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Understanding Frame Rates vs Shutter Speed
A primer on understanding the relationship between the two
Confusing comparisons
Frame rates vs. shutter speed. This is a topic worth addressing because I often hear beginning filmmakers make the comment, “I’m shooting at a 1/30 frame rate.” What they really mean though is shutter speed.
I totally get the confusion. There are so many numbers to keep in mind when filmmaking, and a lot of them look and sound the same: 24p vs 1080p; 1/30 shutter speed vs. 30 frames per second. (And it doesn’t help that most DSLRs and video cameras just write “30” on the display, leaving out the numerator). How do you keep all this in mind? Why should you care? Well, I hope to quickly address that today. (Note: this won’t be an exhaustive post on the topic. But detailed enough to give you what you need to know.)
Frame Rates
As the name suggests, frame rate is how many frames per second your camera is recording. Traditional movie film is shot at 24 frames per second (fps). Although shooting at 24 fps is by no means the ONLY factor in determining a “film look”, it’s…
