Apparently the shutter on a motion picture camera opens and closes at the rate of 60th of a second. so If you set your photography camera to 60th of a second you can get a good representation of how to shoot motion picture. After all motion picture is only 24 frames in one second.
In shooting 60th of a second you are always going to get that motion blur unlike shooting say 10,000 th of a second which makes every thing, even a humming bird look frozen in time.
When trying the new shutter concept out I noticed how difficult it was to controle the incoming light. all I had was the aperture. On further investigation I found that neutral density filters where necessary to control execs light. In motion picture film I would use neutral density filters #3, 6, 9. those numbers represent the stops of light that the filter can cut. the lowest filter #3 cuts one full stop of light and #6 filter cuts 2 stops of light and #9 filter cuts 3 stops of light. Why filter manufacturing companies don't just say that on the filter is beyond me. Unfortunately these numbers really tripped me up because, when I atended fullerton University I was doing a bit of cinematography work and found I could not shop for those filters at my local photography store so I had buy neutral density filters with the numbers 2, 4, 8. Apparently as it turns out those numbers where the same as the 3, 6, 9 neutral density filters we used in cinematography.
One of the saddest things I in-counted when shopping for filters is that many photography stores don't carry the vast collection of filters they used to carry. after talking to one photography shop owner why that was he said it was all because of photoshop and the digital age. every one and there grandmother could manipulate the image in camera or on a computer with out the use of filters. What was worst is the old photography shop owner that used to go to religiously went out of biz. He was the only shop around for miles that carried the huge used collection of used photography equipment. The shop was a sight to see. I still remember traveling there on my bike just to visit the shop even tho I did not have a penny to my name as a kid. I would still go down there if he did not close the shop.
Ok so back to my point. The 60 th shutter speed I found was defiantly more of a challenge as a photographer and I had a new found respect for the craft of cinematography. One of the unique things about shooting at 60 th of a sec is that it works for both film and digital. So you can mix a whole array of frame rates such as 29.97 fps, 60, fps 48 fps, 30 fps, 25 fps, 23.94 fps. They are all the same in translation. Odd I know. But the difference is so small its not even funny. The diference is so small it is hardly noticeable. The reality is a 24fps film is projected at 48 fps and a 30 fps video is projected at 60 hz on a tv screen. 60 hz is the equivalent of 60 fps.
There are other variables with that can increase or decrease light coming in to the camera and that is a fast shutter speed like 1000 fps. this is seen in high speed cameras. and the other is shutter angel. the same effect seen in Saving Private Ryan. The director wanted to shoot parts of this movie in 45 degree shutter angle. you can see the effect here in this youtube video.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QOpNFK14490
the math is if you shoot a film at 24 fps and double the frame speed then you get one stop less exposure.
Shutter angel is simular. A 360 degree shutter angel means its all the way closed. a 180 degree shutter is half way open. When you divide 360 from what ever angel you plan to shoot with you see how many stops of light you cut out because of the amount of light your frame is exposed at a given frame rate. The larger the shutter angel the more light is let in thus equals more blur. the smaller the shutter angle the less light that is exposed to the film but makes the image apere sharper with less blur. A shutter angel on a motion picture camera is essentially a circular disk that is cut like a pezza pie. the less pie there is the more the table is exposed the more pie there is the less the table is exposed. The pie = shutter angel and the table = the amount of light.
A rotary disc shutter is a type of shutter. It is notably used in motion picture cameras.
Rotary discs are semicircular mirrors which rotate in front of the film gate, and thus expose the film. As the mirror spins it reflects the image onto the ground glass so that it can be viewed by the camera operator part of the time. The other part of the time the mirror allows the light to pass onto the film. On simple cameras this shutter is fixed and usually semi-circular. On more advanced cameras the shape of the shutter can be adjusted. This shutter setting is referred to as the shutter angle.
Adjusting the shutter angle controls the proportion of time that the film is exposed to light during each frame interval. The angle of the shutter forms a proportion to the time that each frame of film is exposed:
The primary reason that cinematographers adjust the shutter angle is to control the amount of motion blur that is recorded on each successive frame of film. A tight shutter angle will constrict motion blur. A wide shutter angle will allow it. A 180° shutter angle is considered normal.
