Breaking the 180 degree shutter rule when stabilising footage

Question

I usually record in 24 fps or 30fps using the 180 degree shutter rule for smooth motion blur.

On a recent trip I was recording hand-held footage of landscapes in high wind, which resulted in quite a lot of camera sway. I found that Resolve did a good job of stabilising the footage, but the resulting clips looked quite soft because of the motion blur left-over from the camera movement.

This left me thinking: if the main source of movement is likely to be camera shake (that will be stabilised in post) rather than motion of the subject, would results be dramatically improved with a faster shutter speed?

Are there accepted best practices on this?

Answer 1

I would invite you to experiment a bit and to answer your question yourself.

But yes, I can think in several cases where you should shot at higher framerate where this motion blur is actually a problem.

• The first case is the one you describe. The camera shake will produce blur on directions we do not want.

• Another case is time-lapse. You can have objects moving in different directions and different rates. Some programs process the images to produce different artificial blurs, so you could experiment on different shutter speeds-lapse ratios. If you want a cartoonish look you can simply shot at a fast velocity, for example, to give you a stop motion effect.

• When you are shooting on a green screen to be composited later. A blur on a green screen is a pain to remove. Shooting at a higher speed will produce sharper edges on moving parts that will be easier to extract.

It is always easier to add blur than to remove it.

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In my opinion, the best practices are the ones works for you.