Frame rates or shutter speed for slow motion?

[Krenzathal]

Hi all,

I'm currently boning up on techniques to achieve smooth slow motion effects. I've seen trick programs like Twixtor and it looks nice but I'd like to go for an organically produced effect from the source.

Being a noob I'm a little confused about frame rates and shutter speeds when it comes to slow motion. I may have this wrong but a high frame rate will allow smooth slow motion when dropped in speed due to the larger number of frames in the clip and shutter speed allows more or less light in per frame and deals with motion blur amount?

Some people generally talk about one or the other when it comes to the kind of cinematic, silky slow motion that I'm after so what should I look out for?

Thanks!

[Marc Peters]

For slowmotion, you'll be looking to film at a higher frame rate (fps) than you intend to playback at - overcranking. On a DSLR, the maximum will be 60fps, so opt for that one. When you import this into your project, set this to 30fps and you'll get 50% playback speed that you can further slow down. Ignore the shutter speed rule at your peril (I have, and regretted it). As a rule of thumb, You'll want to set the shutter speed to 2x your fps.