Tight shutters create a stuttering stop motion animation look that has become popular in action and war films. In particular, tight shutters are used to capture particles flying through the air, such as dirt from an exploding mortar.
When the shutter is open, the film is exposed. When it closes, the next frame of film is brought into position by the claw.
In shooting 60th of a second you are always going to get that motion blur unlike shooting say 10,000 th of a second which makes every thing, even a humming bird look frozen in time.
When trying the new shutter concept out I noticed how difficult it was to controle the incoming light. all I had was the aperture. On further investigation I found that neutral density filters where necessary to control execs light. In motion picture film I would use neutral density filters #3, 6, 9. those numbers represent the stops of light that the filter can cut. the lowest filter #3 cuts one full stop of light and #6 filter cuts 2 stops of light and #9 filter cuts 3 stops of light. Why filter manufacturing companies don't just say that on the filter is beyond me. Unfortunately these numbers really tripped me up because, when I atended fullerton University I was doing a bit of cinematography work and found I could not shop for those filters at my local photography store so I had buy neutral density filters with the numbers 2, 4, 8. Apparently as it turns out those numbers where the same as the 3, 6, 9 neutral density filters we used in cinematography.
One of the saddest things I in-counted when shopping for filters is that many photography stores don't carry the vast collection of filters they used to carry. after talking to one photography shop owner why that was he said it was all because of photoshop and the digital age. every one and there grandmother could manipulate the image in camera or on a computer with out the use of filters. What was worst is the old photography shop owner that used to go to religiously went out of biz. He was the only shop around for miles that carried the huge used collection of used photography equipment. The shop was a sight to see. I still remember traveling there on my bike just to visit the shop even tho I did not have a penny to my name as a kid. I would still go down there if he did not close the shop.
Ok so back to my point. The 60 th shutter speed I found was defiantly more of a challenge as a photographer and I had a new found respect for the craft of cinematography. One of the unique things about shooting at 60 th of a sec is that it works for both film and digital. So you can mix a whole array of frame rates such as 29.97 fps, 60, fps 48 fps, 30 fps, 25 fps, 23.94 fps. They are all the same in translation. Odd I know. But the difference is so small its not even funny. The diference is so small it is hardly noticeable. The reality is a 24fps film is projected at 48 fps and a 30 fps video is projected at 60 hz on a tv screen. 60 hz is the equivalent of 60 fps.
There are other variables with that can increase or decrease light coming in to the camera and that is a fast shutter speed like 1000 fps. this is seen in high speed cameras. and the other is shutter angel. the same effect seen in Saving Private Ryan. The director wanted to shoot parts of this movie in 45 degree shutter angle. you can see the effect here in this youtube video.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QOpNFK14490
the math is if you shoot a film at 24 fps and double the frame speed then you get one stop less exposure.
Shutter angel is simular. A 360 degree shutter angel means its all the way closed. a 180 degree shutter is half way open. When you divide 360 from what ever angel you plan to shoot with you see how many stops of light you cut out because of the amount of light your frame is exposed at a given frame rate. The larger the shutter angel the more light is let in thus equals more blur. the smaller the shutter angle the less light that is exposed to the film but makes the image apere sharper with less blur. A shutter angel on a motion picture camera is essentially a circular disk that is cut like a pezza pie. the less pie there is the more the table is exposed the more pie there is the less the table is exposed. The pie = shutter angel and the table = the amount of light.
A rotary disc shutter is a type of shutter. It is notably used in motion picture cameras.
Rotary discs are semicircular mirrors which rotate in front of the film gate, and thus expose the film. As the mirror spins it reflects the image onto the ground glass so that it can be viewed by the camera operator part of the time. The other part of the time the mirror allows the light to pass onto the film. On simple cameras this shutter is fixed and usually semi-circular. On more advanced cameras the shape of the shutter can be adjusted. This shutter setting is referred to as the shutter angle.
