90 degree shutter angel

[joachim]

Hi.

I´m just curious as I have never shot on any other shutter angel than 180.

What would happen if you shot fast action/sports with a 90 degree shutter?

 

Would it just get choppy, or do you have to go down to 45 degrees for that to happen?

Would it turn out any "sharper"?

 

Joachim

[John Ealer]

The narrower the shutter angle is, the less motion blur there will be in every frame; hence the "sharper" every frame will be. It's the lack of motion blur that creates the "strobe" or choppy effect you describe. We actually need the motion blur in every frame to create the perception of smooth motion in 24fps / dual-bladed shutter film projection.

 

A 90 degree shutter will be a subtle difference from a 180, a 45 degree a subtle difference from 90. Compare a 45 degree shutter to 180 degrees, and you'll see a major difference. Go down to 22.5 or 11 degrees and you'll get a very strong effect. Check out all the usual movies that made this effect in vogue, from Saving Private Ryan to Gladiator.

 

Want to experiment with this without burning film? Just take any consumer camcorder out and play with the shutter speed.

 

24fps at 180 degrees = 1/50th sec. (approx.)

24fps at 90 = 1/100th

24fps at 45 = 1/200th

24fps at 22.5 = 1/400th

24fps at 11 = 1/800th

 

Many modern cameras can't close down the shutter past 11 degrees or so, after that you have to start cranking up the frame rate (or use strobe lighting) to get shorter exposure times.

 

J

[Guest Jeff DiMambro]

Go rent The 25th Hour, directed by spike lee. Most of it was shot with a 90.