If you want to create perfect slow motion video for your travel vlogs, you’ll need to know how to film & edit slow motion the correct way.
Slow motion video is NOT as simple as applying a slow motion effect in your editor.
There is a lot of bad slow motion out there. You’ve probably seen it before. That jittery, stutter filled look that sort of implies slow movement but doesn’t really SELL you on the feeling of motion that is genuinely slow.
I’d like to help you avoid that, completely.
In order to create the beautiful, realistic, slow motion that you see in movies, you’ll need to understand how to film it correctly by using specific settings on your camera, and also how to edit it correctly.
These two things go hand in hand when it comes to creating perfect slow motion.
And don’t worry, the perfect slow motion technique is easy to master with a little knowledge and practice.
In this video, I’m going to walk you through exactly how to film and edit perfect slow motion so you can add some smooth, buttery, beautiful shots to your travel videos.
WATCH ► How To Film & Edit PERFECT Slow Motion Video
A few weeks ago I published a video all about a wonderful cinematic lens, and since the entire video was a B-Roll demo of the lens, most of it was in slow motion.
And a few of you asked, how DO you film that beautiful slow motion?
I know slow motion is a thing many of you have tried adding to your vlogs, but maybe your slow motion just doesn’t look quite right, so you don’t really mess with it much.
I completely understand because slow motion is the EASIEST thing to screw up technically in videography.
I screwed it up, and then avoided it for many years.
But I have great news for you..
Filming and editing PERFECT slow motion can be done very easily once you know how.
And by the end of this video and blog post, you will know EXACTLY how to film and edit super smooth, buttery, beautiful slow motion.
This blog post will give you a quick overview of the process, but you’ll understand it all even better if you watch the video.
Why Use Slow Motion
Gaining the ability to add smooth slow motion moments to your travel vlogs is a FANTASTIC idea.
Slow motion clips can add awesome variety to your body of shots.
They can bring more focus onto details of movement and really just let the viewer absorb moments they may have not noticed otherwise.
Another great reason to use slow motion is it’s a bit of an image stabilization hack.
Think about it, if you want 2 seconds of footage to show off some small detail that helps you tell your story, but you can only hold the camera truly steady for 1 second, it’s a great idea to take that 1 steady second and stretch it out to 2.
This will result in less camera shake, or maybe a SLOWER camera shake which will definitely trick the viewer into seeing less shake overall.
This flower would have been a shaky MESS if it weren’t filmed in slow motion!
What IS Slow Motion?
Slow motion is a video clip that has been stretched out. And anytime you stretch something out, you have to do it carefully, or else it will break, metaphorically.
In editing, we are usually building our clips into a timeline set to 24fps. So most of our shots will also be filmed at 24fps- and they will FIT perfectly.
However, to get slow motion, we must take a clip and stretch it out in the timeline. Because we’re turning 1 second into 2.
So if we take clip shot at 24fps and stretch it out to fill the 48 frame slots that we need for 2 full seconds, then some frames end up repeating themselves.
This results in a terrible look that you can see a demo of in the video.
When you do slow motion incorrectly you end up with a stutter filled mess of a shot.
But THIS can be the moment where you learn to make your slow motion look absolutely PERFECT and wow your viewers with your advanced filmmaking skills.
How To Film Perfect Slow Motion
So there is already a ton of talk on YouTube about frame rate. Camera specs will boast the ability to film at 120fps but rarely are the words SLOW MOTION ever used.
I’m here to tell you that a higher frame rate is your ticket to gorgeous slow motion.
The Canon M50 camera used for this video shoots at a max frame rate of 60fps. This is nice, but for the slowest of slow motion you’ll want to look for a camera that shoots 120fps (these are user higher end models and many Sony cameras).
It’s great to have a camera that shoots at 120fps, but if you’re just getting started with slow motion, don’t worry, 60fps slow mo is also SUPER fun to create.
Also, GoPro has really mastered its slow motion offerings and it can shoot all the way up to 240 fps. Be careful with this one though, for slow motion to look cool at this speed there must be LOTS of movement.
SO, you want to set your camera to film at 60fps. The setting for 60fps on most Canon cameras it will actually say 59.94 FHD.
Or, you can use the highest frame rate your camera has available if you’re going for a SUPER SLOW look. And keep in mind that a super slow look really only works when you have a LOT of motion.
Now that you have that set, THIS is another part where people make mistakes.
You’ve heard you should always set your shutter speed to double your frame rate right?
If you’re shooting the standard 24fps your shutter should be set to 1/50 (if there is no 1/48)
Well the moment you change your frame rate to 60, you also MUST remember to change your shutter speed.
Since my Canon does not have a 1/120 I go for the 1/125 and it works out well.
If you don’t do this your video will just have a weird stutter and look not quite right.
So in review , your frame rate is at 60fps
And your shutter speed is at 1/125th
You may also want to consider that because your shutter is set to a faster rate you will need more light in the shot than you’re used to. If you’re shooting in daylight this shouldn’t be a problem but indoors it might and of course having a wide aperture lens on the camera helps out tremendously.
How To Edit Perfect Slow Motion
Now that you have your slow motion clip shot at these settings, you will bring it into your editing timeline.
BE careful here.
If you bring this clip into the timeline as the very first clip in there, you might have your software automatically set up a timeline to MATCH the frame rate you shot (60 or 120 fps), which you do not want.
To avoid this, you’ll want to either bring the clip into a time line that is already holding some regular clips shot at 24fps, OR just be sure to choose 24fps when you set it up.
The video, How To Film & Edit Perfect Slow Motion, contains a full demo tutorial in Final Cut Pro X, but you can most likely apply similar concepts in Adobe Premiere or even iMovie.
Now that we have our clip in the 24fps timeline, the next mistake I can imagine a lot of people make is actually slowing it down.
Final Cut offers up some slow motion options that may throw you off, and really, for perfect slow motion, you don’t want to use any of these.
For perfect slow motion, we’ll need to do some math.
If you have 60fps currently squeezed into 24fps, you DO have enough frames available to stretch it back out- which will slow it down- and the abundance of frames will be enough to make it look nice.
But it’s important to know exactly HOW MUCH you can slow it down.
And while I’d love to stay this is a matter of artistic preference, it’s really not.
The math is 60fps x WHAT = 24
The answer is .40 or 40%. We’re going to slow this clip down 40%
And if you have an aversion to math, the good news is that all you have to do is take the clip in Final Cut and select AUTOMATIC speed.
This will automatically stretch out the clip to match the timeline. DONE.
And if you’re using another editing suite where automatic speed is not an options, you would simply slow it down by 40%
So there you have it!
I do hope this was easy to understand and that it helps you start capturing some awesome slow motion footage. If you’d like to see more on slow motion, maybe some tips and tricks for filming it and editing it once it’s all slowed down perfectly then let me know in the comments below.
I’d also love to hear any questions you have about this process, I do my best to answer ALL of the questions on the YouTube channel.
I have issued a ‘slow motion challenge’ over in my FB group Travel Film Friends so jump into that if you’re not a member already. I’ve asked members to try making a slow motion clip following this tutorial and I hope to see some posts with their work.
I will be directly answering questions there as well as here on the blog and on YouTube to make sure that anybody who wants to learn CAN learn this perfect slow motion technique.
xx, Alicia
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How To Film and Edit Perfect Slow Motion