Adjusting the shutter angle controls the proportion of time that the film is exposed to light during each frame interval. The angle of the shutter forms a proportion to the time that each frame of film is exposed:
The primary reason that cinematographers adjust the shutter angle is to control the amount of motion blur that is recorded on each successive frame of film. A tight shutter angle will constrict motion blur. A wide shutter angle will allow it. A 180° shutter angle is considered normal.
Tight shutters create a stuttering stop motion animation look that has become popular in action and war films. In particular, tight shutters are used to capture particles flying through the air, such as dirt from an exploding mortar.
, for E in reciprocal seconds
So for the case of Saving Private Ryan, 45 divided by 360 is 8. that is 8 stops of light less then normal exposure. Combining these two variables can get complicated.
in a digital video camera the shutter speed equivalent of a 45 degree angel is 192 shutter speed when shot at 24fps.
The math is 360 divided by the shutter angel times the frames per second equals the shutter speed equivalent on a video camera.
so if the normal shutter angel on film is 180 degrees and we divide 360 by 180 we will get two. and 2 times 24 equals 48. So if a video camera was shot at 30 fps then the shutter should be at 60 shutter speed for normal shooting.
Hope this all makes sense because the point I am trying to make here is that if you plan to shoot at a certain frame rate you must double the frame rate to get the desired shutter speed setting for your still camera. So a good happy medium to translate cinema with a still camera then set the shutter speed at 60th shutter speed if you can't set it at 48th shutter speed.
In motion picture photography you are deling with 2 variables. How long the gate stays open and how many times an image can be captured with in a given period of time.
Don't get me wrong at a point the speed of the camera will catch up to the length of the exposure and vice a versa. Even I get kinda stuped when thinking about these variables and boundaries.
The laws of physics is such a mystery to me. As an artest I just learn enough of the science to understand how to conduct my craft and thats it. I love science, so don't get me wrong, but getting all hung up in to the technical side of things can get you lost and away from the art.
So you ask your self why is this all relevant to me. The answer is the artest should understand the roots of what motion pictures really is and the attention to detail that might other wise be missed if one does not understand how to controle the image. Photography will always be a craft and the translation of that image to the motion picture is just as paramount.
All the photographer is doing in the motion picture story is taking a series of photos sequentially and presenting them so that our mind can comprehend a cognitive connection from one image too the next.
In looking up the word cognitive I found Cognitive psychology on Wikipedia.
Cognitive psychology is a subdiscipline of psychology exploring internal mental processes. It is the study of how people perceive, remember, think, speak, and solve problems.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cognitive_psychology
People try to make sense with there mind the correlation between things and ideas within images. This is inevitable because humans are built with this innate impuls to try to connect with everything and anything. This concept also derives from our dreams. Our minds try to make sense of these dreams when we see a series of images that flote before us during rem sleep. Hence, the connections we humans have for movies. To the human mind, a movie or a motion picture is a mental or cognitive connection between one image to the next.
So if you are someone who would like to experiment with cinematography, but don't want all the fancy hang ups of the movie world or would like to discover the transition between photography to the motion picture then go ahead and set your camera to 60th of a second and maybe you too will find a whole new world of art you've never experienced before. To me the most exciting feeling is knowing that this method could translate in to film and I can perfect the art of cinematography one image at a time.
People try to make sense with there mind the correlation between things and ideas within images. This is inevitable because humans are built with this innate impuls to try to connect with everything and anything. This concept also derives from our dreams. Our minds try to make sense of these dreams when we see a series of images that flote before us during rem sleep. Hence, the connections we humans have for movies. To the human mind, a movie or a motion picture is a mental or cognitive connection between one image to the next.
So if you are someone who would like to experiment with cinematography, but don't want all the fancy hang ups of the movie world or would like to discover the transition between photography to the motion picture then go ahead and set your camera to 60th of a second and maybe you too will find a whole new world of art you've never experienced before. To me the most exciting feeling is knowing that this method could translate in to film and I can perfect the art of cinematography one image at a time.
So get out there and spred your shutter bug wings and explore your new found world of the motion picture.
By
Robert Sawin
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