Thanks for this. I have always religiously shot at 1/50th of a second (25fps) as i was taught but I was less than clear as to why this was so. This tutorial explains the why and now I feel I will experiment more. Thanks peeps: )

thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you

This was very helpful, thanks.
Particularly If you are going to motion track your shots, then a higher shutter speed is vital to a good track.

Wow, I finally am starting to understand! The videos included really make it clear.
I am trying to get video of some raptors flying at a wildlife center here in Oregon, and with these tips I can do better.
Thanks again.

Super helpful!

When Frame Rate (FR) = Shutter Speed (SS) you're shutter is open for 100% of the frame capture, and 1/30 is pretty slow but very natural to the eye.

When the FR > SS there's a lot of blackness captured with each frame, keeps the frame sharp, especially when things are moving fast.

Is recording a FR < SS even possible? I think no.

Lastly, if videoing something really fast like cars on a track that you intend to slow down, shooting at 60fps is a given. Question is... will the slower motion look better if shot 60fsp @ 1/120 or 60fps @1/400? I'm guessing it's going to look more natural at 1/120th, so when and why would we EVER video faster than 1/120th of a second?

Hi there. Love the clarity of this video. Thanks a million. Question: let's say I'm shooting at 30 frames/second using a DSLR, and I want to shoot wide open. F/2.8. And if I follow the twice-frame-rate-rule, I set the shutter speed at 1/60. As you see, I've just locked in three parameters (F/stop, shutter, and frame rate). How can the camera give me proper exposure if I've already told it what to do with those three controls? Through ISO? Or is it better to also lock in the ISO, then just let the lighting condition dictate the F/stop? And use ND filters to give more flexibility? Thank you.

This was amazing. Thank you!

I agree with Maureen...Thank you x7 !

Great video, super informative, thank you very much!

Excelent, great work, thanks a lot!

Thanks for the explanation! This makes me wonder: sometimes I record handheld video with a not stabilised lens. I usually stabilize it later in FCPX, but micro stutters tend to basically destroy individual frames. The resulting video looks twitching and almost makes your eyes tear! This is especially evident in low-light video (when using auto settings), but not necessarily only there.

I believe this is because the shutter speed is so slow that quick camera motion smears the frame and therefore, when the video is stabilized, the smearing stays and becomes even more visible. Previously I thought only a faster framerate could solve this, but now I think this can be remedied by just increasing the shutter speed, right? Of course this becomes more difficult in low light situations, but I would take increased noise instead of this twitching any day. If the video gets too choppy I think there are digital solutions available for re-adding motion blur as well. What do you think?

This is an excellent explanation and really helped for me to get my head around what I suspected, but did not fully understand. Also, I figure they use a high shutter speed (~400) for those war-action scenes in many films and TV shows.

very interesting and clear . Thankyou.

WO-HOW! I feel like a fool. Why haven´t I figured that out myself! O, Sancta Simplicitas" Thank you very much!

In the first video, he says the shutter speed should be double the frame rate...1/60th second for 30 frames per second, stating that was ideal. But, why not 1/120th of a second for 30 fps? Would that not give me a sharper image when I am taping dance recitals...less motion blur?

there was a comment above which read " thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you" and I share her sentiment.

Perfect....crisp and clear...great job

One of the most helpfull video's I have seen.

nice work

Great video. This is the first time I've seen this explained clearly. Thanks a lot.

Exactly the information I was looking for. Many thanks!

Thank you. This explanation was superb. Made a difficult topic easy. Sign of a great teacher.

Thank you Vimeo :)

Simple and useful guide. Thanks for sharing with us Sam.

This article is a lifesaver. Thank you so much, this is something critical that had me baffled as a photographer moving to film.

Thank you so much!

Thank you!

Why does the practice of setting the shutter speed to twice the frame rate result in a good result? I understand the general idea but why is the suggested multiple 2 rather than 1.5 or 3 or a greater number? Does this have anything to do with the Nyquist–Shannon sampling theorem?

