Shutter Speed - Cinematography

Cinematography is one of the new skills/papers that I have currently thrown myself into and have started to learn about. The first thing that we have started to learn about is the exposure triangle which has to do with exposure settings on a camera - both film and photography. We have discussed shutter speed and aperture but have not touched on ISO yet, which is the final part of the exposure triangle. This blog post will discuss shutter speed including an explanation of what it is, what it affects, what its use is in film and an example of different shutter speed used in a film for dramatic effect.

Exposure Triangle

Shutter speed is the unit of measurement which determines how long the shutter remains open as the picture is taken in both photography and film. I am learning more about the film side but there are many similarities between photography and film exposure. The slower the shutter speed, the longer the shutter remains open while the image is being recorded and the faster the shutter speed, the less time the shutter remains open while the image is recorded. The shutter speed and aperture on a camera work together to control the total amount of light that reaches the camera's sensor.

We measure shutter speed per second which is also related to frames per second on a film camera. For example if a camera's frame rate is set at 400 frames per second (fps) this means that the shutter is opened for 1/400th of a second for each image recorded. A higher frame rate reduces the amount of motion blur that occurs. This is a Vimeo link to a video that demonstrates the reduction in motion blur with a higher frame rate:  https://vimeo.com/19603537

Different shutter speeds can be used to add dramatic effect in films. In the film 300, there is a fight scene that uses a high shutter speed to reduce motion blur. The fight scene involves Astinos and Stelios and has a lot of slow motion shots that are clear and create dramatic effect. This scene uses a fast shutter speed to emphasize the action that is happening and make the image free from motion blur leaving it crystal clear and nicely defined. This is the YouTube link to the video of this particular scene:   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D0xSqLrG-ow

So, that's all I have learned about shutter speed at the moment and will post again soon with some more of the new things that I have learned in my cinematography paper.  I look forward to learning some more cinematography skills over the next few months and will keep posting with my research and new knowledge.