You shoot pictures and record footage on the same camera. We manipulate the same settings to get the desired look. But do these settings mean the same thing across both photography and videography?

In this article, we explain the differences between camera settings as they apply to photography and videography both.

Shutter Speed

The shutter speed is probably the most different aspect between the two.

In photography, you can increase or decrease your shutter speed depending upon your lighting conditions and the motion of your subject. It does not affect your photos and is used as a tool for getting the perfect exposure.

In videography, It’s a whole another ball game. You see while shooting video, the 180-degree shutter rule applies. This rule states that your shutter speed has to be exactly double of what your framerate is.

For example, if you’re shooting at 24 frames per second, your shutter speed has to be 1/48 or 1/50. Any value other than that will result in choppy footage that doesn’t look good.

Also read: Photography 101: 10 must carry items for every photographer

Frame rate

Frame rate matters a lot while shooting video. The most cinematic look can be achieved at 24 frames per second. Slow-motion footage is usually recorded at 60, 120 or higher framerates. Choosing the correct frame rate can make or break your footage. Remember, higher is not always better.

On the other hand, in photography, framerate is pretty much needless. Since you’re only capturing a single frame at a time, you don’t have to worry about framerates at all.

The only time you might need a higher framerate is probably when you’re shooting a fast-moving subject, like sports photography and have your camera set to drive mode. In such cases having a high framerate camera helps.

White Balance

Another setting that means a lot in videography and not so much in photography.

The thing is, with photos you can always change the white balance and pretty much everything else to your liking in post-processing. Provided you’re shooting in RAW. Other formats still let you control a lot of factors but aren’t as flexible as RAW.

In videography, there are no such luxuries. The white balance you shoot your footage in is the white balance that’s going to stay. And if you get that wrong, the footage becomes pretty much useless.

Also read: Cinematography 101: How speed ramping can take your videos to the next level

Aperture

Across both lands, this one is going to be pretty much the same. Aperture, for the most part, is just a creative choice. If you want a shallower depth of field, keep it low, if you want a deeper one, keep it high.

However, the big difference is that in the video, you have to manual focus a lot of times. So if you’re shooting at a low aperture and you’re not very good at manual focus, chances are you’re going to miss that focus a lot of times. So be aware of that.

Colour Profiles

When shooting video, you want to be shooting as flat as possible. In the log format if your camera supports it. Shooting flat footage might not look good at first, but when you bump it into post and start colour grading, that flat footage will give you a lot of room to colour correct your footage the way you want.

In photography? It doesn’ matter at all. Just shoot RAW, and you can do whatever you want in post.

ISO

ISO is the same across the board.

You want it as low as possible. Higher ISOs tend to cut out detail and introduce noise into the image or footage and make it look terrible. So keep an eye on your surroundings and try to use as low an ISO as possible.

Also read: Photography 101: What do the Modes on your camera mean?