use?
Then you would normally stick to 180 degree, or 1/120