ND = Shutterpeed when shooting "locked off"

[Will Keir]

So I am shooting some landscape scenery and some shots of the moon and sunset lately.

For a shot with no motion, locked off on the tripod, is increasing the shutter speed essentially the same as adding more NDs? Probably better right? Since multiple NDs will decrease the sharpness of the glass?

Thanks for the advice / quick confirmation.

 

[Mikael Lubtchansky]

Yes if you do not have too fast motion in your scene (like heavy wind in the leaves, bugs / birds flying in front of your sunset) it is way better to use shutter speed than adding ND (as you said the less in front of the glass the better for optical quality)...

 

[John Marchant]

Just watch out for your blackshading / noise - extreme shutterspeeds (long or short) ought really to be black shaded for specifically.

 

[Will Keir]

When do these extreme ranges start on both ends?

Just watch out for your blackshading / noise - extreme shutterspeeds (long or short) ought really to be black shaded for specifically.

 

[ericyoung]

Also note that lenses are generally less sharp wide open or fully irised down. Usually best being a stop or two away from the ends. Although the expensive high end lenses minimise this drop off.

 

[Dominick Pietrzak]

Had a similar question this week, here's a summary of what Nick told me regarding shutter speeds:

Black shading is necessary for...

Long exposure times (longer than ~1/15th sec)
Very short exposure times (shorter than around ~1/1000th)

When do these extreme ranges start on both ends?

 

[Björn Benckert]

I do it all the time. Think a short shutter (shorter than 180 deg) usually looks better. The digital motion blur in Cmos is not so pretty. So when the blur is not needed to avoid strobing then a tighter shutter looks better. some of the clips here is shot down at 15 deg at 90 fps. run of a blackshade at 25fps 180 shutter no visable blackshade issues there.


https://vimeo.com/52029840