cinematography Shooting a shower scene - best shutter speed, FPS?

I

IndiePaul

Hi

Trying to shoot a shower scene for my murder short...

The catch is that on the captured footage, you can barely see the water streaming down...

I'm shooting with a 25 FPS, shutter speed 50.

I guess I need to alter the shutter speed to one that captures the water better. Should I then adjust the FPS or leave it alone?

Advice would be hugely appreciated.
 
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Since computers have a refresh rate of 29.97 screens per second you'll want to increase the shutter speed and leave the FPS alone at 24FPS - the closest EDIT: frame rate to the native screen rate.

The slower frame rate allows more light to get onto the CMOS sensor which allows for slightly better resolution than at 50FPS.

Also, with a higher frame rate it kinda forces you to use a wider aperture, which may (or may not) actually be a benefit shooting inside a confined shower-like space.

Irregardless, the slower frame rate (24FPS) + wider aperture (1.8 - 2 or 3) will also allow for a faster shutter speed which should provide more "chop" to the water drops.

And if that still doesn't work A) add more light, or B) switch out shower heads. :)

GL!
 
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Lighting is the key here. Backlight will do the trick.
Shutter angle will affect the blurriness of water stream,but I would leave it at 180 unless there is a specific reason/look you are after

Back in the film days,they used to colour water dark so the camera could capture it,but I doubt you will need to go to such extremes.
 
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Just because I can never resist...

Make sure you buy a bunch of unlubricated condoms to cover your mic. After all, you do want to get in as close as you can.....



I want one of these shower curtains:

7.jpg


PsychoCurtainBathMat.jpg
 
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BTW, Harmonica, if you watch the "Psycho" shower scene again, you will notice that the water is in streams, not drops. My guess would be that Hitch wanted the water to obscure things. In 1960 filmmakers had nowhere near the latitude that they have today. Yet despite an indie budget and those censorship limitations Hitchcock made one of the most frightening murder scenes in movie history - without graphic nudity and without buckets of blood spraying everywhere. Oh, notice the very fast edit/cuts, something that was quite radical in its day. And it still stands up today.


Just as a side story....

My dad told me that, for months after seeing "Psycho", my mom would not take a shower unless he was home.
 
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Thanks rayw, baoliun, Alcove Audio, harmonica44 and ChimpPhobiaFilms.

Thanks to great advice from you good folks we managed to get the scene last night, and it looks good.

:) :) :)

I'll post a trailer etc at some point but we're back-to-back filming a feature and two shorts - filming of the feature is 90% done, one short is about 90% done too, the other not started. We've not started post yet.
 
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Congrats!


But don't be a tech tease - How'd ya end up doing it?!
Did you figure out the magic combination? What was it?
Did you say "Screwit" and settle for something close enough? Wha'd you do to get that?
What did you try that failed and what did you observe with those?


Data! Data! Need more data!

huge.8.43633.JPG




EDIT: Thank you! XOXOXOX:lol:
 
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rayw said:
Congrats!

But don't be a tech tease - How'd ya end up doing it?!
Did you figure out the magic combination? What was it?
Did you say "Screwit" and settle for something close enough? Wha'd you do to get that?
What did you try that failed and what did you observe with those?

Data! Data! Need more data!
Click to expand...

Damn, good point.

Thanks to the advice from you good folks we left the FPS at 24 and did some big time testing with the shutter speed, aperture, lighting and camera positioning. We changed the ISO as needed.

We were shooting with:

  • Canon 6D
  • Sigma 24-70mm f/2.8
  • Various lights - softboxes and LED, and stands
  • Other gear: 2 x field monitors (sooo helpful), Fluid Head tripod etc
  • Audio - none captured during scene (Foley will be done later) [good tip from Alcove Audio above - banked for later]
Back lighting was not a possibility (damn!) due to the small size of the shower, it's location, our (limited) gear.

Probably our best footage was taken hand-held, I was standing on a bedside table (our improvised mini-ladder) near the ceiling looking down on the shower facet and the talent lying in the shower's basin - you could really see the water streaming out of the facet, hitting the talent etc. I wedged my arm around the shower rail to minimize camera movement. Shot using shutter speed of 50, aperture 5, ISO 250. Being right next to the water source (the facet) helped hugely and the angle looked pretty cool. We also adjusted the water's direction to hit the talent in the face (previously it hit her chest) - you could much better see the droplets hitting her face, cascading down etc.

But we also got good footage with higher shutter speeds and lower apertures (2.8 was the most open we could go). As you folks noted, it's a delicate balance of lighting, camera positioning, shutter speed, ISO and aperture.

I wish we could have tried some back lighting too.

Shooting from the ceiling looking down was a damn cool angle though, and the footage reflects that. Would not have happened without the advice here on IT. :)
 
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Glad it worked out, just saw this thread and was going to chime in with the "lighting is the key" solution. Back lighting is often possible in surprisingly little space. Just flag it well. You could even backlight with a gelled LED flashlight taped to the wall and flagged properly, as long as the shot was tight enough.
 
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