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nyquist–Shannon_sampling_theorem

In the running water video the plane of focus is different between fast and slow shutter speed examples...

Hi all,
May I ask you a strange question?
Exists any way to record with a camera at a frame rate >>1/24?
A way to create a time lapse movie with a video camera and not with a photo camera?

Sono perfettamente al corrente della differenza tra frame rate e shutter speed da tempo ma non sono assolutamente d'accordo nel dover impostare uno speed shutter, per esempio lavorando con un frame rate di 25 fps di 50 come shutter speed! Io lavoro con una sony FDR AX100 quindi parlo di una 4k con frame rate di 25 P e non mi sognerei mare di impostare uno shutter speed cosi basso ed amaramente ne sono costretto quando c'è poca luce... L'effetto scia che produce è intollerabile per un video in 4K! Comunque per esperienza mia personale acquisita nel corso degli anni, il problema dell'effetto strobo che si produce lavorando con shutter speed elevati si evidenzia solo su i monitor dei pc in quanto hanno la maggioranza un refrech rate intorno ai 50 60 Hz alla massima risoluzione e non hanno altri sistemi di correzzione, ma in campo di televisori di ultima generazione e mi riferisco agli ultimi televisori della panasonic che sono arrivati addirittura ad un refrech rate di ben 2 KHz vi assicu

ro che è praticamente indistinguibile la differenza tra i 25 ed i 50 frame rate al secondo, ma addiritura senza arrivare a questi tipi di tv. Ho un samsung UE555D7000 quindi non recentissimo, al quale ho collegato un riproduttore tipo MINIX 8H ed invio tramite hdmi uno streem 4k che il tv me lo converte in tempo reale in maniera perfetta alla risoluzione dello schermo full HD ma con una fluidità incredibile, senza effetto scia! e con gli shutter speed della videocamera in automatico... indistinguibile da un 50p!

ok i'm no expert in fact i came looking to refresh my memory on settings and using them as a prelude to pressing my camcorder into service while not simply accepting the auto as the only means.
but to answer some of you regarding frame and shutter rates i'll cover projection instead as i'm not so sure i could do the subject justice from the recording angle.

initially movie making involved taking 8 frames per second as the human eye (generally) sees this as a quite smooth movement due to something called persistence of vision,(persistance of vision is a bit like looking at a brightish light then looking away you see the image of that light superimposed on whatever you are now looking at) the problem was the human eye does detect flashes at 8 times per second, watching a movie flashed at this rate would give you a steaming headache, will have to continue in another post if i'm allowed as it's too long:-(

since film and processing was very expensive this was solved by projecting each of the 8 frames twice so raising the flashes to 16 times per second which most would see as a continuous (solid) light.
so far so good, but to add sound (which was an optical track along the edge offset from the image track) the film transport was too slow to give quality sound.
to increase the transport was clearly going to mean speeding up the film (using more feet per minute) what was settled on was increasing the frame rate by a factor of 3 so 24 frames up from 8. with the large installed base of very expensive projectors it meant to upgrade then, simply meant changing the gearing and adding an audio unit, rather than replacing the entire projector, bearing in mind production rates then were not anything like now it would make the roll out quite quick across the country.
as a foot note as i recall, edison built the first cinema called i think the black maria, see part 3 if i'm allowed

the word orange comes to mind as some reference to the place name, although i could be wrong on the place name.

anyway it was the projection needs that dictated the frames/shutter speed which was itself dictated by the audio track needs, in this case it was frames/flashes (or times it was projected) so you got 24 frames projected 48 times.
i will have to have a think about what it means for frame/shutter speed when taking a movie, although clearly one that matched the projectors would have been ideal then, methods are different now so the rules my no longer apply.

i'm sure you can google to check/correct anything i've said, it's all from memory, so dont shoot me ok:-)

and hello to all from a newbie :-)

Good to know! Thankyou!