Assuming you are fairly abreast with basic thumb rules and fundamentals of still photography, let me proceed further to the basics of creating moving images with DSLRs. For correct exposure, DSLR Videography also has three parameters to play with, just like still photography. They namely are, Shutter Speed, Aperture & ISO.
Whilst these three parameters help us arrive at a correct exposure, they do also have their own secondary effects on the visual created. Now a single exposure can be attained by numerous permutations and combinations of these three; but an intelligent cinematographer will always think about their secondary effects on the visual before finally keying them in. Interestingly enough, even with same final exposure, different combinations of those parameters result in strikingly different visuals each time. So one needs to take into account, the persona, all around mood of the scene even to decide the exposure. This is what, in my honest opinion, makes cinematography challenging and worthy enough to be taken up by any creative photographer. In this post, we will talk about the shutter speed.
Many of you must be wondering why something that is being recorded continuously needs a shutter to keep closing and opening on it. So did I wonder too. And then I found out. There is concept named 180 degree shutter. In good old days of film i.e. non- digital shooting, 24 individual frames of film were exposed in each given second. This means each frame was exposed for 24th part of a second. Now from our sizable experience of photography we can say that 1/24 is a slow shutter speed. And yes indeed it is. To counter this problem, those cameras were fixed with a kind of fan in front of the film. This fan would move in tandem with the film and would cover the film for an instance while it was being exposed. As a result, each frame of film, in that 24th part of a second, would be exposed twice! This is called interlacing. This effectively increased the exposure time to 48th of a second, hence reducing motion blur and many other related problems. We carry this same technique into today's digital realm. Because may it be analogue or digital, 1/24 is still a slow shutter speed and shall remain so. Now instead of having a fan we have a shutter and it, not physically, but electronically keeps closing at opening. Sheer goodness of digital sensor, that it stops exposing itself right in the middle of that 1/24 second exposure. Only slight difference with DSLRs is DSLR doesn't have a shutter speed of 1/48th second. So we instead use 1/50 shutter speed. It is not perfect yet does the work. So the ground rule that works out to be is, shutter speed be double of frame rate. For example, 1/50 for 24 and 25 frames/second & 1/60 for 30 frames/second and so on. We have our shutter speed fixed by our frame rate. So, under normal circumstances and normally, shutter speed should be kept according to this rule only. Going further there are instances that require not obeying this rule but then all rules are meant to be broken!
Whilst these three parameters help us arrive at a correct exposure, they do also have their own secondary effects on the visual created. Now a single exposure can be attained by numerous permutations and combinations of these three; but an intelligent cinematographer will always think about their secondary effects on the visual before finally keying them in. Interestingly enough, even with same final exposure, different combinations of those parameters result in strikingly different visuals each time. So one needs to take into account, the persona, all around mood of the scene even to decide the exposure. This is what, in my honest opinion, makes cinematography challenging and worthy enough to be taken up by any creative photographer. In this post, we will talk about the shutter speed.
Many of you must be wondering why something that is being recorded continuously needs a shutter to keep closing and opening on it. So did I wonder too. And then I found out. There is concept named 180 degree shutter. In good old days of film i.e. non- digital shooting, 24 individual frames of film were exposed in each given second. This means each frame was exposed for 24th part of a second. Now from our sizable experience of photography we can say that 1/24 is a slow shutter speed. And yes indeed it is. To counter this problem, those cameras were fixed with a kind of fan in front of the film. This fan would move in tandem with the film and would cover the film for an instance while it was being exposed. As a result, each frame of film, in that 24th part of a second, would be exposed twice! This is called interlacing. This effectively increased the exposure time to 48th of a second, hence reducing motion blur and many other related problems. We carry this same technique into today's digital realm. Because may it be analogue or digital, 1/24 is still a slow shutter speed and shall remain so. Now instead of having a fan we have a shutter and it, not physically, but electronically keeps closing at opening. Sheer goodness of digital sensor, that it stops exposing itself right in the middle of that 1/24 second exposure. Only slight difference with DSLRs is DSLR doesn't have a shutter speed of 1/48th second. So we instead use 1/50 shutter speed. It is not perfect yet does the work. So the ground rule that works out to be is, shutter speed be double of frame rate. For example, 1/50 for 24 and 25 frames/second & 1/60 for 30 frames/second and so on. We have our shutter speed fixed by our frame rate. So, under normal circumstances and normally, shutter speed should be kept according to this rule only. Going further there are instances that require not obeying this rule but then all rules are meant to be broken!
That's all for shutter speed now. Let's move to the aperture in next part. Stay tuned till then.
No comments:
Post a Comment